On Nov. 1, One Foundation Philanthropy Grants announced winners in JW Marriott Hotel Beijing. The 7 finalists from all around the nation received One Foundation’s million funding. The grants is the first of its kind in China.

One Foundation Philanthropy Grants aims at establishing a globally accepted standard for operation and appraisal of Chinese non-profit organizations to promote the growth of philanthropy in China. One Foundation hopes the funding will accelerate the growth of these organizations and provide valuable first hand experiences.   

One Foundation Philanthropy Grants is one of the most important parts of One Foundation’s mission. Because One Foundation believes that care and kindheartedness are innate natures of any individual, and could awaken at any moment. Philanthropy is a cause, and that cause calls for not only passion, but also professional management and well-structured regulation. One Foundation set up the grants in the five pillars of focus, education, health, environment, disaster relief and poverty. The grants started from 2008 and will announce winners annually. The winners will receive direct funding from One Foundation.

China’s philanthropy will face the long term challenge of promoting comprehensive development to overcome the obstacles for non-profit organization’s growth. One Foundation attempts to explore these uncharted waters by helping other philanthropy organizations promote their ideals and by direct funding.

From Mission Articulation to Technical Implementation

A technical problem that faces One Foundation is selection and assessment of the applicants must represent One Foundation’s advocated ideal of “Credibility, Professionalism, Execution and Sustainability”. To solve the puzzle, One Foundation worked with three world renowned consulting firms for six months to lay qualitative and quantitive measurements under the four main categories of “Credibility, Professionalism, Execution and Sustainability”. These measurements have their own weighing and norms.

While establishing an objective assessment & appraisal system, One Foundation chose ten expert panelists to form the appraisal committee with the foundation’s founder, Mr. Jet Li. For better coverage, more mass participation and transparency, all second-round candidates have gone through online notice and votes on portal websites. These online results will be presented, together with other materials to the appraisal committee for reference.

Grants for philanthropy

2008 is the first year of One Foundation Philanthropy Grants. The grants will be announced annually. In 2008, each winner will receive One Foundation’s one million RMB funding. One Foundation hopes the grants can achieve the following objectives:

·Maximizing effieciency of raised fund by supporting grants winners.

·Introduce and promote the winners, leading donors to donate more rationally.

·Establish and promote One Foundation’s philanthropy assessment & appraisal system.

·Accelerate winner organizations’ growth.

To achieve these goals, One Foundation has introduced the concept of “model” in each phrase. Consulting firms, expert panelists and the public all have a part in the selection and assessment process.

Global Philanthropic Family

One Foundation Philanthropy Grants is not only One Foundation’s cause, but also the common aspiration of those who share the foundation’s “Global Family” ideal. In the process of first and second round selection, One Foundation’s promotional partners like Tencent.com, Sina.com, Sohu.com and Taobao.com published information regarding the grants. Tencent.com organized online voting. 144,749 netizens cast their votes in just 4 days. Sina.com, Sohu.com and Youku.com built feature sites for the grants. 

On Oct. 25, 2008, the assessment & appraisal committee held a finalizing meeting, a well-known lawyer and a respected accountant attended the meeting.

16 candidates took their turns to share their stories and answered panelists’ inquiries. Finally, 7 organizations became the winner of this year’s One Foundation Philanthropy Grants. Their stories reflected the hardship of millions of Chinese NGOs.

According to One Foundation, its original plan was to select 10 winners. But after the strict selection process, only 7 organizations qualified. The representatives from winner organizations expressed their excitement and said they had learnt a lot in the process.

Philanthropy Starts from One

The year 2008 is dubbed as “beginning year of philanthropy in China”. One Foundation witnessed and actively got involved. The young One Foundation and One Foundation Philanthropy Grants maybe still imperfect, but more cooperation and long term projects will follow to promote the all-out development of China’s philanthropy. We have reasons to believe that with the dissemination of One Foundation’s philanthropy culture and increasing attention & participation, the future of China’s philanthropy will be ever bright.