Give2Asia Giving Forum

China's Evolving Philanthropic Landscape

In the last ten years, an increasing amount of philanthropic dollars have been directed toward community issues in China. Volunteerism and the growth of international and grassroots NGOs are also on the rise. In 2008 alone, as a reaction to the Sichuan Earthquake, the amount of charitable donations to China was 3.5 times greater than in 2007. The philanthropic sector of China has seen a meteoric rise.

On August 12, Give2Asia and Social Venture Group, a Shanghai-based philanthropic advisory, held a 60 minute conference call discuss grantmaking to China and changes in the "grassroots NGO" landscape given recent growth. The issues discussed by Jennifer Lofing, Vice President of Programs for Give2Asia, and Grace Chiang, Co-founder and Managing Director of Social Venture Group, helped to identify challenges and opportunities for philanthropists and their advisors.

NGOs Put a New Spin on Microfinance & the Environment

One of the many satisfying parts of working in international philanthropy is coming across young, innovative organizations that are doing new kinds of work for impoverished and rural communities.

On March 12, Give2Asia was able to feature two such organizations during a spring wine reception for our donors, friends and trustees in San Francisco.  The two groups, Wokai and Photovoices International, working respectively in microfinance and the environment, beneift from energetic, well-spoken leaders and interesting, well-executed programs.  

WOKAI

Wokai's co-founder and CEO Casey Wilson explained how her organization's programs nurture microfinance in rural China by connecting donors to small entrepreneurs to receive small loans to start their own businesses. Through online community-building, it connects individual lenders in the US to borrowers in China, who are taking their first steps toward starting or expanding a busienss. Wokai, meaning "I start," allows impoverished people in China to start their own small businesses.

This organization benefits people like Zhang Rong who borrowed a loan of $900 to open up a hot pot
stand to support her son's high school education and increase her household income. Rong is receiving more than just money, she will gain confidence, economical independence, and the ability to support her family.

PHOTOVOICES

Ann McBride-Norton of Photovoices International offered an overview of how Photovoices was conceived. She then embarked on a narrative presentation of Photovoices' project sites with an accompanying slideshow. Sites include Lamalera Village in Eastern Indonesia, Yunnan Province of China and Boti Village of Timor.

Photovoices is a project that allows indigenous peoples to communicate their culture and way of life in a universal language, through pictures. The program trains the local people to use cameras, with a few workshops on technique and composition. Then for a year, the people document their way of life. Translators come in once a month, to capture the "words" to accompany these pictorial stories. The goal of this program is to get the local voice without losing meanings and important messages often lost in verbal translation.

To find out more about these organizations and how you can help check out their sites:

www.wokai.org

www.photovoicesinternational.org

Transformational Social Entrepreneurs

By Betsy Merzenich, Give2Asia

Across the globe, social entrepreneurship is on the rise. In Asia and elsewhere, entrepreneurial individuals are directing their efforts at complex social issues, finding new solutions to meet difficult problems. These social entrepreneurs are characterized by an ability to identify new opportunities and a willingness to bear the inherent risks. Just as entrepreneurs transform business, social entrepreneurs have the potential to revolutionize society by seizing opportunities, inventing new approaches, improving systems, and transforming the status quo. Given the exciting and promising nature of the work of social entrepreneurs, we are interested in bringing visibility to their efforts, and have done so a number of times on this blog. This week we are profiling a collection of social entrepreneurs whose successful innovations are positively impacting millions of people throughout Asia.

A Visit with Groups Doing Inspiring Work in the Philippines

By Jennifer Lofing

The Philippines is a country of incredible beauty and tropical riches suffering simultaneously from poverty, violence, and corruption.  Filipinos like to tell you the undeniably impressive fact that the archipelago consists of over 7,000 islands…and that’s at high tide!  They also note the obstacle this geographic dispersion presents to coming together to address the challenges their country faces. 

To the contrary, on a recent trip to Manila, I was impressed with the many creative ways that people are working together to make their country a better place for everyone. During my visit, I had the good fortune to meet with several Give2Asia partners and grantees, and I would like to share some of their impressive initiatives.

The Center of Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) is a leader in microfinance in the Philippines which believes that financial support alone is not enough to eradicate poverty.  Thus, it is at the heart of the CARD Mutually Reinforcing Institutions (MRI), a family of organizations that provide microloans and insurance, access to education through special training and scholarships, micro enterprise development services, low cost savings and remittance services for overseas Filipinos, and much more.  CARD’s microfinance services provide small loans (6,000 – 100,000 PhP or approximately $130-$2,300) to women to help them lead their families out of poverty.  Loans come along with continuing education delivered during weekly meetings that increase the borrowers’ chances to successfully utilize and repay their loans. CARD currently has over 550,000 clients and has branch locations in nearly half the country’s provinces. 

Recent contributions from Give2Asia donors have enabled CARD to provide educational scholarships for the children of CARD borrowers, and built the capacity of CARD as a microfinance institution by supporting internal training and increasing the knowledge and expertise of its Treasury Unit.  In 2007 CARD was named one of the top 100 microfinance institutions in the world and just last week they were awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service.

Encouraging Young Social Entrepreneurs to Trust Their Path

An Interview with Russell Miller, Founder of Spirit of Enterprise

 

Living in Singapore in 2002, Russell Miller, a successful businessman and VC, noticed that there were many entrepreneurs that he encountered daily who were seemingly overlooked as models for inspiration. He soon found that his observations were shared by Tan Kin Lian, a Singaporean business leader and entrepreneur who added ideas and enthusiasm. From their partnership to bring attention to entrepreneurs blossomed the Sprit of Enterprise, a group now working in multiple locations, including Singapore, China, the United States, Vietnam and Mauritius. Spirit of Enteprise encourages all to honor even the most humble of entrepreneurs and inspires others to follow their entrepreneurial footsteps.

 

Earlier this year, university student Ella Li Zhanyi had an opportunity to interview Mr. Miller. Below is a partial transcript of their conversation.

 

Ella: Tell us a little bit about yourself, please.

Russell: I came to China in the year 1986. I worked in the venture capital business and I had a business deal with Tainan Insurance in that year. The company, Tainan Insurance, which was then a very small company has now become a huge business that is worth billions. I also worked in the Merger & Acquisition field. I had my own offices in San Francisco, New York and Texas and a partner office in Tokyo. I’ve been working in the VC field for over 30 years and had 2 funds. And then in 2002 I sold my companies because I realized that you can’t take it when you die.

 

Ella: And you never regret that?

Russell: No. And I can tell you as a Venture Capitalist, my work is mainly about reading all kinds of business proposals and looking into the status of the companies. However, I can assure you that the most important quality we look for in an entrepreneur is not all those things. It is something called “guts”. It’s a person’s tenacity to hold on. And I can tell you that almost all the  successful business today have nevertheless been broke or nearly broke at some point. And many entrepreneurs have been broke several times before they become successful. And it is very important for these people to believe in themselves and hold on until the very end.

PHOTO: Russell Miller, center, with Spirit of Enterprise staff.