One of the most significant changes in China's new charity law is that it loosens the restrictions on fundraising. Now, social groups and private non-enterprise entities can be qualified to do fundraising. But in fact, this move started four years ago in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province.
A few years ago, a series of scandals tainted China's Red Cross and the charity sector. Faced with growing public concerns, the local government here in Guangzhou has passed a bill to legitimize fundraising of social groups and private non-enterprise sectors."
Guangzhou's fundraising bill regulates that charity organizations could apply fundraising activities for a certain project. But it's limited to only three months.
This bill makes Guangzhou the first city in China to grant social groups and private entities the legal status as charity fundraisers, same as the Red Cross.
The reform led to a surge in the city's charity funds.
"From 2013 to 2015, the social donations increased from around 48 million dollars to 68 million," said Chen Zhongwen, Office of Disaster Relief & Charity, Guangzhou Civil Affairs Bureau.
"This year until now, the donations have already been up to 75 million dollars. Last year, the registed charity social groups has increased to over 65-hundred, with an annual growth of almost 10 percent."
Sun Yat-sen University Community Workers Service Center was founded in 2009 in Guangzhou. Now it has five community centers in the city, serving over 100-thousand people.
Zhen He, the center's deputy director says most of its income still relies on government funding, which only can fufill the basic needs of community charities.
That leaves no proper money for programs like helping patient kids with leukemia or autism.
But he said the new charity law opens a bigger door for fundraising.
"The previous local regulations legitimized fundraising for certain charity projects. But the new law allows charity organizations to be qualified for fundraising efforts," said Zhen He, Deputy Director, Sun Yat-Sen Univ. Community Workers Service Center.
"So for those who really need more resources to do charity work, they will definitely fight to get the qualification."
More importantly, as Zhen says, the new law clears out grey areas.
"The new law provides an effective platform for the donors to monitor every flow of their donations. Whereas before, false donations or fake charity projects only face moral trails, now wrongdoers will confront real legal punishment now," he said.
But according to experts, the new charity law also has tax-reduction measures for companies' charity donations.
If it can really be put into practice, a huge wave of company charity donations will be on the way.
