Donations to charities plummet
By Lu Nengneng |
April 6, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
DONATIONS have plummeted following a string of embezzlement and fraud scandals involving charities on the Chinese mainland last year, according to Forbes magazine.
The 100 most generous individuals on the mainland gave a total of 4.79 billion yuan (US$759 million ) last year, 41 percent less than they did the year before, according to its new list of China's top philanthropists published yesterday.
The threshold for getting on the list was cut from 14 million yuan to 10 million yuan following a general decline in donations.
China's Ministry of Civil Affairs has yet to publish its official report on the final total of charitable donations. But based on quarterly data, people on the mainland are reckoned to have donated 14.52 billion yuan last year, 63 percent less than in 2010.
The slump in donations followed questions over the credibility of charities after the Red Cross Society became involved in allegations of embezzlement and corruption.
Last June, Guo Meimei, 20, who had claimed to be the manager of "Red Cross Commerce," flaunted her expensive handbags and sports cars online, stoking suspicion that the Red Cross Society had misused its donations to fund her lavish lifestyle.
That was the first in a number of scandals that came to light involving charitable organizations in China. They included doubts raised over the financing and management of the China-Africa Project Hope, and an admission by the Henan Soong Ching Ling Foundation that it used donations for unregulated lending.
According to Forbes, there were 13 individuals on the Chinese mainland who donated more than 100 million yuan last year and they gave 46 percent of the total sum covered by the list.
Xu Jiayin (also known as Hui Ka Yan), chairman of Evergrande Real Estate Group, topped the list with 390 million yuan in donations, followed by Zhu Mengyi, chairman of Pearl River Investment with 300 million yuan, and Wang Jianlin, president of Dalian Wanda Group with 230 million yuan. All three come from the property development sector. Forbes said tycoons from the real estate, energy and mining industries continued to be the most generous.
There were 47 individuals on last year's list who also featured on the one for 2010.
According to the Chinese Luxury Consumer White Paper 2012, published by the Hurun Research Institute last month, some 25 percent of individuals with more than 600 million yuan in personal wealth see charitable donations as the best way of demonstrating their social responsibilities, only second to paying tax.
Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Liaoning provinces and Beijing hold a lion's share of the charitable donations. Those are the places where 59 of the listed philanthropists live. Shanghai is home to six.
Education, poverty alleviation, and start-ups are the main focus of donations. By Forbes' reckoning, up to 80 percent of donations go to public charities, but businessmen prefer to donate to their self-founded charities, or establish their own funds within the major charitable groups.
The 100 most generous individuals on the mainland gave a total of 4.79 billion yuan (US$759 million ) last year, 41 percent less than they did the year before, according to its new list of China's top philanthropists published yesterday.
The threshold for getting on the list was cut from 14 million yuan to 10 million yuan following a general decline in donations.
China's Ministry of Civil Affairs has yet to publish its official report on the final total of charitable donations. But based on quarterly data, people on the mainland are reckoned to have donated 14.52 billion yuan last year, 63 percent less than in 2010.
The slump in donations followed questions over the credibility of charities after the Red Cross Society became involved in allegations of embezzlement and corruption.
Last June, Guo Meimei, 20, who had claimed to be the manager of "Red Cross Commerce," flaunted her expensive handbags and sports cars online, stoking suspicion that the Red Cross Society had misused its donations to fund her lavish lifestyle.
That was the first in a number of scandals that came to light involving charitable organizations in China. They included doubts raised over the financing and management of the China-Africa Project Hope, and an admission by the Henan Soong Ching Ling Foundation that it used donations for unregulated lending.
According to Forbes, there were 13 individuals on the Chinese mainland who donated more than 100 million yuan last year and they gave 46 percent of the total sum covered by the list.
Xu Jiayin (also known as Hui Ka Yan), chairman of Evergrande Real Estate Group, topped the list with 390 million yuan in donations, followed by Zhu Mengyi, chairman of Pearl River Investment with 300 million yuan, and Wang Jianlin, president of Dalian Wanda Group with 230 million yuan. All three come from the property development sector. Forbes said tycoons from the real estate, energy and mining industries continued to be the most generous.
There were 47 individuals on last year's list who also featured on the one for 2010.
According to the Chinese Luxury Consumer White Paper 2012, published by the Hurun Research Institute last month, some 25 percent of individuals with more than 600 million yuan in personal wealth see charitable donations as the best way of demonstrating their social responsibilities, only second to paying tax.
Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Liaoning provinces and Beijing hold a lion's share of the charitable donations. Those are the places where 59 of the listed philanthropists live. Shanghai is home to six.
Education, poverty alleviation, and start-ups are the main focus of donations. By Forbes' reckoning, up to 80 percent of donations go to public charities, but businessmen prefer to donate to their self-founded charities, or establish their own funds within the major charitable groups.
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