The first way to die: starve to death without funds.
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-official, it is impossible for the government to approve non-governmental forces to set up public offering NGOs, because they can't raise funds at home and have no basic soil to live on, so they can only survive by applying for foreign funds.
20 1 1 At the end of May, the Global Fund announced that it would freeze its funding for China. Not only many grass-roots NGOs are affected, but also many international NGOs engaged in AIDS prevention and health projects in China have to suspend their projects in China.
Once foreign funds are cut off, international NGOs working in China have to lay off staff or close their project offices. The economic recession in 2009 brought great pressure to many international non-governmental organizations, and organizations such as orbis international made large-scale layoffs at that time. The development of international economy and the overseas financing ability of non-governmental organizations directly determine the survival of domestic offices.
On the other hand, China has become the second largest economy in the world, and its GDP has surpassed that of Japan, second only to that of the United States. At the same time, China's overseas aid funds are increasing, and the government often forgives African countries' debts generously on a large scale. At the same time, China holds a large number of US Treasury bonds, making it the largest creditor country in the United States. All this information convinces foreigners that China is already a relatively rich and powerful country. If it wants to invest in social development, it has enough funds, so it no longer needs financial support from other countries. Therefore, some international NGOs began to consider whether to reduce their investment in China, or to close the China project office and invest their funds in 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 good to spend.
The second way to die: lack of talent and thin death.
Social work is a new major in China, and many universities offer undergraduate and master's degrees in social work. Interestingly, many teachers majoring in social work in China University have never studied social work, nor participated in the project activities and management of social work. Basically, they use foreign materials to digest themselves and then write textbooks. The talent training and reserve mechanism of NGO industry in China has not yet been established, and there is a lack of professional social work and NGO practitioners. At present, most people engaged in this industry are produced and sold by various institutions and trained through internal training.
However, foreign NGOs are better if they organize their own training. They pay more attention to education and training, and have relatively mature practices in both NGO management and project operation. Every year, there are various training plans and budgets, both internal training and professional training provided by external resources. Of course, this requires a capital budget. Grass-roots NGOs are often limited by funds, which is not only difficult to make adequate training plans, but also insufficient to pay for professional training institutions.
In addition, due to the shortage of funds, it is difficult for grassroots to recruit high-end talents in personnel recruitment. All high-end talents flow to the commercial field, and most of the high-end talents in the industry choose international NGOs with relatively humanized treatment. Most people recruited by NGOs can only get internal training, so it is difficult to get high-level professional training support, and the talent bottleneck is difficult to solve. The main reason why they can't find high-end talents is the problem of funds and treatment. The same problem limits their talent training and talent retention. Once many professionals are more professional in this industry, the requirements for personal treatment and personal development will increase accordingly, and many high-end talents will jump ship to other institutions to continue their development.
In addition, because most of the project funds of NGOs come from overseas, only a certain number of professionals can be retained when applying for projects. Once the project is over, they can't support the expenses of these staff. At this time, many organizations will also choose to lay off employees. Recruiting and retraining when applying for new projects. Many grass-roots NGO staff are relatively stable, but the treatment is very low, completely supported by a dedication. Financial difficulties have caused a talent dilemma, which will affect the level of organization and management and project implementation, and also affect the ability of institutions to apply for new projects. In the long run, it will inevitably form a vicious circle:
In this way, it is difficult for domestic NGOs to achieve sustainable development, and it is good to survive.
The third way to die: policy barriers.
For a long time, China government has imposed strict restrictions on the establishment of non-profit NGOs. There are both financial constraints and the constraints of the competent business unit. In short, it is difficult to set up a non-profit NGO. For example, the foundation needs to find a government department at or above the provincial level as the competent business unit (Guangdong and other places seem relaxed, but most other provinces and cities still insist), and it is almost impossible to set up a public offering foundation without a special official background. Although the One Foundation finally completed the difficult nirvana process on 20 10, I don't think every institution is like Jet Li and Wang Shi.
You can't set up a foundation or raise funds, that is, you can work under the leadership of the government (if you can be a public institution, of course, there is a premise that you can apply for financial assistance from abroad or the government), thus losing the so-called non-governmental and non-profit independence.
The fourth way to die: the organization is aging and rigid.
At present, domestic local NGOs are often supported by the strong willpower of one or two founders. They set up an organization out of good wishes, but various barriers limit their fund-raising ability and bring them a great talent dilemma, so they can only operate on a small scale for a long time and their personnel are unstable. Because the management can't get fresh blood, the organization will become rigid in the long run. In this case, once these founders retire or die, the fate of the organization can be imagined.
However, institutional rigidity is not limited to small NGOs, but also exists in large domestic foundations and foreign NGOs working in China. Needless to say, large domestic NGOs are semi-official in nature (many of them are established by public institutions), which determines their completely governmental management and operation mode. They can't gain the trust of ordinary people, and the professional level of project operation is not as good as that of foreign independent NGOs.
However, many large international NGOs have also encountered "China characteristics" in China. Due to the limitation of talents and policies, some established NGOs have to change their working mode in China, and their project operations are more China-like, such as the cooperation between projects and the government. Many projects are led or participated by government departments, and their administration is more like institutions, and some institutions even have internal friction. On the contrary, many small international NGOs show great vitality because of their flexible management and projects. If the system management and project operation are not improved and innovated for a long time, because poverty and backwardness will no longer be synonymous with China projects, many NGO projects in China will gradually lose their appeal and eventually die of rigidity.
The fifth way to die: social concepts suffocate and die.
Traditional people in China have always understood the work of NGOs as charity. Because folk NGOs and international NGOs have been living in a crevice in China, their influence is very small, and ordinary people don't know much about their work. Therefore, people don't understand the concepts of development and social work. They think that the work of NGOs is charity, a kind of charity in which rich people donate money to help the poor or the poor, and even many people think it is a condescending charity. I think Mr. Chen cursor's violent charity should be a typical representative of this concept. People don't believe that the current foundations can make good use of their own funds (based on distrust of the current domestic mainstream foundations), and they don't know what role their donations have. Therefore, it will take a long time for people in China to make regular voluntary donations to support the work of non-governmental organizations.
It will take a long time for ordinary people to understand the concepts of development and social work, and it will take a long time for people to completely separate the two words of donation from compassion and charity. Only when people know more about the concepts of development and social work can they support the long-term development of NGO work. However, at present, the awareness of grassroots NGOs and international NGOs in China is still relatively low, and most people are limited to the awareness of foundations with official background. This social concept will also limit the development of domestic NGOs for a long time.
There are so many ways for NGOs in China to die, so do they have a way out? Now everyone is very tired. To live a good life, at least solve the above problems. But the problem of policy barriers can't be solved at first. In China, it is very difficult to rely on non-governmental forces to promote government reform. One Foundation can finally get through, not only because of the unimaginable efforts of Mr. Jet Li and others, but also because of their great personal influence.
Moreover, the One Foundation also encountered many challenges in human resources and management in the early days. After all, Jet Li's team was not a professional social worker at first, but now it is becoming more and more professional. I hope they can do better in the future, truly realize the ideal of one yuan and one person, have more influence in the development field, and set a successful example for other institutions.
In recent years, many professional international NGOs have carried out many projects in China, and 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, and the practitioners in this industry cannot be required to be philanthropists or ascetics. They are engaged in this industry purely to contribute to the society, without asking for anything in return. They have to support their families and need to be respected in normal social and economic life. Therefore, we should provide them with a guaranteed income level to attract more talents and ensure the specialization and long-term development of NGOs.