中国的慈善事业走向网络

According to statistics from taobao.com, the largest player in China's consumer e-commerce market, around three hundred public foundations and charity organizations are running their online stores through the taobao website, selling various goods from breads and handicrafts to virtual donation vouchers. What's more, some of these are doing very well.

One of those doing well is Amity Bakery, under the Chinese voluntary organization Amity Foundation, which operates with guidance from professional bakers. Amity Bakery trains young people with intellectual disabilities to make various kinds of baked goods such as cookies, breads and cakes, and sells them both online and in physical stores. After two years of operation, Amity Bakery's online shop is now contributing 2 percent of its total revenue.

Li Yang, Resource Development Executive at Amity Foundation, says opening an online shop was a clear choice for them.

"Our breads and cookies are of great quality and they are very competitive products online. On top of this, online operation has extremely low costs. Compared to the cost of all the rent and utility bills you have to pay to run a store made from bricks and mortar, the cost of running an online shop can be ignored. Low cost operation is one of the main principles of carrying out charitable work."

At present, the online shop is run by one member from the foundation and two other volunteers. Through timely updates of the website, constant communication with customers, publicity on weibo and cooperation with group buying websites, the Amity Bakery online store has received positive feedback from nearly five thousand customers, with an amazing favorable rate of 99.9 percent. Customer Wu Zhiming shops at the store regularly.

"I like their French baguettes the most, and my kids love the hand-rip bread. I visit their shops, both online and physical, twice a month. Sometimes I make orders online and pick them up later at their store; it's very convenient."

The China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation also saw the potential for public goods to go online, and started its online shop in 2009 selling virtual vouchers for donations and care packages of different values. The shop currently brings in an average of 50 thousand yuan in donations every month. Chen Hongtao, vice secretary general of the foundation says it's a general trend for public charities to go online nowadays.

"To run a foundation like ours, having only passion and compassion is not enough nowadays. It requires more strategy and ability. In this age of information technology, hundreds of millions of netizens in China have online payment ability and are used to acquiring information via the internet. Foundations like ours must follow the trends or we'll be left behind."

Chen says the foundation's online shop is currently operated by three of the foundation's own members, and stressed that it's wrong to think that their work only involves updating the website and selling vouchers; they also improve the level of transparency regarding the foundation's business operations.

"Their interaction with donors can enhance the level of trust and understanding. We know that the credibility of public foundations was smeared by the 'Guo Meimei' incident. Our online shop has effectively restored our donors' faith in us by allowing us to instantly feed donors with information on where their money has gone and how the project they supported is operating. This is far more important than bringing in donations."

Chen says that if you make a donation towards a 100 hundred yuan care package, you will receive a receipt and a hand written thank-you post card from the child who receives it. When the donation is rather small, like one or two yuan, collective thank you letters and beneficiary name-lists will be sent to acknowledge those donors from the children they collectively helped. Small donations make up the majority of the online store's work.

Chen explains that most average and large donations still come through bank deposits, but online operation has largely facilitated small donations. The sales volume of its top seller, the "one yuan donation" voucher, reached over 500 in the last 30 days. 500 yuan may be a small amount, but that means at least a few hundred people took part in the charity process. Online shops have largely expanded the charity's influence among Chinese netizens.

"Online operation allows more people, both beneficiaries and donors, to feel the warmth and happiness that charities can bring. And that is the true essence of doing charity."

For CRI, I'm Wang Wei.