‘People Power’Key to Charity Jet Li’s One Foundation outperforms Red Cross Society of China in raising funds for earthquake relief By Zeng Wenhui

Jet Li,known in China as Li Lianjie,is relieved to see the effect of the charity model he has advocated,also to the relief of more than 2.3 million people in southwest China affected by a recent earthquake.

On May 7,Li revealed that his One Foundation had received more than 300 million yuan ($49 million) in donated cash and supplies since a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Lushan County in Sichuan Province on April 20.

What touched Li most is not the impressive amount of donations,but the number of people who donated to One Foundation:2.97 million.

“The number of donors is what matters most to One Foundation,”Li said.

Li founded the charity in 2007,naming it One Foundation as he believes that if every person donates at least 1 yuan($0.16) every month,the money pooled together will make a difference.

In the nearly 3 million earthquake donors,Li said that he saw the“power of the people,”for their number indicates how many citizens are willing to shoulder social responsibility.He said that it also proves the viability and sustainability of his charity model.

Nearly two thirds of total individual donors participated via e-commerce platform Taobao.com.Under partnership between One Foundation and Taobao.com,for every yuan of goods or services traded at Taobao.com,0.1 yuan ($0.02)was donated to One Foundation.

The donations raised for disaster relief will be exclusively used for that purpose,Li said,adding that funds should first be spent on emergency humanitarian assistance,then on building temporary settlements and post-quake reconstruction,which is expected to be completed in three to four years.

Of all the donations made to One Foundation,52 percent came from enterprises and 48 percent were from individuals.The foundation said that the funds spent on emergency relief and temporary resettlements were mostly donated by individuals,whereas donations from enterprises will be invested in disaster mitigation and post-disaster reconstruction.

Donations are used in this way because individual donors are emotional about emergency assistance whereas entrepreneurs are used to rational long-term strategic thinking,according to Li.

Transparency in fund usage is crucial to One Foundation,Li said.Nonetheless,he admitted that so far it is not yet possible for any foundation to publish the destination of every yuan of donation.Now One Foundation can only specify the respective percentages used inemergency humanitarian assistance,establishment of temporary settlements and post-quake reconstruction.

JOINT EFFORT:Volunteers from One Foundation build houses for villagers in Weidong Village in Conghua City,Guangdong Province,on May 12,2012

One Foundation dispatched disaster relief teams to Sichuan soon after the earthquake,and some are still at work there.

As to post-quake reconstruction,Li said that he and his colleagues would draw upon related experiences after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan and the 2010 Yushu earthquake in Qinghai Province,so as to avoid mistakes.

“We have invited many experts specializing in post-quake reconstruction to plan more rationally,”Li said.Experts will advise on how to build new buildings that fit the local environment and culture.

In addition,Li also believes that in terms of post-quake construction,civic organizations should do what the government has not done,and different organizations should share information so as not to waste efforts by duplicating or overlapping.

NEW START:Jet Li (first left)and guests at the ceremony unveil One Foundation inShenzhen City,Guangdong Province,on January 11,2011

‘Public’ foundation

Since its inception,Li wishes to run One Foundation like a listed company.He regards every donor as a shareholder of his organization.

“One Foundation gathers people who have a common dream,that is,to serve every ‘shareholder’ with their expertise,”Li said.

Currently,many celebrity entrepreneurs sit in the foundation’s board,including Wang Shi,founder of China’s largest residential real estate developer Vanke Co.Ltd.,Ma Weihua,former President and CEO of the China Merchants Bank,and Jack Ma Yun,founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

Li said that he invited so many famous entrepreneurs on the foundation’s board because they can boost public confidence in it.These entrepreneurs,each controlling assets worth billions of dollars,have no need to embezzle donations.

Moreover,these entrepreneurs can create operation platforms for the foundation.“With their business acumen,these entrepreneurs understand One Foundation at the outset,endorse it and would like to serve in its board to see its sustainable development,”Li said.

In 2008,the China Merchants Bank and One Foundation jointly issued a charity credit card.Under their agreement,the bank donates 1 yuan for every new card issued,and 0.1 yuan every time it is swiped thereafter.According to the bank,from December 2008 to March 2013,a total of 8.5 million yuan ($1.38 million) had been donated in this way.

At the Global Mobile Internet Conference that began in Beijing on May 7,One Foundation launched a joint charity program with conference organizer GWC,a membership organization for executives from mobile and Internet companies around the globe.The program aims to raise funds via mobile Internet.

One Foundation was originally launched as a project of the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC),the country’s largest charity,because registration procedures at that time required that a social organization must be supervised by a government department.After a pilot program was launched to allow certain types of organizations to directly register with civil affairs authorities,it was registered as an independent public foundation on December 3,2010 in Shenzhen,south China’s Guangdong Province.

Charity reform

The credibility of the RCSC has plunged since June 2011 when a 20-year-old woman known by her microblog name Guo Meimei flaunted her wealth and claimed to be a manager of the organization.Guo raised suspicion that donated money has been embezzled to finance the lavish lifestyle of the organization’s employees.

Despite subsequent internal reforms,the approval ratings of the RCSC have remained low,prompting growing calls for a thorough reform of government-run charities.Some people have proposed to let nongovernmental organizations such as One Foundation replace the RCSC to play a primary role in the area.

Li said that One Foundation alone is unable to handle a variety of problems facing Chinese society and it aims to explore a sound development model that can be followed by other public and private charities as well as nongovernmental organizations.

With millions of volunteers,the RCSC has traditionally played a leading role in disaster relief in China.It now has branch organizations in almost all provincial,prefectural and township level administrative units.“No other foundation in the country can afford the operating cost of such a colossal organization or shoulder such huge responsibilities,”Li said.

Li said that now the public demands for transparent and professional charitable organizations,if some traditional organizations are too slow in reforming themselves,they will fall short of people’s expectations.

He expressed thoughts that public scrutiny is a blessing in disguise for the RCSC,which must change to meet rational social demands.

On the other hand,Li suggests that the public should give more time to the RCSC and believe that it will improve.“Not doing a good job now does not mean that it will not do a good job in the future,”he said.