APPC Happenings

Initiated by the ASEAN Foundation, a regional body has been formed to spearhead the promotion of the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Southeast Asia. The ‘ASEAN CSR Network’ aims to pave the way for increased cooperation among ASEAN stakeholders in the area of CSR.

Read more at lcf.org.ph

China Charity Donation Information Center in partnership with Shanghai NPO Development Center completes report on Diaspora Giving to China 2008-2009 as part of APPC’s Diaspora Philanthropy Grants.

The grants provided seed money for specific research activities that lead to making operational databases that will map out the dynamic relationships being cultivated from the giving end to the receiving end. These grants were awarded to organizations in China, Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh in July 2009 to conduct various database studies on diaspora giving to home communities, as follow up work to APPC’s 2008 regional conference “Diaspora Giving: An Agent of Change in Asia Pacific Communities?”

Highlights of China Report on Diaspora Giving

• Between 1 January 2008 and 30 June 2009, 24 provinces and municipalities in Mainland China received Diaspora giving valued at RMB 6.7 million from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese around the world.
• Sichuan province received the most donations due to the Earthquake and snow disaster in early 2008, receiving 37% of the total diaspora giving to China.
• Second biggest receiver was Beijing, receiving 19.6% of diaspora monies. The city of Beijing houses majority of national charity organization headquarters, such as the China Red Cross Society and China Charity Federation.
• Individuals compose the largest composition of givers followed by overseas Chinese groups and organizations and overseas Chinese enterprises.
• Diaspora funds received in this period were allocated to disaster relief, education, science and sports, poverty alleviation and development.
• Seeing the response of overseas Chinese, provincial and municipal governments passed related overseas donation regulations, which provide policy support and guarantees to further enhance the overseas Chinese donations’ impact.
• Hometowns of overseas Chinese are also top receivers of Diaspora giving.

For a full copy of the report, email info@asiapacificphilanthropy.org

APPC mourns the passing of Mark Lyons, Director of Research in the Centre for Social Impact in Australia. Mark was involved in the early years of APPC as a member of the Executive Committee. In 1999, when he was with the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, Mark led the efforts to create the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Information Network, APPC’s initial foray in collecting and disseminating research and information on philanthropy and the non-profit sector in Asia Pacific through the Internet.

Members of the Board of Directors of the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium reflect on the role of philanthropy in addressing regional and national issues in APPC’s contributory chapter to the upcoming book on global philanthropy to be published by the Network of European Foundations The Mercator Fund.

Entitled “Creating the Future through Philanthropy”, the chapter also discusses the impact of the global financial downturn on philanthropic activities and the multi-sectoral responses to curb the effects of the crisis in the Asia Pacific region.

In countries where Diaspora giving has reached significant levels, givers are in search of more reliable information that can serve to link them up to their preferred causes more efficiently and effectively. This need was identified during the APPC conference on diaspora philanthropy held in Hanoi last May, 2008.

On 27 to 29 April, the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium hosted the first regional Peer Learning Event (PLE) of the Worldwide Initiative for Grantmakers’ Support. Held in Hong Kong, the two and a half day event was attended by 14 WINGS network participants from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand.

As part of its follow-up activity to its 2008 conference on diaspora philanthropy, translations into Bahasa and Vietnamese of their respective Country Papers and Conference Overview Papers were successfully completed in March 2009. Copies of the translated papers were distributed to various local NGOs in Vietnam and Indonesia.

The translations were completed through the country paper authors and their organizations: Zaim Saidi of the Public Interest Reseach and Advocacy Centre for Indonesia and Prof. Truong thi Kim Chuyen of Vietnam.

As planned in its last board meeting in November 2008, APPC is currently pursuing partnerships with the Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS). APPC has accepted WINGS’ invitation to host the upcoming Peer Learning Event on Engaging Corporations in April 2009 in Hong Kong. This Event will be the first in a series of regional Peer Learning Events for the year and is open to grantmaker associations and support organizations in the WINGS network that are based in the Asia Pacific.

At its Board Meeting last November 2008 in Manila, Philippines, the APPC Board of Directors elected Erna Witoelar as its new Chair. Erna is currently a Board Member of the KEHATI Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation in Jakarta. Prior to being Chair, she served as APPC’s Vice Chair.

Last 5 December 2008, Darwin Chen, APPC Board Member and former Chair, and Ailing Zhuang, also an APPC Board Member, both received the All China Outstanding Philanthropy Worker award from the Chinese government at the China Philanthropy Conference held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Mr. Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China, presided over the ceremony and gave a keynote address on the importance of philanthropy in China after the Sichuan earthquake.