As a UK-based charity with legal operations on the mainland, ChinaNext Foundation serves as an innovative bridge for the international doners to have a direct impact on the important NGO works in China.
We have probably become the biggest UK charity with the sole mission of supporting charity work in China.
With our partnerships with prominent Chinese foundations, we also serve as a portal, a platform and a bridge linking the societies in the two great countries.
We are also a unique charitable foundation. We support the growth of NGO leaders in China. By helping the individuals behind China's emerging NGOs, we believe we are at a vantage point in helping a shape a better future.
For China, and for the world alike.
Why support the charitable sector in China?
We believe the non-government charities in China are as important as they are overlooked. Just like their counterparts in the West, they are delivering much-needed support to many of the less privileged; but unlike their Western colleagues, they also play significant roles as the only legal organizations outside the traditional institutions. In short, they are the pioneers of a civil society in our minds.
Why support the people in the charitable sector?
Unfortunately China's civil sector is very small and underdeveloped, with the social environment and the ways they often have to operate being too complex for direct international aid to make sense. This difficulty is only compounded with foreign money donated to local charities receiving increased scrutiny (read: trouble) from the authorities, along with international foundations' objectives and agendas not necessarily being applicable to those of Chinese society. The availability of international aid being spoon fed to them actually reduces their ability to sustain themselves in the long run. In the end, China’s getting rich after all; and we’ve found that international foundations have been experiencing an increasing amount of problems explaining to donors why they should support China while the problems in the West are plentiful.
We find that supporting, training, and growing the local charity leaders is a much better approach. Every year, we work with our partners in China to select a small group of experienced charity leaders and give them appropriate support, training and exposure. Many of the NextLeaders’ charities have much larger budget than this Foundation, though we still find they are in dear need for our help; and the money, assistance, and support we provide evidently improves their work to a great extent. By helping them do their work better, we will not only help the underlying problems but more importantly, we will encourage, enable and empower more and more young people to participate. Often times, we've found that we ourselves work and grow with them too, so it's a win-win for everyone involved.
Our purpose: A portal, a platform and a bridge
We don’t limit the causes of our NextLeaders, as long as they are within the remit of UK Charity Act 2011. Likewise, the Foundation does not have a preference over conventional charitable cause, such as poverty reduction, cancer research or autistic child support. Rather, we’d like to think of ourselves as a portal, a platform and a bridge in this hyper-connected, globalized world.
First of all, we serve as a portal for the UK public to have direct access to a carefully vetted group of Chinese charities and civil groups (through our NextLeaders) who are leading the country’s fundamental transformation into a civil society;
Secondly, we serve as a platform for aspiring young people who have dedicated themselves to a particular cause; helping them learn to communicate, collaborate, and cooperate along with sharpening their skills;
Finally, we serve as a bridge to connect the various facets of modern Chinese society: the otherwise isolated charitable groups and aspiring individuals; the corporate sector and the non-government sector; and the international civil societies and their Chinese counterparts.
Our approach: we invest your donation, we don’t spend it
We believe in the leverage your money plays when we invest it in people. Through combining international experiences, multi -disciplinary skill sets, and the right amount of financial resources; we feel that the effects of every penny is multiplied exponentially for the greater good. We may not directly aid a hungry child or give them a book for read, but we indirectly aid hundreds of thousands of them by helping the people giving them those necessities—in a sustainable manner.
We invest, not spend. We build skill sets, not just schools or buildings. We teach how to fish, not just give it to them on a platter. As a result, your money will not only deliver social benefits in multiple areas today, but also work towards a mechanism— civil society—so that it will have long lasting results.
That’s why you should invest with us.