Giving to charity grew 20% in 2013

China raised almost 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) for charities in 2013, an increase of over 20 percent compared with 2012, according to a recent report released by the China Charity and Donation Information Center.

The report shows that charitable giving grew after falling during 2011 and 2012. Donations from enterprises made up nearly 70 percent of the total amount.

Liu Youping, deputy head at the China Charity and Donation Information Center, told the Global Times that the report shows that the public's willingness to give is rising.

"The figures show that society has become more encouraging and the government has had a good strategy for promoting charitable donations," he said.

Liu explained the low charitable giving rates in 2011 and 2012 were mainly due to the huge amount of negative media coverage of the "Guo Meimei incident" that severely damaged the image of the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), and relatively few natural disasters.

Data within this year's report shows that donations to the RCSC made up a relatively low portion of total donations for 2013, at 3.24 percent of total giving.

According to Liu, public confidence in the RCSC has yet to fully recover from the Guo Meimei incident, in which a young woman flaunted her lavish lifestyle on Sina Weibo, claiming that she was the general manager of a bogus "Red Cross Commerce."

"It has been tough for the RCSC to regain public trust, but they will get there one day by providing better services and increasing transparency through informing the public about how donations are used," Liu added.

Zhang Gaorong, head of the China Philanthropy Research Institute, advised charities to be more creative about their promotional strategies if they want to attract more donations.

Civil aviation giant HNA Group donated 20 percent of its stock equities, worth 8.5 billion yuan, to the Hainan Liberation Commonweal Foundation last year, opening the door for further equity donations in China.

Donations through online platforms also thrived last year, with the total amount exceeding 300 million yuan.