Chinese Private Foundations to Gather to Talk about Money

Later this week ( Nov 22-23 ), an estimate of 400 participants from foundations, NGOs, government, business and academia are going to attend the 4th annual conference of China Private Foundation Forum in Guangzhou.  This forum is a volunatary network co-founded by 8 private foundations in 2008, aiming to facilitate the communications and collaborations among private foundations and to promote healthy development of the philanthropic and nonprofit sector.  The Forum sponsors researches on the private foundation sector, and the annual conference is the major output of the Forum.

The theme of this year’s conference is “making the best use of foundation asset for greater good”.  It’s not difficult to understand why money is going to be the center topic of the conference, if we cast our view on the backdrop: the economic recession has put some strain on both funding source and asset conservation for many foundations; private foundations are developing rapidly in both numbers and scales; some foundations were criticized for their usage of money by the public, which have apparently had negative impact on foundations at large, whether public or private.  Under such circumstances, Chinese private foundations feel both challenged and energized.  They are eager to discuss how to best conserve their assets, and how to maximize the impact through grantmaking.

Besides the usual format of keynote speech and plenary sessions, private foundations were encouraged to host their own session, whether it’s a speech, panel discussion, or workshop, dialogues. 10 such sessions have been scheduled, covering a wide range of topics: Strategic Social Investment by Narada Foundation, Strategy and Practice of Preserving and Increasing Foundation’s Asset by Vanke Foundation, Grant Craft by GuangDong Harmony Foundation, Incubation of Foundations and Field Building by RenDe Foundation, etc.

Not all sessions are open to public, but the Forum is inviting 50 grassroot NGOs to attend the conference without charge and will subsidize part of their traveling and accommodation expenses.

Please stay tuned for our follow-up report on this conference.

Sources:

• 第四届非公募基金会发展论坛
• 非公募基金会集体论财-京华时报
• 第四届非公募基金会论坛邀草根NGO共舞–南方都市报

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