Online philanthropy more popular with Chinese

Online philanthropy is gaining popularity among Chinese, as many believe that it offers more convenience and transparency compared to the traditional methods of donating.

Last month, the headmaster of a primary school in west China's Qinghai province posted an online plea for help, as the school's teachers must copy exams by hand before giving them to students because of a lack of printers, which the school cannot afford.

Gesanghua Education Aid, an online non-profit charitable organization that works to improve schools in China's impoverished west, subsequently initiated a program to help raise funds for the school in cooperation with Taobao, China's biggest online retailer.

The program has raised a total of 264,166 yuan (42,396 U. S. dollars) from 55,907 donors, reaching 88 percent of its fundraising target, according to Yuan Jing, director of the program.

Supplies purchased with the donations will be bought online and the process will be open to public supervision, Yuan said, adding that donors can get in touch with the program's team members online if they have any questions about the program.

Taobao was involved with similar programs earlier this year, raising donations to improve living conditions for Anti-Japanese War veterans and collecting funds to buy sports supplies for poor students in south China's Sichuan province.

"Promoting projects online has become trendy among charitable organizations," said Zhan Chengfu, head of the social welfare and charity promotion department under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, at a symposium on charity causes held last week.

New media tools, such as microblogging services and instant messaging programs, have brought charity groups lower costs, greater speed and a broader scope in promoting programs and fundraising, Zhan said, adding that the Internet and online payment technology have lowered the threshold for participating in charitable efforts.

A survey conducted among nearly 1,000 charity groups found that more than 60 percent are promoting programs on the Internet, while nearly 40 percent have blogs or microblog accounts.

Netizens have largely applauded the trend.

"Every time I buy something online, I donate some money to online charity programs," university student Li Fan said.

"Most of the time, my donations are just a very small sum of money. Without online donations, I don't think I would bother going all the way to the charitable organizations to donate such a small amount of money," she said.

Hong Bo, founder of the Gesanghua organization, said the transparency of online philanthropy has attracted attention at a time when public trust in traditional charities has been eroded by multiple scams and abuses.

The development of the Internet has also promoted the development of grassroots charity organizations by offering them more fundraising channels, Hong added.