The China Foundation Center was launched last week. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time China blog, it “aims to help increase the transparency of Chinese charitable groups”:
Some of China’s most recognized philanthropic leaders gathered in Beijing this past week for the launch of the China Foundation Center, a new organization that aims to help increase the transparency of Chinese charitable groups, which have sometimes struggled with public suspicion of mismanagement and even corruption.
The organization looks to bolster trust in Chinese foundations by making information about their activities available to the public—thus hopefully encouraging more participation in charitable work. The center’s website will initially archive data on more than 1,800 foundations across China.
Chinese and international philanthropic leaders gathered for Thursday’s launch ceremony, including Peter Geithner, father of the U.S. Treasury secretary and a former longtime leader in the Ford Foundation, and Xu Yongguang, founder of Project Hope, China’s largest non-governmental social welfare group. Many of them described the new organization’s launch as mirroring crucial steps taken to improve the credibility of philanthropic organizations in the U.S. in the 1950s.
