GuideStar International's Blog

October 7, 2010

Ci Yuan (China Philanthropy Incubator) programme launched

Filed under: Access to information,Accountability,CSO reporting,Philanthropy,Transparency — guidestarinternational @ 13:38
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By Caroline Neligan, Director Partnerships and Development, GuideStar International and TechSoup Global

I recently travelled to China to participate on the International Advisory Board of the Ci Yuan (China Philanthropy Incubator) programme led by the US nonprofit group Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), in partnership with several Chinese and international organisations. Ci Yuan, known in English as the ‘China Philanthropy Incubator’, brings together influential Chinese and international representatives of the business, nonprofit, foundation, and government communities to advance both the quantity and quality of social investment in China.

In essence, there are 3 strands to the 3 year programme:

  • Building strong NGO-Corporate partnerships
  • Promoting civil society transparency & accountability
  • Fostering the foundation/philanthropic sector

The project was launched in Beijing on the 17th September and the International and Chinese Advisory Boards met at the same time.

Some Impressions of China’s Growing Civil Society Sector

This is a timely initiative. As China’s economy continues to grow, providing new opportunities for many, it is also generating increasing inequality between those that benefit from the booming economy and those that don’t.

The Sichuan earthquake in May 2008 is seen as a catalysing event when CSOs and philanthropists came to the fore to help those affected. It follows that the importance of civil society and a responsive philanthropic sector is gaining increasing attention both from the private sector but also from the government that recognises that it is unable to meet all the needs of all of its citizens. With this increased influence however, come demands for accountability and transparency of these organisations, from the government, but also from the public whose support these organisations also seek.

Many wealthy Chinese are aware of these growing social issues and are establishing civil society organisations (CSOs) to tackle the problems, or looking to donate to others already working on them. Ci Yuan considers its 3 programme areas to be key (although not complete) building blocks required for a strong foundation for philanthropy in China.

Against this background and focus on the growing influence of civil society, ways to promote giving, and build strong relationships with the growing foundation sector, business and government, it was perhaps natural that the corresponding demands for transparency and accountability were addressed as well as the barriers to transparency and incentives to encourage reporting.

China Charity Donation and Information Centre (CCDIC)

While in Beijing, I was given the opportunity to meet with The China Charity Donation and Information Centre (CCDIC) to discuss their work on CSO disclosure and to share our experience with GuideStar.

Established in 2008, and led by Peng Jianmei, who has extensive experience working in media, business and the philanthropy sector in China, CCDIC is a non profit organisation supported by, and working closely with, the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Its mission is to promote effectiveness and transparency of Chinese CSOs and of the sector as a whole. CCDIC has recently undertaken an apparently comprehensive mapping of transparency initiatives and reporting/information services both domestically and internationally as well as a needs assessment for Chinese civil society. They have developed a transparency and reporting standard that they will publish in October.

From these initial meetings it seemed that Peng Jianmei and her team share many of the values that we hold at TechSoup Global and GuideStar International, with respect to the value of CSOs for society and the importance of finding ways to encourage and enable them to describe their work to their many supporters and stakeholders, and to promote a holistic view and understanding of their goals, activities, achievements and needs. This means viewing reporting as more than filing a financial account and expecting people to assess the worth of the organisation and its work from this information alone. I hope that we will be able to build on these initial conversations in the future.

Reasons for Optimism

The people I met during this visit have a passion for social change and to ensuring that philanthropy in the country develops in strategic and innovative ways. The government and its GONGOs (government organised NGOs) are playing a key role in the transition from an all embracing Party State, used to controlling decision-making, to one where other sectors play an important role. This will surely not be a straight and easy path and there are obstacles to overcome however, this is an important time for Chinese civil society and philanthropy, and it would seem from the mood of the meeting, one of general optimism.

August 27, 2010

Establishment of China Foundation Center signals step towards increased Chinese nonprofit transparency

Filed under: Access to information,Accountability,CSO reporting,Philanthropy,Transparency — guidestarinternational @ 08:13
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The China Foundation Center was launched on 8th July in Beijing, signaling another major step towards increasing transparency of the Chinese nonprofit sector. Earlier this year, on 21st June, the very first Chinese philanthropy research centre, The Beijing Normal University One Foundation Philanthropy Research Institute was established.  Wang Zhenyao, a former official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the head of the philanthropic research center made a public appeal for all Chinese billionaires to donate at least one million yung to charity on an annual basis.  According to the 2010 Hurun Report there are now 55,000 billionaires in China. (Read more about Wang’s perspective on Chinese charity legislation and philanthropy in the China Daily as well as the article ‘Should There Be a Minimum for Billionaires’ Donations?’) for further views on these issues. This echoes calls in the US for American billionaires to donate 50% of their net worth to charity during their lifetime or at death. Read more about the latter proposal in the article The $600 billion challenge.

The China Foundation Center was established to help increase trust and public confidence in Chinese foundations. The center’s website will at first provide data on 1,800 Chinese foundations and it is hoped that doing so will help to spur donations and improve the efficiency of these foundations. Chinese citizens have been donating larger amounts to nonprofit organisations in China. In the wake of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake Chinese individual donors gave $8 million in total to help with relief efforts.  This has aided the push towards improving transparency and accountability of the Chinese nonprofit sector, which is growing as China becomes more wealthy and income disparity also increases. You can read more about the establishment of the Chinese Foundation Center in the Wall Street Journal blog. It may also be of interest to read The Evolution of Philanthropy in China–Recent Reflections, a blog post by Grace Chiang of Social Venture Group, which gives some insight into the gradual cultural and social shift towards individual and institutional philanthropy in China.

August 20, 2010

Innovative Geocoding Project Maps Aid Data

Filed under: Access to information,Accountability,Aid Effectiveness,ICT for Development,Philanthropy,Transparency — guidestarinternational @ 08:44
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by Keisha C Taylor

The people at AidData, (a programme of Development Gateway) have teamed up with the World Bank Institute to complete the first stage of a groundbreaking Geocoding project (Mapping for Results Initiative). Wikipedia defines Geocoding as ‘the process of finding associated geographic coordinates (often expressed as latitude and longitude) from other geographic data, such as street addresses, or zip codes (postal codes). With geographic coordinates the features can be mapped and entered into Geographic Information Systems, or the coordinates can be embedded into media such as digital photographs via geotagging’. This particular geocoding project identifies and records the location of specific aid activity at the subnational level. A team of 13 interns successfully geocoded 1,216 World Bank projects in 7 weeks defying the belief in some quarters that it would be impossible.  12,000 specific geographic locations were coded in 42 Sub-Sahara African countries, 27 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Indonesia, and the Philippines (a selection of African wide projects were also coded). This can have a significantly positive impact on efforts to improve accountability and aid effectiveness. You can read more about the project on the AidData Blog.

This geocoding is enabling the visual tracking of aid flows and is also providing information on the kind of aid that each area receives. It is hoped that the project will go a long way towards ensuring that aid goes to those that need it most. This interesting and innovative project is a great illustration of the important role that technology and transparent information can play in helping to connect communities with donors. With 12,000 specific geographic locations already geocoded, the World Bank is now investigating the possibility of implementing standardised location reporting into future project documentation. It is also hoped that more donors will provide information and support the project in the future. Have a look at the perspectives of those involved in the project in the video below.

August 4, 2010

GuideStar Israel launched!

Filed under: Access to information,Access to Public Information,Accountability,Aid Effectiveness,Philanthropy,Transparency — guidestarinternational @ 16:53
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JERUSALEM (3rd August 2010) GuideStar Israel (www.guidestar.org.il), an online database aimed at making Israeli nonprofit organisations more transparent was launched on Tuesday during a press conference at the Ministry of Justice in Jerusalem. For the first time, financial and operational information on Israeli non-profit organisations (NPOs), numbering some 29,000, has been made transparent to the public online. The GuideStar Israel portal, which is in Hebrew, Arabic and English, lists each nonprofit organisation registered with the National Registrar of Non-profit Organizations in Israel.

The combination of this official information, approved by the Registrar, together with more in-depth information provided by the NPOs themselves, creates the most comprehensive and qualitative database of nonprofit organisations in Israel. It also provides an Internet presence to all non-profit organisations in Israel, since it includes the country’s smallest NPOs that have not been online before.

GuideStar Israel is a joint nonprofit project of the Ministry of Justice, Yad Hanadiv and JDC Israel, and is operated by NPTech – Technologies for Nonprofit Organizations Ltd. (CPB). NPTech is a public benefit company that helps nonprofit organisations (NPOs) in Israel to utilise information communications technology to better reach their goals. It operates for the benefit of the philanthropic sector, in the belief that public transparency is important for the development of the Israeli NPO sector.

Nonprofit inclusion and public access to the website is free. Anyone interested in the nonprofit sector, including individual and institutional donors, volunteers and the general public can use GuideStar Israel to find official information reported to the Registrar about the activities of each non-profit organisation operating in Israel.

GuideStar Israel has been established in full collaboration with GuideStar International (GSI). GSI seeks to illuminate the work of civil society organisations across borders and facilitate better communication among NPOs, donors and related stakeholders. Read the entire press release.

July 20, 2010

Philanthropy in Russia: Public Attitudes and Participation

Filed under: Access to information,civil society,Philanthropy — guidestarinternational @ 13:11
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The book “Philanthropy in Russia: Public Attitudes and Participation” was released this year. Free to download, the book provides some useful information for those interested in Russia’s philanthropic sector.  It examines the involvement of Russian citizens in various philanthropic practices, including their participation in and use of services offered by community foundations. It also presents the results of public opinion surveys on participation in charitable activity in Russia, analyses Russian philanthropic trends and looks at public attitudes regarding interaction between the State and organisations that provide charitable services. The book results from collaboration between the CerPhi and the State University, Higher School of Economics (Civil Society Monitoring) in Russia and aims to encourage further research on Russian philanthropy.

June 18, 2010

The European Foundation Centre—Facing Europe’s Difficult Future with Realism, Innovation, Diversity and Optimism

Filed under: Access to information,Philanthropy — guidestarinternational @ 15:55
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Buzz Schmidt (Founder and Chair, GuideStar International), wrote an interesting and very insightful piece in the The NonProfit Quarterly about his perspective on the European Foundation Center’s European Foundation Week and Annual General Assembly.  In it he examines the European Foundation sector and its efforts at cross-border philanthropy. He also compares the European foundations with American foundations. Read the article…

June 14, 2010

Videos from Fundacja TechSoup Workshop

Filed under: civil society,Fundraising,giving,ICT for Development,Philanthropy — guidestarinternational @ 14:56

Videos from the Fundacja TechSoup Workshop, which was held during European Foundation Week are now available on the GuideStar International YouTube Channel. You can also view other videos from the event on the EFC Website.

June 7, 2010

Unintended consequences

Filed under: ICT for Development,Philanthropy — guidestarinternational @ 09:10
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This post comes from Daniel Ben-Horin (Founder and Co-CEO, TechSoup Global). Originally published on the Alliance Magazine Blog.

Daniel Ben-Horin (Founder, Co-CEO, TechSoup Global)

What a rich conference this has been. I had a lot of fun organizing my “punch at your own weight” thoughts on social media and philanthropy for a Wednesday panel and was immensely gratified at the response received. I’ll be writing up my remarks and offering a link to them.

For now, though, I would like to point you all at http://blog.guidestarinternational.org where I think you will find an intriguing example of how social media is not a tool but a dynamic process with all kinds of unintended and often wonderful consequences. This link takes you to the blog of Guidestar International with whom my own organization, TechSoup Global, has very recently combined.

The content I am pointing you at is our various combined staff’s summaries of many great sessions from the week (with more to come, so watch that space.) We asked our reporters to talk about the session and also to add their thoughts about implications for our combined organization.

So the first point I’d make is that “content is (still) king”. I mean: you can use every widget and tool imaginable but if what you have to say is rubbish, it doesn’t matter. And  we did get some great and very new ideas about what we should do as an organization.So please enjoy. Comment. Be in conversation with us.

And speaking of unintended consequences, a big shoutout to Anna Piotrovskaya E.D. Of The Dmitry Zimin <<Dynasty>> Foundation who has promised to introduce me to one of my literary idols, Boris Akunin, if I can get myself to Moscow, which I will. I mention this because this is the kind of accidental conversation you only have when you meet someone in person, preferably with a glass of wine in your hand, which reminds me that we should never get so infatuated with online tools that we don’t take the trouble to meet each other face to face.

Fundacja TechSoup workshop sparks interesting debate

Filed under: Fundraising,ICT for Development,Philanthropy — guidestarinternational @ 08:43
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Fundacja TechSoup’s workshop/debate for European Foundation Week entitled: “Leading the charge: innovative uses of technology and information to connect funders to communities” was both informative and well received. The session attracted more than 50 people from several countries in Europe as well as from others abroad. You can read a summary of the presentation, the speaker presentations and look at photos on the GuideStar International website. David Drewery of Alliance Magazine also summarises the session and provides his own insight on the Alliance magazine blog. The title of the blog post is “We should embrace the IT without forgetting the C”.

Participants at the Fundacja TechSoup workshop (European Foundation Week)

June 2, 2010

Help for Haiti’s next Generation from Global Society

Filed under: Aid Effectiveness,civil society,Philanthropy — guidestarinternational @ 15:25
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Buzz Schmidt, Founder & Chair, GuideStar International

By Buzz Schmidt, Founder & Chair, GuideStar International

European Foundation Week Session: Help for Haiti’s next Generation from Global Society- Organised by SOS Children’s Villages, 1st June 2010

This workshop was led by SOS Children’s Villages, a global NGO (30,000 associates) that supports kids in 109 countries through safe living and meeting spaces (villages).  SOS states that it is the best established NGO operating in Haiti.  Half of the 26 people in the room were representatives of SOS offices in European countries.   The other attendees were primarily European representatives of other NGOs – Accion, Concern Worldwide,  betterplace.org (German online giving platform for 2000 causes) Boy Scouts, Glocalist (advocacy newspaper in Berlin) and TSG.  A representative of the InterAmerican Development Bank (focused on funding infrastructure) also attended.

Brief input papers on the Haiti’s status were presented by SOS staff.  There was overall an sense that major issues still confront the recovery.  Many people and NGOs are already leaving.  The media left two months ago. People are still suffering terribly.  This input was followed by a roundtable discussion about coordination, progress, long-term vision, global input versus local initiative, etc.   The major questions are – how can we keep Haiti top of mind; how can one establish the kind of vision and deliverables that will keep donors engaged when legitimacy requires national Haitian control of its own future; how do you rebuild capacity of public sector to lead the rebuilding effort; how do you coordinate various recovery and building efforts?

Implications for TechSoup Global: The notion of constructing a more conducive environment and infrastructure to support indigenous CSOs did not arise and the flow of the conversation prevented me from explicitly raising and exploring it.  But this infrastructure would certainly be a central feature in the development of a sustainable, self-promoting society in Haiti and countries like it.  But Haiti, itself, continues to be a country that will be disproportionately visible, and a successful TSG/GSI intervention could be very useful for our reputation and organization CV.   For many excellent reasons, we lack a sense of urgency about this opportunity/need.  We are not alone as other organizations have difficulty being properly responsive in these types of situations.  But it does underscore the need to get our various offerings synchronized and proposition better-defined so that a TSG intervention for this type of situation is possible.

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