What is the current status of NGO development in China?

NGO is really a very unstable industry. Very few of my friends have worked for the same organization for more than 5 years, and most of them have experienced projects being completed or agency offices being closed and having to start again. The difficulty of finding a job. Whether they are local NGOs or international NGOs, they face too many problems in China, including funding, management, and policy barriers. Any question is enough to declare the death of an NGO in an instant. Some possible ways to die for Chinese NGOs are as follows:

The first way to die: starving to death without funding sources

The funding problem is one of the biggest problems in China. Interestingly, even local NGOs mostly rely on foreign funds to support their work. Because except for those large NGOs with government background or semi-officials, it is simply impossible for the government to approve the establishment of public-funded NGOs by private forces, because they cannot raise funds in China and have no foundation for survival. They can only rely on applying for foreign funds to survive.

At the end of May 2011, the Global Fund announced that it would freeze allotments to China. Not only were many grassroots NGOs affected, but many international NGOs carrying out AIDS prevention and health projects in China also had to interrupt their projects in China.

For international NGOs working in China, since their funds come entirely from abroad, once the foreign funds are cut off, they must lay off employees or close their project offices. The economic recession in 2009 put great pressure on many international NGOs. Organizations such as International Orbis carried out large-scale layoffs at that time. International economic development and NGOs' overseas fundraising capabilities directly determine the survival of domestic offices.

On the other hand, China has become the world's second largest economy, with GDP exceeding Japan and second only to the United States. At the same time, China's overseas aid funds are also increasing, and the government often generously forgives the debts of African countries on a large scale. China also holds a large amount of U.S. Treasury bonds and is the largest creditor of the United States. There is more and more information about this. Let foreigners believe that China is already a relatively rich and powerful country. It has enough funds to invest in social development if it wants to, so it no longer needs financial support from other countries. Therefore, some international NGOs have begun to consider whether to reduce their capital investment in China or close their Chinese project offices and invest funds in the development of other poorer countries and regions. Even if we continue to invest more funds and projects in China, we will pay more attention to the efficiency of the use of funds. In short, foreigners' money is not so easy to spend and it is easy to spend it.

The second way to die: due to lack of talent

Social work is a very new profession in China, and many universities offer undergraduate and master's degrees in social work. Interestingly, many social work teachers in Chinese universities have neither studied social work nor participated in social work project activities and management. They basically digest foreign materials and write them into teaching materials. The talent training and reserve mechanism for China's NGO industry has not yet been established, and professional social work and NGO practitioners are relatively lacking. Currently, most of the personnel engaged in this industry are produced and sold by various institutions and trained through in-organization training.

But if the organization itself trains, foreign NGOs are better. They pay more attention to education and training, and have relatively mature practices in both NGO management and project operations. Every year there are training plans and funding budgets for various aspects, including both in-organization training and professional training provided by external resources. Of course, this requires funding budgets. Grassroots NGOs are often limited by funds, which not only make it difficult to develop adequate training plans, but are also insufficient to pay for professional training institutions.

In addition, due to financial constraints, it is difficult for the grassroots to recruit high-end talents in personnel recruitment. High-end talents have flowed to the commercial field, and most of the high-end talents in the industry have chosen international companies with relatively more humane treatment. NGO. Most people recruited by NGOs can only be recruited through internal training, and it is difficult to obtain high-level professional training support, so the talent bottleneck is difficult to solve. The main reason why they can't find high-end talents is funding and salary issues. The same problem limits their talent training and talent retention. Once many professionals become more professional in this industry, they have little regard for personal treatment and personal development. The requirements will also increase accordingly, and many high-end talents will move to other institutions to continue their development.

In addition, since most NGO project funds come from overseas and do not have their own financing channels, they can only retain a certain number of professional staff when they apply for the project. Once the project ends and they cannot apply for funds, It is impossible to support the expenses of these staff, and many organizations will choose to lay off employees at this time. When applying for new projects, we will recruit and train again. Many grassroots NGOs have relatively stable staff, but their remuneration is very low and they rely entirely on a spirit of dedication to support them. Financial difficulties have created a talent dilemma, which in turn will affect the organization's management and project execution levels, as well as the organization's ability to apply for new projects. In the long run, it will inevitably form a vicious circle:

Long-term If this continues, it will be difficult for domestic NGOs to achieve sustained development. It is already good to be able to survive.

The third way to die: trapped by policy barriers

For a long time, the Chinese government has very strict restrictions on the establishment of non-profit civil organizations.

There are both funding restrictions and business supervisory unit restrictions. In short, it is difficult to establish a non-profit civil organization. For example, a foundation needs to find a government department at or above the provincial level to be the business supervisory unit (Guangdong and other places seem to have loosened the requirements, but most other provinces and cities still have mandatory requirements). It is almost impossible to establish a public foundation without special official background. Although the One Foundation finally completed the difficult process of nirvana in 2010, I think not every organization has such huge talents as Jet Li and Wang Shi. Become a social impact sponsor and supporter.

You cannot set up a foundation or raise funds, but you can work under the leadership of the government (if you can work as an organization, of course there is a prerequisite that you can apply for financial assistance from abroad or the government), this is also It loses its so-called non-governmental and non-profit independence.

The fourth way to die: Aging and dead organizations

At present, domestic NGOs are often supported by the strong willpower of one or two founders. They established an organization out of good intentions, but various barriers limited their fundraising capabilities and brought them a big talent dilemma, so they could only operate on a small scale for a long time. Staffing is also unstable. Because management is not supplemented by fresh blood, the organization will become rigid in the long run. In this case, once these founders retire or pass away, the fate of the organization can be imagined.

But institutional rigidity is not limited to small NGOs. This situation also exists in large domestic foundations and foreign NGOs working in China. Needless to say, large-scale domestic NGOs. Their semi-official nature (many of them are staffed by public institutions) determines their completely governmental management and operation model. They cannot gain the trust of ordinary people, and their project operations are not as professional as those of independent NGOs. of foreign NGOs.

Many large international NGOs have also encountered "Chinese characteristics" in China. Due to limitations in talents, policies, etc., some established NGOs in China have had to change their work models and have more difficulties in project operations. It reflects Chinese characteristics. For example, most projects cooperate with the government. Many projects are led or participated by government departments. Administrative management is more similar to public institutions. Some institutions even experience internal friction. On the contrary, many small international NGOs are due to Flexible in management and projects, showing strong vigor. If there is no long-term improvement and innovation in institutional management and project operations, poverty and backwardness will no longer be synonymous with Chinese projects, and many NGO projects in China will slowly lose their appeal and eventually become ossified and die.

The fifth way to die: suffocated by social concepts

Traditional Chinese people have always understood the work of NGOs as charity. Since private NGOs and international NGOs have always been caught in the cracks in China, Survival, their influence is very small, and the general public does not know much about their work. Therefore, people do not understand the concepts of development and social work. They think that the work of NGOs is charity, where rich people donate money to help the poor or pitiful people. Many people even think that this is a condescending charity. I think Mr. Chen Guangbiao’s violent charity should be a typical representative of this concept. Because the public does not believe that the current foundations can use their funds well (based on their distrust of the current domestic mainstream foundations), and they do not understand the role of their donations, China must let the people develop the habit of regularly It will take a long time for spontaneous donations to support NGO work.

It will take a long time for ordinary people to understand the concepts of development and social work, and it will take some time for people to completely separate the words donation from pity and charity. Only when the public better understands the concepts of development and social work can they support the long-term development of NGO work. However, the current awareness of grassroots NGOs and international NGOs in China is still relatively low, and most people are only aware of foundations with official backgrounds. This social concept will also restrict the development of domestic NGOs for a long time. .

There are so many ways for NGOs to die in China, so is there a way for them to live? Nowadays, everyone is very tired. To live well, we must at least solve the above problems. However, the problem of policy barriers cannot be solved first. It is very difficult to rely on private power to promote government reform in China. For example, the One Foundation The final success was not only due to the unimaginable joint efforts of Mr. Jet Li and other personnel, but also to their huge personal influence.

Furthermore, the One Foundation also encountered many challenges in human resources and management in the early days. After all, Jet Li’s team did not start out as a professional in social work. Now they are becoming more and more professional. I hope they will continue to work. We can do better in the future, truly realize the ideal of one dollar per person, have more influence in the development field, and set a successful example for other institutions.

Since many professional international NGOs have carried out many projects in China over the years, they have objectively trained a large number of professional NGO practitioners for China. However, we must admit that social work and development are first and foremost a profession. Employees in this industry cannot be required to be philanthropists or ascetics who engage in this industry purely to dedicate themselves to society without asking for anything in return. They also have to support their families, and they need to be respected in normal social and economic life.

Therefore, they should be provided with a guaranteed income level, so as to attract more talents and ensure the professionalization and long-term development of NGOs.