Nonprofit group holds charity events to back up NGOs
Print Edition
SHANGHAI United Foundation (SUF) is a nonprofit public fund-raising group committed to supporting and investing in the development of grass-roots nongovernmental organizations.
"Our foundation was founded in 2009, one year after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake," said Cao Haiyan, SUF’s public relations manager. "What this miserable disaster brought was not only damage. It also led to the emergence of grass-roots NGOs."
However, due to the lack of a systematized management, some of these organizations failed to find steady sources to back them up. Some died.
"We serve as an intermediary between grass-roots NGOs and their donors,” said Cao. “We select feasible projects from all those handled by grass-roots NGOs and help them to find supporters, always companies or individuals who require reliable institutions to realize their charity plans."
Xiao Jie, 29, one of 13 full-time workers at SUF, was busy preparing for the group’s first family walk event — "Little Walk" — on November 22 when Shanghai Daily met her.
"We held this activity in order to raise money for the elderly who need help, especially those unable to take care of themselves, those suffering from dementia, those living away from their children and those widowed," she said.
Xiao said she became a full-time worker two years ago.
"We are different from the traditional fund-raising organizations. We encourage new and creative ways to collect money," she said.
For example, when people participate in SUF's activities and know what these activities are held for, they will not only donate money on their own, but also promote the event to their acquaintances via social media, Xiao said. If their friends or relatives make donations, these people will be informed of who they helped and the way the funds were used, as well.
Besides the walk, SUF also initiates events such as concerts, bazaars and sports, Xiao said.
Qian Zheng, a mother of two and a former SUF member, now works as a part-time volunteer with the organization. She has a special way to raise funds for SUF — by WeChat. Using the social-networking service, she posts information about SUF's activities on her WeChat friend network and gets her friends to join them.
"I have a WeChat group consisting of the new mothers in my residential complex where I'm living,” she said. “Some of them participate in SUF's events after I share the links with them."
Qian said she released the posting about the family walk four times on WeChat and raised 8,000 yuan (US$1,304).
"The first event we held was an adult walk aiming to raise money for improving school meals in China's poor areas," Cao said. "It is called One Egg Walk because we use the funds we raised to ensure each child can at least have one egg in his or her breakfast."
It is the fourth time that SUF organized the One Egg Walk this year, and more than 6.23 million yuan was raised in this walk.
In recent years, SUF also held events for environmental protection and to help migrant workers. Every year it selects 13 people among all donors and experts and invites them to join the meeting where SUF makes plans on whom to help.
"However, we also have some failure experiences," Cao said, citing an example of a vegetable garden planted near a school in a mountain terrain that turned out to be unsuitable.
"We are seeking improvement from these failures and expect to come up with better plans,” Cao said.
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