1、According to statistics from , thirty three public foundations and more than 200 registered and non-registered charity organizations have opened online stores through the taobao website. The stores in question sell physical commodities such as breads and handicrafts, and virtual goods such as donati
2、on vouchers. But how are these online shops doing? And what changes has online operation brought to philanthropy? Wang Wei has more.According to statistics from , the largest player in Chinas consumer e-commerce market, around three hundred public foundations and charity organizations are running th
3、eir online stores through the taobao website, selling various goods from breads and handicrafts to virtual donation vouchers. Whats more, some of these are doing very well.One of those doing well is Amity Bakery, under the Chinese voluntary organization Amity Foundation, which operates with guidance
4、 from professional bakers. Amity Bakery trains young people with intellectual disabilities to make various kinds of baked goods such as cookies, breads and cakes, and sells them both online and in physical stores. After two years of operation, Amity Bakerys online shop is now contributing 2 percent
5、of its total revenue.Li Yang, Resource Development Executive at Amity Foundation, says opening an online shop was a clear choice for them.Our breads and cookies are of great quality and they are very competitive products online. On top of this, online operation has extremely low costs. Compared to t
6、he cost of all the rent and utility bills you have to pay to run a store made from bricks and mortar, the cost of running an online shop can be ignored. Low cost operation is one of the main principles of carrying out charitable work.At present, the online shop is run by one member from the foundati
7、on and two other volunteers. Through timely updates of the website, constant communication with customers, publicity on weibo and cooperation with group buying websites, the Amity Bakery online store has received positive feedback from nearly five thousand customers, with an amazing favorable rate o
8、f 99.9 percent. Customer Wu Zhiming shops at the store regularly.I like their French baguettes the most, and my kids love the hand-rip bread. I visit their shops, both online and physical, twice a month. Sometimes I make orders online and pick them up later at their store; its very convenient.The Ch
9、ina Foundation for Poverty Alleviation also saw the potential for public goods to go online, and started its online shop in 2009 selling virtual vouchers for donations and care packages of different values. The shop currently brings in an average of 50 thousand yuan in donations every month. Chen Ho
10、ngtao, vice secretary general of the foundation says its a general trend for public charities to go online nowadays.To run a foundation like ours, having only passion and compassion is not enough nowadays. It requires more strategy and ability. In this age of information technology, hundreds of mill
11、ions of netizens in China have online payment ability and are used to acquiring information via the internet. Foundations like ours must follow the trends or well be left behind.Chen says the foundations online shop is currently operated by three of the foundations own members, and stressed that its
12、 wrong to think that their work only involves updating the website and selling vouchers; they also improve the level of transparency regarding the foundations business operations.Their interaction with donors can enhance the level of trust and understanding. We know that the credibility of public fo
13、undations was smeared by the Guo Meimei incident. Our online shop has effectively restored our donors faith in us by allowing us to instantly feed donors with information on where their money has gone and how the project they supported is operating. This is far more important than bringing in donati
14、ons.Chen says that if you make a donation towards a 100 hundred yuan care package, you will receive a receipt and a hand written thank-you post card from the child who receives it. When the donation is rather small, like one or two yuan, collective thank you letters and beneficiary name-lists will b
15、e sent to acknowledge those donors from the children they collectively helped. Small donations make up the majority of the online stores work.Chen explains that most average and large donations still come through bank deposits, but online operation has largely facilitated small donations. The sales
16、volume of its top seller, the one yuan donation voucher, reached over 500 in the last 30 days. 500 yuan may be a small amount, but that means at least a few hundred people took part in the charity process. Online shops have largely expanded the charitys influence among Chinese netizens.Online operation allows more people, both beneficiaries and donors, to feel the warmth and happiness that charities can bring. And that is the true essence of doing charity.For CRI, Im Wang Wei.
