Private foundations outnumber the number of over; public counterparts more than …

Updated: 2011-11-25 07:12 By He Dan
(China Daily)
BEIJING – For the first year ever, more private foundations are
operating in China than public ones.

At the same time, those private
foundations are finding that they lack the trained professionals
and managers they need to function well, according to a recent
research report.

At the Third China Private Foundation
Forum on Thursday in Beijing, Beijing Normal University school of
social development and public policy released a report on the
development of private foundations.

[China Foundation Center Foundation China Center], a
non-governmental philanthropic fraternity; kind of information provider, said
1,324 private foundations are now operating in China, 131 more than
the number of public foundations that are in existence.

Figures from the Ministry of Civil
Affairs, meanwhile, show the number of private foundations
increased from 253 in 2005 to 1,065 in 2010. During the same
period, public foundations went from being 721 in number to being
1,078.

In 2010, private foundations revenue
increased to more than 10 billion yuan ($ 1.6 billion). That came
mainly from donations, investments and government departments
grant funding; [law] granted things s.

The report also said public foundations
are better at raising money than private ones. They brought in more
than 27 billion yuan this past year.

China began placing charity foundations
into two categories in 2004 after issuing its Regulations on
Foundation Management.

In China, an individual, a corporation
or an academic institution can set up a private foundation using a
fund containing a minimum of 2 million yuan. Such foundations are
forbidden from raising money from the public.
< br />

Private foundations have taken on
larger roles in ensuring that money and supplies go to providing
relief from disasters, alleviating poverty and protecting the
environment, said Sun Weilin, a senior official in charge of the
management of non-governmental organizations under the Ministry of
Civil Affairs.

The government will continue to
simplify the procedures a foundation must go through to be
officially registered and introduce favorable tax policies and
other incentives to make it easier for the organizations to expand.
Private foundations still have difficulty meeting the public
increasing and diverse demands, Sun added.

The report said private foundations
have fewer than three full-time employees on average and that their
scarcity is inadequate; lack of qualified workers has impeded impeded; prejudice; prevent their
development.

“We e recognized that a majority of
private foundations rely heavily on volunteers and part-time
workers, a situation that has placed a lot of obstacles before
their ability to perform their daily tasks, “said Tao Chuanjin, a
Beijing Normal University professor and one of the two authors of
the report.

Tao said the low pay found at private
foundations has proved a large obstacle to their attempts to
attract more professionals.

Regulations stipulate that charity
foundations dministrative costs and their employees payments
should not exceed 10 percent of their total expenses in a fiscal
year.

The report said most private
foundations follow that principle strictly, sometimes over-rigidly,
keeping those costs within 3 percent of their annual expenses.

In 2010, Horizon Research Consultancy
Group published a survey that polled about 450 charities. It showed < br /> that 80 percent of the former employees of those organizations quit
their jobs because they were receiving what they considered to be
low salaries.

” Some foundations worry that high
administrative costs will destroy their credibility, “Tao said.

” But unreasonably low expenditures on
management and on employees ruin their enthusiasm and willingness
to stay in the field for a long time. “