Charity's best and worst

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-11 08:13

It's necessary to put more pressure on people who pledge money to ensure they follow through on their promises, an article on the website www.qianlong.com claims. Following is an excerpt:

With the list of China's top philanthropists to be released in Beijing on April 24, publisher Liu Jing has told media the site will also expose those who failed to oblige their pledges this year.

In 2008, donations to the victims of a series of disasters in China reached more than 100 billion yuan, a record.

Publicizing their acts of philanthropy not only helps people realize the extent of donors' benevolence, but also encourages more charitable activity in future.

But some people use philanthropy ranking lists as a tool to fish for fame and profit, first making a high-toned announcement of their donation to victims of a certain disaster only to forget their words partly or wholly.

Some of them just look at a donation as a free ad for the company.

They do this because of a legal loophole in the ranking list of philanthropy - no punishment is in place for those who lie and the public never tracks down pledged donations.

In 1998, half of the 600 million yuan pledged to relieve the worst flood in a century never materialized.

As one charity insider says, it's already a latent rule that just 7 percent of donations will be paid by donors annually.

(China Daily 04/11/2009 page4)