About the Researcher

Ying Ye, the founder and board member of Shanghai Fundraising Innovation Development Center (FIDC) , has 11 years of experience working on nonprofit marketing and fundraising with leading NGOs and CSR departments in China.

Graduated from Chinese Classical Literature of Fudan University, Ying worked as editor in Chinese edition of Reader’s Digest. After joining Shanghai United Foundation (SUF) as one of founding team members, she was responsible for public communication and fundraising, from the ground up to build the brand of the SUF and the famous peer-to-peer fundraising campaign “Shanghai Charity Egg Walkathon”.

She has rich fundraising consulting experience and provides strategic consulting and research support to foundations and CSR department of companies such as Tencent, Bosch China and Alibaba.

In 2015, She founded China Association of Fundraising Professionals (CAFP) Program. CAFP is the first and the only Fundraising Industry cultivation program dedicated to promoting the professionalization of the fundraising industry in China. In 2017, CAFP was registered as a charity organization – Fundraising Innovation Development Center (FIDC).

From 2017 to 2019, Ye Ying served as the CEO of FIDC and built it into an influential industry infrastructure in the field of professional fundraising in China. She is one of the major translators of the Chinese version of professional fundraising textbook “Fundraising Principles and Practice”. Since 2020, Ying Ye no longer holds a full-time position and serves as a board member of FIDC.

In the spring of 2020, Ying Ye joined in the ELC Intensive English Program at Georgetown University which is funded by DaoFeng and Angela Foundation. When the program ended, she got stuck in the US because of the flight ban during the Covid-19 pandemic. To get herself out of trouble, she applied for the master degree program of Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, the best choice to advanced the knowledge of Philanthropy including granting and fundraising. At the same time, she joined the volunteer team as project manager of the Life Reservation Initiative to distribute PPEs to hospitals and communities in the tough time. In the fall of 2020, she successfully got the admission and scholarship, and enrolled in the master degree program of Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Ying Ye played a role as the lead researcher and made a major contribution to the report during her internship in DaoFeng and Angela Foundation in the summer, 2021.

About the Research Project

The full name of the project is “Comparative Research on Collaborative Philanthropic Fundraising in the United States and China.”

The reason why Dao Feng and Angela Foundation (formerly known as Daofeng and Angela Foundation) would like to support this research project is that collaborative philanthropic fundraising has deeply affected the nonprofit sector in China. However, the misunderstanding of collaborative fundraising and the power of large business online fundraising platforms have led the wrong direction and caused threaten to the sustainable development of the nonprofit sector in China. Therefore, to promote the sustainable development of China’s civil society, it is important to reveal the structural problems and the solutions by analyzing and making recommendations on this issues in comparison with international counterparts.

The Foundation supported Ying Ye as a lead researcher of this project as part of her internship in the foundation while the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and other partners provided grants and network resources to support FIDC in mainland China. The research was completed in July, 2021. The English version of a brief report was completed and released in January, 2022.

The Targeted Issue

The current trend and structural problems of collaborative fundraising in China.

The Objective

This report seeks to sort out Chinese and international collaborative fundraising models, extract local and international experience, and provide Chinese local institutions with collaborative fundraising strategies and actionable recommendations based on China’s conditions.

The Methodology

The methodology adopted in this research includes:

1. Literature review: collect organization and case information through official websites, social media, think tanks, industry research reports, media reports, academic journals, and other channels for sorting and analysis;
2. Quantitative analysis: the survey data of 268 frontline organizations participated in collaborative fundraising were tracked and collected for quantitative analysis;
3. Qualitative study (Online interviews): online interviews with collaborative fundraising organizations in mainland China and abroad were conducted to collect and supplement supporting information.
4. Comparative analysis: conducted research on collaborative fundraising both in China and in the United States, from various dimensions of the fundraising market, fundraising methods, fundraising challenges, and experience.

The Research Team

The report is the result of collaboration among the entire team:

• Ying YE, Researcher of Dao Feng and Angela Foundation & Board member of FIDC, Lead Researcher;
• Yun KANG, Senior Consultant of FIDC, Researcher & Project Manager.
• Xiaoyun HUANG, CEO of FIDC, Coordinator of Survey;
• Hancheng SHI, Chief Knowledge Officer of FIDC, Editor.

Publisher Introduction

About FIDC

The Fundraising Innovation Development Center (FIDC) is committed to promoting the professional development of China’s charitable fundraising, advocating and cultivating a healthy giving culture by providing high-quality knowledge content, lowering the threshold of knowledge acquisition, and innovating capacity-building models. Our clients vary from fundraising platforms, public-fundraising foundations, corporate foundations, overseas foundations, private organizations, and industry platforms. The FIDC has released several insight reports introducing international fundraising textbooks and the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) in recent years. FIDC attaches importance to responding to social issues, carrying out fundraising ethics, and giving culture advocacy work. The China Fundraising Professionals Forum enjoys a good reputation due to its professional content and practical value.

[1] In China, foundations primarily account for operational foundations and mix foundations with self-operational and grantmaking features. Only foundations with public-fundraising certificates can conduct public-oriented fundraising activities.

The Content

Collaborative/coordinated fundraising is a model of action in philanthropy that originated in the United Kingdom and further developed in the United States. The most representative of these organizations is the United Way.

China has also experienced its own unique evolution of collaborative fundraising. In 2009, Shanghai United Foundation was officially founded as the first organization that explicitly uses collaborative fundraising as its main model. In the past few decades, the rise of Internet philanthropy has provided technical support for philanthropy courses and the popularization of collaborative fundraising. Nationwide fundraising activities represented by Tencent’s 99 Charity Day have further expanded the collaboration with low threshold participation restrictions and incentive mechanism of matching donation. Nowadays, China’s collaborative fundraising model has emerged a new look compatible with international experience and local innovation.

This report seeks to sort out Chinese and international collaborative fundraising models, extract local and international experience, and provide Chinese local institutions with collaborative fundraising strategies and actionable recommendations based on China’s conditions. Combining domestic and foreign literature review and empirical analysis, this report deeply discusses the feasibility and operability of collaborative fundraising in the local environment and further proposes local strategies and action suggestions for the Chinese philanthropy industry.

The content of the report includes 4 major chapters with 9 cases and comparative analysis:

Preface
Introduction: a brief history of collaborative fundraising model

• International development of collaborative fundraising
• China’s development of collaborative fundraising
• Differences of collaborative fundraising in the United States and China

Case analysis: collaborative fundraising experience and strategies in the United States.

• United Way: collaborative fundraising among regional communities
• Share Literacy: collaborative fundraising with local volunteering
• PTA: collaborative fundraising with a dual identity

Case analysis: collaborative fundraising experience and strategies in China

• CCAFC: collaborative fundraising with qualification sharing
• One Foundation: collaborative fundraising with a brand network.
• Inclusion China: collaborative fundraising with member interaction
• U Toy Blocks project: collaborative fundraising with public participation
• Happy Home: collaborative fundraising with community autonomy
• CFPA: collaborative fundraising focusing on regional development

Analysis of the development of China’s collaborative fundraising

• Analysis of the macro environment and development trend
• Summary of the advantages and disadvantages of collaborative fundraising.
• Analysis of the model impact on frontline organizations.
• Recommendations for future development.

References

For more information about the research, pls see the attached research report.