The Internet has changed the operating efficiency of almost all industries, including public welfare undertakings. In 2015, Tencent Charity launched the "99 Charity Day", with 2.05 million people participating, with a total fundraising of 127 million yuan.

New problems created by the Internet can be solved by the Internet.

Text丨Lu Ran

The Internet has changed the operating efficiency of almost all industries, including public welfare undertakings. In 2015, Tencent Charity launched the "99 Charity Day ", with 2.05 million people participating, with a total fundraising of 127 million yuan. By 2021, both participants and fundraising have increased by at least 34 times.

is like other industries that have disrupted technology, and the efficiency improvement also brings some problems. It has also become easier to incite emotions and disseminate false information. As early as 2012, when WeChat public accounts and circle of friends became popular, some people proposed the "Echo Plan" to use the power of a third party to track charity fundraising. But at that time people were optimistic and were more willing to believe that most of the changes brought by the Internet were good.

Then, something changes people's attitude. In the iconic Roll incident in 2016, Roll posted a request for help from her daughter who suffered from leukemia online, and received millions of yuan in donations from the public, but concealed that she owned three properties and refused to sell the house to save her daughter. The reversal plot made everyone wary of help messages on the Internet. A few years later, another "crowdfunding consultant" swept the building in the ICU ward to crowdfund it, using dying patients to sell miserables and get commissions. After several similar events occurred in

, the platform they are located in has handled it. But trust accumulates bit by bit, and one deception will make it instantly lose.

Weibo was born in 13 years and has been online for ten years on WeChat Moments. Everyone is gradually a little cautious about the information on the Internet and becomes uncommon. They even need to evaluate the forwarding. Will there be a reversal after waiting for a day? No matter how authoritative the person who speaks seems or how real the narrative looks, people seem to be less trusting than the past, and this has a more direct impact on public welfare undertakings that rely on donations.

Some people will miss the simple days in the past, and believe in everything they see in an era of slow information flow. The Internet adds more information flow and also brings greater difficulty in distinguishing. Of course, people will not return to an era of less efficient and less information. The new problems brought by technology ultimately need technology to solve.

"Shareholders' Meeting"

listed companies publicly sold their shares, and their ownership has also changed from a few people to the public. Therefore, all listed companies must hold shareholders' meetings every year to disclose company performance and data to shareholders, and accept shareholders' doubts about the company's business management - sometimes even tense.

"Elephant Canteen" charity project leader and Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Protection Foundation Secretary-General Zhang Xiyan also encountered similar doubts this year.

"Why are you not buying food for elephants, but giving money to the villagers? We are protecting elephants, not protecting villagers." On June 28 this year, at the "Five Questions on Public Welfare" held, this was the "Five Questions on Public Welfare" The first and most acute question.

This is a common problem that Zhang Xiyan encounters. He started again: "We must first figure out who is protecting the elephant? It must be humans, who are? Some of you netizens who like elephants and love animals, but some of them are with elephants. People of all ethnic groups who have lived in the rainforest of Xishuangbanna for generations. In the past few decades, they have paid a huge price to protect elephants, but now they have become victims of protecting elephants. "

Wild in Xishuangbanna The Asian elephant had only about 170 heads in the 1970s, and now it has more than 300 heads. At the end of 2021, Xishuangbanna had a permanent population of 1.3 million. According to statistics from Xishuangbanna Forestry Bureau, from 1991 to 2016, 650,000 people were affected by wild Asian elephants, of which 55 died, with food losses of about 85,000 mu and cash crop losses of about 36,000 tons.

Environmental protection ultimately protects an ecosystem.Just like the economic ecology, any rough interference, no matter how good the original intention is, may bring the opposite results.

Local mountain peoples used to reclaim fields according to the rotation and fallow method. When a piece of land is cultivated for a few years, it will be abandoned to restore the fertility of the land. This piece of abandoned land will grow the wild that elephants love to eat. Banana , bamboo , palm leaf reed, etc. When people leave, the elephants will come over to eat these wild foods. In a few years, people will come back to farm and leave another piece of land for the elephant. This is the most primitive and unintentionally born "elephant canteen".

In recent decades, in order to obtain more income, locals have changed to economic crops such as rubber and tea. The elephant cannot eat it. The initial solution was to draw protected areas, prohibiting people from entering and leaving the areas where elephants mainly live, and not allowing them to be reclaimed. The "Cauern" disappeared after no one's intervention and was replaced by tall trees. The forest coverage rate of grew from 80% to 98%. This actually reduces the living space of elephants.

So in order to find food, the elephants went further and further, and even went directly to the villages and towns to find food. In the past few years, the Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Conservation Foundation has discovered that wild Asian elephants have started to travel north from Xishuangbanna to Pu'er due to insufficient food source. Last year, a group of wild Asian elephants walked to Kunming for more than a year.

"Human Elephant Symbiosis" has become "Human Elephant Conflict". Xishuangbanna had 8 wild Asian elephants accidents in 4 months in 2019, killing 7 people and injuring 1 person.

Arable land is eaten and houses are destroyed, and the direct economic losses suffered by villagers can be paid in part, and it is necessary to clearly prove that the losses are caused by the elephant. More of the indirect economic losses, elephants wander to the scope of human activities, and local residents need to stay at home or even move. Sometimes the elephant wanders for one to two months before leaving, and the losses caused by the suspension of work and production can only be borne by themselves.

After thinking about several plans, the Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Protection Foundation decided to re-establish the "elephant canteen" to subsidize villagers with the raised donations, so that they can give up some of their cash crops and replant wasteland and fields around the reserve. Like food that can be eaten. If an elephant can eat enough, it will not trek to villages and towns for food. A complex logic like

is often not clear in a 140-word Weibo or a 15-second video.

rescued baby elephant "Sheep Girl" with keepers

Tencent Charity Foundation Secretary-General Ge Yi told LatePost: Public welfare institutions are not commercial organizations, and they cannot use limited funds to establish a marketing department. The Public Relations Department will not have relevant budgets, and it is naturally in a weak position in its voice. It is difficult to simply explain complex project problems and historical causes to the public.

In addition to the charity shareholders' meeting, Tencent Charity has another new project to strengthen charity transparency this year, "Public Welfare Real Detective", invited donors to personally investigate the progress of charity projects. One of the "true detectives" came to Xishuangbanna to inspect the "Tropical Rainforest Restoration" project of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Conservation Foundation.

"True Detective" has rich knowledge and done enough homework before leaving, but her question made Zhang Xiyan difficult to answer. For example, regarding the "Tropical Rainforest Restoration" project, why did only plant a batch of iron-knife after the rubber tree was cut off? In order to restore the biodiversity of rainforests, shouldn’t there be more diverse plants? After the rainforest is restored, has the soil quality improved?

"These questions are all correct, but what Xiao Zhenken doesn't know is that the final results of many of our projects are actually achieved through compromise." He smiled bitterly. For example, when it comes to plant choices, they also want to mix 20 or 30 kinds of trees, but with limited funds, they can only provide saplings that are available at the moment. All the shipments of this batch were iron-knife and wood seedlings, so plant them first.In order to answer the question of the real detective, he once found a professional geological testing agency to ask for the price, but the quote for a detailed report was about 200,000-400,000 yuan. The cheapest sapling purchased by the foundation is 15 yuan, and 400,000 yuan is enough for them to plant 26,000 trees and cover 400 acres of land.

After the opportunity to explain, the questioners finally understood why the "elephant canteen" did this. Zhang Xiyan also decided to increase some scientific feedback on the project within his ability - even if he installed a camera first at the elephant food source?

The ecology of nature is complex, and so is human.

"Grandma's Gift" was an early public welfare project to launch "buy instead of donating". They provided chickens and chicks to the recipients for free through donations, allowing the recipients to breed eggs, and then the institution recycled them at a price higher than the market price. Eggs and give back to the donors. The project has been questioned by many people because the person responsible for the production is a group of 60-80-year-olds in the mountains.

At another charity shareholders' meeting, Zhang Xinbin, the initiator of the project "Grandma's Gift" and head of Xunyang Shouwang Dashan Volunteer Association, was asked: "Grandma's labor is cheap, how can I ensure that institutions will not make profits from it? ", "Is it scientific and reasonable to buy instead of donating? Is it more helpful to others than donating money directly?" Zhang Xinbin is not unfamiliar with these questions. He was born in a poor mountainous area. When his grandmother passed away in 2013, he returned to the mountains and saw the left-behind elderly and left-behind children becoming more lonely, forgotten, and their lives were more depressed and dilapidated, making him determined to do something for them.

At the beginning, he also donated money and materials to the elderly, until he was rejected by several elderly people or insisted on exchanging goods by the elderly, he suddenly realized that maybe charity should not do this.

These left-behind elderly people in mountainous areas rely on hard farming and labor to satisfy their food and clothing. Their income is only a few hundred yuan a year. Poverty has run through many elderly people's lives, and it is like a kind of scar. They are powerless to change the status quo, but they are unwilling to be Donated targets.

What if they have the ability to change the status quo? After thinking about it, Zhang Xinbin decided to change his approach. He used the charity funds he raised to distribute chicken seedlings, piglets, , feed, etc. to the elderly for free, and then recycled products to help them make money. They recover all the eggs of the elderly at a guaranteed price higher than the market price, and then give them back to donors and sell them to the outside world to maintain the operation of the organization.

The elderly who recycle eggs by raising chickens have increased their annual income from several hundred yuan to more than 5,000 yuan, but what touched the elderly the most was that they found in their later years that they still had the ability to change their lives.

On the mountain, the elderly who chop vegetables and feed chickens

Even if it seems to be the simplest to help the poor, you need to consider it in practice. There are many things that not everyone in need is willing to be given in vain. If it is not face to face, this is very difficult to explain clearly.

Four years of exploration, using Internet technology to solve new problems brought by the Internet

In 2016, the emergence of the "Roer Incident" has strengthened the Internet's public welfare. The great social mobilization ability and risk are pushed to the extreme.

Roer's daughter Ro Yixiao was diagnosed with suspected leukemia. Later, he was diagnosed with leukemia and was transferred to the ICU due to organ failure. In the past few months,Roer published several articles expressing his affection for his daughter and his willingness to treat her. , and guide netizens to donate through official account article rewards, private transfers, etc. After his daughter was transferred to the ICU, Luo Yixiao, Stop for Me" written by Luo Er reached the threshold for a single-day reward for WeChat public accounts for two consecutive days (50,000 yuan). He began to ask netizens to add his private WeChat account to continue donating. .

In just a few days, according to the appreciation returned by the Shenzhen Civil Affairs Bureau to netizens later, Luo Er has received a total of 2.52 million yuan in donations from netizens, not counting private transfers and rewards received by previous and subsequent articles.

In an interview later, Roll admitted that he had 3 properties and the fact that he was a legal person of multiple companies, but he would not sell the house to save his daughter, but would leave it to his son, wife and himself. Luo Yixiao's hospitalization bill was also announced. After deducting medical insurance reimbursement, foundation donations and social fundraising from the 100-day hospitalization and ICU expenses, Luo Er actually paid 1,453 yuan.

"Roll Incident" shocked the society and forced several largest Internet charity platforms such as Tencent Charity to consider the impact of the Internet on donations: how to verify and reduce false information; how to reduce the risks brought by emotional donations and passionate donations.

In 2018, Tencent Charity launched the "Echo Plan", inviting third-party forces such as media and regulatory agencies to inspect the actual progress and results of the project on the spot, and display it through reports or reports. However, after two years of operation, it was discovered that this form was too fragmented and could only show a small part of the process or story of Internet charity, so it was suspended for one year in 2020.

In the next two years, Tencent Charity has made new innovations in financial transparency: introducing blockchain, using the decentralization of blockchain to ensure that fundraising enters the correct account and will not be misappropriated by other entities; and Deloitte The accounting firm cooperates to introduce an audit mechanism to verify the accuracy of the financial data of public welfare institutions.

But blockchain is just a small part of the transparent process of donations. Whether this money was used in the end? Audit can only prove that the financial data of the public welfare organization is correct, but it cannot fully guarantee whether the money is used in the original intention of the project. , is the usage method scientific?

When exploration was deadlocked, a private charity incident inspired the team.

In 2021, Zhengzhou suffered heavy rains and caused floods. A "24-hour life-saving document" was widely circulated in the circle of friends and WeChat groups. It marked a large amount of rescue information from various parts of Zhengzhou. It was transmitted and supplemented by the public. It was a spontaneous behavior of the public. Coincidentally, the tool used by the public is Tencent Document , which inspired the Tencent Charity Team.

In the later replay, they thought about what other tools are available? Then I thought of Tencent Meeting . If you want donors to have a deeper understanding of the project and form supervision, is it better to have face-to-face meetings? So I thought of imitating the shareholders' meeting form of commercial institutions, setting up three necessary links: five questions about public welfare, public financial reports, and answering shareholder questions.

At the beginning, Tencent Charity invited 4 or 5 charity institutions to hold a shareholders' meeting, but were rejected by various reasons. Some large institutions refuse invitations because time is urgent and there are many affairs; some consider that operational operations may not be understood by the public, but instead affect the fundraising of institutions and refuse; some are afraid that netizens will find it difficult to answer questions immediately, which will bring negative effects. And not to participate.

, including Zhang Xinbin, was also a little worried at the beginning. "What if I can't answer and affect the project?" He was very worried. But after communication, he realized that it was actually a clear exchange with the donor, which was a better development of the project. After one game, he even ran to the mountains and started another game with his grandmothers.

Mantianxing Charity, which focuses on rural children's reading promotion, is the first institution to try the new things. Liang Haiguang, founder of Mantianxing Youth Charity Development Center, believes that this is an opportunity to supplement the capabilities of the institution: charity institutions have the ability to answer the public Is it? He sees it as a kind of exercise.

got the Stars Youth Charity Development Center donated to the library of children

from " Donate money” to “participate”

1880, New York Metropolitan Museum was built with donations from a group of artists, collectors and bankers. In the United States' gilding era, the gap between the rich and the poor reached its peak. At the ceremony, barrister Joseph Choate said to the industrial giants present: “Think about it, rich people from all walks of life here.What kind of glory will you leave if you follow our advice to turn pork into porcelain, crop into priceless pottery, and turn commerce as rough as ore into marble carvings. ”

Charity was once a project that a few rich people participated in the world. They gave back to the society by donating and turning wealth into immortal legacy. Under the model of

, Foundation is often large in scale and has a group of well-known people. Become a director It will supervise and endorse, and build a complete team to communicate with the outside world.

But today all efficient businesses are connected to the public through digital technology , and the same is true for public welfare. The Internet gathers a lot of goodwill to make smaller projects More projects can be put into operation, faster and more flexible, and can solve aspects that were once difficult for big foundations to consider.

Tencent Charity "Children with Blue Lips" once saw the big ones. pulmonary hypertension patients because Long-term hypoxia, the lips are often blue-purple, so they are often called "blue lips". Inhaling cold air in winter can cause tear-like pain, difficulty breathing, and medication must be taken, but the medication is expensive, and Not in medical insurance, some families may use some drugs to replace them, such as "Viagra". Because the drugs are taken almost every day, they cost thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan every month.

There are about 5-8 million patients in China suffering from pulmonary arteries. The torture of high pressure, one of the patients, Xiaoya, is only 8 years old, and has received attention because she went to the pharmacy to buy "Viagra".

Before Xiaoya was exposed, Xiaoya had raised funds online and received 60,000 yuan in treatment. and relying on this fee to survive a very difficult treatment period.

Under the promotion of Tencent Charity, Xiaoya received the medicine given by Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Factory and promised to provide the medicine for 3 years. Finally, Henan Province The Medical Insurance Bureau has included four types of pulmonary hypertension drugs, including Bosentan, into the medical insurance scope.

Xiaoya's parents never know who the first 60,000 yuan came from. Kind netizens were unintentionally planting willows, so that Xiaoya was seen. , ultimately helps a group improve social welfare. If the group of donors know the follow-up, they will feel that this sense of accomplishment in changing society is huge.

After consumers spend money, they get goods or services; people are for public welfare. What they need to pay the money they earn from their hard work is to give themselves a continuous driving force: to promote social problems with tiny kindness. But this process requires platforms and institutions to continuously collect and convey information, so that Donors get a clear perception and a sense of feedback, so they are more motivated to re-donate or participate in charity in person.

"The charity shareholders' meeting may be a solution." said , founder and director of the Enpai Charity Organization Development Center.

In addition to efficiency, the Internet also lies in reducing communication difficulty, so that people who donate a few dollars can directly talk to the organizer and know what their money has produced.

On the other hand, Volkswagen does not know so much about public welfare institutions. Many donors only know for the first time through the shareholders' meeting that people who do charity also need to have basic salary to ensure their lives.

members of the Mantianxing Youth Charity Development Center basically have bachelor's degree or above. Many members come from Sun Yat-sen University , University of Leeds, UK, Chinese University of Hong Kong , South China University of Technology and other management, advertising, engineering majors such as South China University of Technology , etc. And have a master's degree. They could have chosen job opportunities that were more rewarding, but gave up those opportunities and stayed in a public welfare project with an average salary of 7,000 yuan. The first large donation they received was required by the other party to not be used as management fees. The team members gritted their teeth and kept their promises through the help of the directors.

Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Protection Foundation has only 7 employees, and their average salary is only 2,000 to 3,000 yuan. Some need to work part-time to deliver takeaway to make ends meet.But in order to protect the elephants and restore the rainforest, every charity is carefully calculated on the economic issues of the villagers.

Xunyang City Shouwang Dashan Volunteer Association's per capita salary is 4,000-5,000 yuan. In order to help the elderly, they use a guaranteed price higher than the market standard to purchase the elderly's eggs regardless of whether it is good or bad. For the survival of the institutions, they deliver their own express delivery. , Packaging costs, eggs are sold for secondary sales to subsidize the agency's operation and maintenance costs and employee wages.

"Reversal" is a popular term today. Every event that arouses huge emotions on social networks occurs, more and more people are expressing doubts and waiting for "Reversal".

But charity cannot withstand "reversal". It always requires more transparent, direct and effective communication, even if it may not be understood by everyone.

is like during the break of the conference. Zhang Xiyan said during a chat: "I know these words. I have said them thousands of times, but as long as there are still people listening, I will continue to say them. Because I won't say them if I don't say them. Someone knows it, but as long as there is someone he understands it. I planted this seed in his heart."