International Law

China Quake Donations - some other views

By Stan

Follow up to yesterday’s post about social pressure and criticism of people who are perceived to have not contributed enough to earthquake relief, Danny posts on charitable NGOs here and the issue of transparency. Very important point to make. There are lots of possible destinations for your RMB, and some of them may not be trustworthy. Information is not perfect and rumors are rampant.

Some people will choose to donate to one NGO or another. This being the case, is it even possible to determine who has given what? Are all donations and relief efforts even tracked? How accurate, in the grand scheme of things, are these donation lists that have been posted online?

Anyway, here’s Danny’s comments on NGOs:

Netease announced this week that they are diverting funds away from the Red Cross Society of China and to other NGOs because of transparency issues. Similarly my staff at ChinaCSR.com and CharityInChina.org say they have received emails from people asking how to figure out where and how their funds will be used in China.

Chinese NGOs have always come under strict scrutiny, especially by foreign multinationals who wish to fulfill a bit of their corporate social responsibility by unloading cash on a Chinese not-for-profit entity. But it’s awfully tough to figure out — even in times of non-tragedy — how money is being used and to where it is going.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai compiled a list of vetted NGOs last year for companies to use in their charitable contributions, and interestingly the Red Cross Society of China is not on that "approved" list. It makes me wonder if many of the good-intentioned people on websites and blogs around the world understand what they are promoting when they put logos/icons on their websites for various charities.

During times of heightened emotion and tragedy, people’s emotions always take control of their rationality. When the USA first invaded Iraq, Americans were called unpatriotic if they had any doubt of the rationale for going into that country. And in China now, anyone that doubts the goodness of NGOs and charities helping the earthquake victims is riddled with guilt and admonitions from one’s peers. I think it’s a question of "If not now, when?" in discussing these issues.

Are there preferred donation strategies for companies? What’s the best way to avoid getting smacked around by critics? Imagethief has some thoughts on the subject.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on May 23, 2008 (boomark / email).