This thought-provoking book explores the functions of charitable foundations in the People's Republic of China. Using both empirical fieldwork and extensive textual analysis, it examines the role of foundations in Chinese society and their relationship with the Chinese government, and provides a new, functional perspective on the role of foundations, complementing mainstream civil society and corporatist perspectives.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Over the past 30 years, scholars and activists have called on the Chinese government to ease the registration and oversight rules governing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and to increase funding for such organizations by, among other things, broadening the charitable deduction. While China has made significant progress in this regard, the government continues to throw up roadblocks for NGOs, suggesting that it has not fully embraced this path. This article considers the extent to which the justifications for a broad charitable deduction adduced in the West make sense in China. The goal is to develop a normative basis consistent with Chinese values and interests that Chinese authorities would find compelling and which might lead to additional efforts to develop China's civil sector. This article also considers the extent to which China's political and social culture may affect such efforts, concluding that, even if China were to adopt Western-style laws governing NGOs and provide for a broad charitable deduction, China's culture would shape both how government officials implement the laws and how the Chinese people respond to them, leading to a system of charity, but one with Chinese characteristics.

The nonprofit sector in China (including nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and charities) is fairly new, especially to foreigners, since the rapid development of this "third sector" has not been widely studied in Western scholarship. The contributors to this volume have been engaged in research of China’s nonprofit sector for many years, and are intimately familiar with the operation of Chinese nonprofit organizations. China’s Nonprofit Sector describes the development of China’s nonprofit sector since 1995, including discussions on the rise of corporate responsibility and charitable foundations, grassroots organizations, and the microphilanthropy that arose after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. It enumerates the shifting legal framework, the complex relationship between government-affiliated and private sector organizations, the media’s role, the emergence of microphilanthropy, and the lack of knowledge of the general public regarding philanthropic enterprises. This volume, in Transaction’s Asian Studies series, directly addresses the topic of China’s nonprofit sector and gives a coherent and comprehensive account of its development and challenges. This work will be of value for all policy specialists, Asian Studies scholars, and all individuals interested in China.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This cutting edge text considers how Asian philanthropists and charitable organizations break with Western philanthropic traditions and examines the key traits and trends that make social investment in Asia unique. Based on 30 case studies of excellent social delivery organizations (SDOs) and social enterprises as well as interviews with ultra-high net-worth individuals throughout Asia, this book examines which characteristics and strategies lead to successful philanthropy and social delivery organizations. Providing evidence based findings on philanthropy, social investment and social delivery organizations in Asia, this book provides invaluable resources for those wishing to deepen their understanding of the sector and what this means for political and economic development in the region.

This book analyzes the positive changes, challenges, and corresponding solutions regarding charitable donation in China. It discusses a number of issues, including donors and their modes of donation, donation intermediaries and their behavioral characteristics, cultural and social factors influencing charitable donation, methods of raising charitable funds, ways of providing charitable assistance and innovation, and trends in the development of charitable donation mechanisms in China. Confirming previous findings and integrating theoretical and applied studies, the book draws new conclusions and offers fresh insights into the research questions. It also includes a multi-dimensional analysis of the behavioral patterns of the donors and the charitable donation mechanisms in contemporary China from integrated perspectives, with a systematic generalization of their key features and trends. Further topics explored include the community-based charity promotion mechanism and the trends in the mechanism development in China, which have seldom been touched on by other scholars in the field.