Charities fear donations will dwindle

By Wang Zhuoqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-06 09:51

Corporate donations to China's charities are expected to fall significantly next year, despite them hitting a record 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) this year, the organizations have said.

Zhang Ying, director of the Fuyang AIDS Orphan Salvation Association, said almost half of the funding the charity was expecting to get next year is now uncertain, as donors, mostly big companies, slash their corporate social responsibility budgets amid the economic turmoil.

"The slowdown has begun to affect our operations," Zhang, who set up the agency in 2003 to help children with HIV and AIDS, said.

Even some of the donations promised to the grassroots organization for the final quarter of this year have yet to materialize, she said.

Larger charitable organizations are also feeling the impact of the financial crunch.

Wang Xingzui, executive director of China Foundation of Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), one of the country's largest NGOs, said: "We definitely expect donations to fall next year, but we will do our best to minimize the impact."

This year, about 70 percent of the CFPA's funds came from corporate donations, with the rest coming from individuals, he said.

Despite the gloomy forecast, several major institutions and corporations have said they will continue to fund good causes.

Zhang Jing, an advisor on advocacy and communications with the China office of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said the organization will take into account the impact of the financial crisis as it conducts its annual planning process.

But it remains committed to its program strategies and will continue to fund them next year, he said.

Chen Ranfeng, general manager of corporate citizenship with Microsoft Greater China Region, said the firm's citizenship programs will remain central to its commitment to growing together with China.

Similarly, Hong Chaoyang, from the human resources department of Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis China, said the firm, which this year donated cash and goods worth 1.3 billion yuan, will maintain its support next year, especially in terms of the provision of volunteers.

Many of China's charities have called for increased support, in the form of funding and policies, from the government.

On Friday morning, President Hu Jintao met with a group of domestic and foreign benefactors ahead of a ceremony to honor their contributions to the work of the country's charity groups.

"It is encouraging to see the government attaching more importance to the work of nongovernmental organizations in China," Zhang said.