(Ecns.cn)--As the old saying goes, misfortunes never come singly. Chinese philanthropy has suffered through nearly constant ups and downs since the "Guo Meimei Incident" in June, which brought China's charities, particularly the dubious practices of the Red Cross, into a harsh spotlight.
Due in part to other scandals exposed since then, statistics indicate that the public has lost faith in charitable institutions. According to the Beijing Times, donations to charities in China between June and August dropped by nearly 90% to 840 million yuan, compared to the period from March to May, which took in 6.26 billion yuan.
Not surprisingly, donators are now preferring to give directly to those in need, resulting in new fundraising models that are gradually gaining people's trust through transparency and openness.
Online charity provides free lunches
"Free Lunch" is a grassroots charity project launched by several reporters in April which is primarily focused on providing free lunches to poor students. The project raised a miraculous 16.9 million yuan within five months, and more than 10,000 kids in about 77 schools are now enjoying the lunches.
Deng Fei, one of the initiators, said that the idea came from netizens selling items on weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. With help from the Alibaba Group (the parent company of Taobao, China's leading e-commerce platform) Deng and his team opened an online shop to raise funds for "Free Lunch."
"I mobilize web users via weibo to donate their unwanted items, which are put on sale at our Taobao shop, and some are sold at auction," said Deng. "The e-commerce platform, which is open, transparent, trackable and participatory, helps charities adopt a healthy development model. This is a cooperation between an influential Internet platform and a charitable project, a creative way to practice altruism."
Deng added that they keep everything related to money public on weibo, and each school is required to update every donation it has spent.
"Since the whole country is able to see their tweets, there is little chance for them to play tricks. We also leave our phone numbers with parents, who can call us at any time if their kids do not receive lunches or if the meals are not up to standards. We also have volunteers who conduct onsite investigations if there are problems," noted Deng.
In addition to "Free Lunch," Deng also plans to build libraries and provide small loans to local residents other than students.
"Eventually, we will not only offer free lunches, but also open a window for schools to create a reputation and attract more donations by acting transparently and openly.
