The write stuff

It was at a charity fund raising party held in Shanghai last September where Montblanc fountain pens Asia Pacific CEO Jim Siano first met kung fu movie star and philanthropist, Jet Li.

"At that time Jet Li was working on a hospital charity program in Xi'an," says Siano. "During the party he introduced his One Foundation charity organization to me and I decided to cooperate with him immediately. Actually, (the collaboration came about) a little bit by accident."

They took action quickly. In order to support the One Foundation, which was founded by Li, Montblanc initiated a program that produced 30 limited-edition One Foundation Montblanc fountain pens. With each pen sold, Montblanc donates 5,000 euros to Li's foundation.

The fountain pens are designed to symbolize the cooperation between the luxury brand and the charity foundation.

The limited-edition fountain pen has a minimalist skeletal framework crafted from 750 white gold and is inlaid with diamonds. The fountain pen cap features a sparkling "1" inlaid with diamonds. This is a symbol for "one world, one life and one global family", as well as the logo of the One Foundation. A smiling face with a "1" in the center is engraved on the hand finished 18k gold nib.

So far, Montblanc had sold three posh pens at 240,000 yuan each, but the luxury brand does not disclose the buyers.

"Our charity actions don't focus on how much money we donate, but the meaning of it," says Siano.

"Montblanc believes 'Helping others gives success true meaning'. This time, Montblanc donates money, the One Foundation can use it for whatever project it wants. They are familiar with charity situation in China, so we are sure the money will be properly spent," says Siano.

Montblanc also sponsored the Shanxi Pucheng Bright Eyes Center, which provides free eye surgery for poverty-stricken rural people, earlier this year. The program also offers training for rural doctors to treat cataracts.

In 2004, Montblanc cooperated with the United Nations Children's Fund for a literacy program helping people in some developing nations to read and write.

"We do charity for various fields such as art, agriculture, classical music and hospitals, aiming to use our brand's influence to call on more people to get involved in social charity works," indicates Siano.

Montblanc established itself in China in 1995.

One foundation

According to Li, the One Foundation presents the concept of "one person plus one dollar plus one month equals one big family".

That is, if each person donates at least one dollar each month, all those individual donations can build up a greater fund to help those who are in need at any time.

"There is only one earth, and we have only one life and we all belong to one big family here on earth. By helping others, we will find that we are actually helping ourselves", says the star of such films as Rogue Assassin, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Lethal Weapon 4.

Jet Li is also a survivor. He and his family were on vacation in the Maldives on December 26, 2004 when the tsunami struck. After the catastrophe, he says he thought that in face of such a widespread disaster, money and fame are meaningless; all lives are equal. "So what should we do - the lives that survived, what should we do to live a meaningful life?" Li asked himself. The question became his motivation to initiate the One Foundation.

He visited and researched various NGOs and charity operations in Taiwan, India, Thailand and America. During his research, he found four problems in creating a charity foundation on the Chinese mainland: There are few NGOs with high credibility, most were not transparent about their financial operations and few had clear, long term goals. And most Chinese find it bothersome to donate money to charities.

Li spent two years to find a way to solve those problems. He hired the international accounting firm Deloitte as his global auditor; established a platform for donation via cellphones and set the goals for the One Foundation.

Then the One Foundation was born.

One Foundation releases its fund-raising statistics on its website quarterly, reports its events to the public and has earned a good global reputation. In addition to Mountblanc, other foreign companies have established corporate charitable relationships with the One Foundation including the Tomson Group and Toyota and other companies that have built a stable relationship with it.

(China Daily 08/11/2008 page8)