Charity in search of elusive glasnost

At the end of last year, American billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett invited some Chinese tycoons to dinner to promote philanthropy in China. But in recent months, a series of scandals involving charity organizations have undermined public confidence in philanthropy.

When I arrived in China in 1991, I heard of Project Hope, a branch of China Youth Development Foundation, which was one of the rare non-government organizations (NGOs) in the country then. Through Project Hope, I helped 14 children complete their primary school education. Most of the children were in the Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions, and the others in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

It is officially known that Project Hope takes 10 percent of the donations as administration fees. Later, that made me think: If I contact the families directly and enquire personally about their financial conditions, the entire amount I donate can be used fruitfully. That was how I started practicing charity independently.