What led to the success?
Many do not understand how a newly-launched program could be supported by governments at different levels. But to some degree, it was already a successful program in and of itself from the very beginning.
Apart from other factors such as promotional methods and the journalist's credibility, the "Free Lunch" program first touched the right chord of the public and aroused their sympathy for the impoverished school children in the countryside.
In addition, the previous Taobao mode of donations further ensured the fund's sources. With a simple click, one could contribute their love through different forms of the "three yuan" plan on the B2C e-commerce platform. In about six months, the program has altogether received a sum of 17 million yuan ($2.63 million) in donations.
New media, or more specifically microblogging technology, has also played a very important role in spreading the idea incredibly fast online. It has also given rise to the appearance of a totally new form of charity – the micro-charity.
Chinese-style charity
Confucius said men are born virtuous. Even when the "Guo Meimei Incident" brought Chinese charities into a harsh spotlight and seriously affected philanthropic actions, the public never gave up their efforts to help others, but only in different ways.
Among them, the micro-charity has emerged as a shining star and can make a big impact if widely participated in. A typical example of the initial form of micro-charity was donations for every single message forwarded by netizens.
For example, Gigi Leung Wing-Kei, a pop star in Hong Kong, posted a fundraising message on her microblog on her birthday, saying she would donate one yuan to the Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF for every message passed on by web users. In only three days, her message was forwarded 75,000 times, and thus she donated 80,000 yuan ($12,368).
As for this "Free Lunch" program, it makes the public more confident in grassroots charities and also lets everyone know that support from the government is always possible.
Wang Zhenyao, director of the One Foundation Philanthropy Research Institute at the Beijing Normal University, said that this Chinese-style micro-charity program received such a degree of government responses, that it is rarely even seen in Western countries.
Not everyone can donate a lot, yet everyone can do what they can to give a little, and many a little can make millions.
