Charitable donations down in 2011

The gross amount of donations made to charities plummeted to 84.5 billion yuan ($13.3 billion) in 2011, a decline of 18.1 percent year-on-year, according to a report released on Thursday.

Eighty-nine percent of the donations were from domestic donors and 11 percent from overseas, according to the report, which was assembled by the China Charity and Donation Information Center, an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The donations included money, securities and materials.

Corporations were the main donors, contributing 57.5 percent of the total. Individuals gave another 31.6 percent. Of those donations, 90 percent came from entrepreneurs and business owners.

More than 60 percent of the donations went to social organizations and most of that money and materials were used for education and poverty alleviation, the report said.

Liu Youping, deputy director of the China Charity and Donation Information Center, blamed the decline in donations on the fact that there were relatively few large natural disasters last year and a great deal of publicity over scandals involving charity organizations, as well as on the sluggish growth of the world economy.

Charitable donations from Chinese enterprises, individuals and social organizations to overseas causes stood at 560 million yuan in 2011, a rise of 2 percent from the 2010 figure, according to the report.