A Red Cross to bear(3)

Competitive charities

As private charity organizations excelled at rescue efforts, attracting hundreds of millions of yuan in donations, it appears the RCSC has new competitors.

"30 foundations formed an alliance on Wednesday promising to be fully transparent and said they would shoulder any legal responsibilities to regain public trust," Tao Ze, vice president of the China Foundation Center, told the Global Times.

"Transparency and reaching out to areas the authorities might ignore are all we can do to build our reputation, but we encountered many troubles getting government approval, for example, when setting up efforts to distribute supplies directly to villagers," You Yin, the Chengdu branch head of the Suishou Public Welfare Fund, told the Global Times.

You's words reveal the biggest difficulty for private agencies, despite their recent success - their inability to coordinate on the scale of the RCSC.

"The government and RCSC both have to accept diverse participation from private organizations and build mechanisms to integrate rather than suppress them," said Wang Zhenyao.

"Managerial ability is the essential challenge for both private and governmental charities; you don't earn trust without professionalism no matter who you are," said Deng Fei.