Getting One Person to Take One Step

Last night, while speaking at the Wokai Drinks for a Better World event, I chose to highlight the tangibility of the impact that one person taking a single step can have on the environmental, economic, societal, and community issues we face. In doing so, I went through my personal journey to establish and support organization that were working in the above areas. It was an attempt to in part in…

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Jack Ma on CSR and Philanthropy

In an Charlie Rose interview, Jack Ma is asked - and speaks extensively - on CSR  and philanthropy in China.  Interviewed before the now famous Gates and Buffet dinner, the interview couldn't have come at a better time. Founder of Alibaba and Taobao (two of China's most trafficked e-commerce platforms), Jack Ma holds a god like status in China.  His voice on the matters of CSR and philanthropy…

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Converting China’s Rich into Philanthropists. Attainable Goal or Fool’s Gold?

With the recent success of signing 40 billionaires to the Giving Pledge, it should not be any surprise that the recent news of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet coming to China would create headlines, and rumors that they were coming to convert.  It is an event, set for late September,  that was on the front page of many of the world’s leading financial mediums, and has remained there when the “story”…

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Moving Past, and Capturing, the Passion of Social Entrepreneurialism

In the non-profit realm, there have been fewer hotter topics discussed than the "social enterprise". it is an organization that, if asked to define, would have a spectrum of definitions that were at times vague, romantic, and would leave a lot of questions open about the real difference between an NGO and a social enterprise. Were there really a core difference. In China, this is no different,…

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Barriers to Effective Philanthropy in China

In her post Things are Different Here, Emily D'Ath touched on the issues that companies face in China when engaging in CSR.  It was a post that, as you will see in my comments to her, hit a bit of a nerve, and in a good way. It made me think about what the real barriers to effective philanthropy in China are. It is a deeply complex issue that reaches outside of any internal issues that a don…

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Beyond Law Enforcement. Integrating Migrants

In today's MSNBC article Beijing starts locking poor villages at night, it is being reported that Beijing's migrant communities will effectively be locked down in an effort to prevent crime. According to the article, residents entering and exiting areas will be asked to show their documents to law enforcement (assumed to be Hukou and/or temporary residence permits) at night in the 16 villages. Exp…

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The Evolution of Philanthropy in China

The Evolvement of Philanthropy in China In this latest BigThink piece (my favorite site for all things intellectual), author of PhilantroCapitalism, Matthew Bishop, answers a few questions on the evolution of philanthropy in China. The clip is quite timely as I just finished reading the book 2 weeks ago (highly recommend), and was a book tha provided a bit of a laugh when I was…

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Plotting China’s Social Entrepreneurs

As part of our work to define and support the efforts of China’s social entrepreneurs, the Collective Responsibility Social Entrepreneur have been working on a series of exercises. Exercises that are mean to begin developing a framework that defines what is a social enterprise (non and for profit) is in China, as well as to develop a stronger understanding of the constraints that these entrepreneu…

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Philanthropy in China. Will Skepticism Impact Awareness? Transparency?

With the last 2.5 years being the most active time in China's recent history of citizen-based philanthropy, it has become clear that the lack of transparency in the system has become a real issue for some.  That while the historical system of donations, largely fuelled by corporations looking to leverage their donations into something else, benefited from a level of opaqueness.  the current system…

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Hope and Opportunity in China

This is an old post that I originally had at another site, but while catching up on some reading, I was reminded by the power of the interviews we did last summer, the stories we began to tell, and the sense of respect I have for China's migrant workers Earlier in the year while a few of my interns were inbetween assignments, I tasked them to get out of the office and do some street int…

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Learning to Ask NGOs the Right Questions

Looking back 2 years ago, in the aftermath of the 5.12 Sichuan earthquake, it was clear that something had changed.  That, through this experience and the millions of donations, another step forward for civil society awareness and participation had occured. It was a process that was largely controlled at the central level, and primarily benefited a small group of organizations.  Which lead to a…

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Where Does Community Fit into Sustainability?

Typically, when speaking about sustainability, I preface my thoughts on the issue that my definition is not simply one that is based in environment.  That in addition to the environmental issues faced, we must also look at how we align economies and societies to be more sustainable as well. In China, this definition tends to provide a level of tangibility that many are seeking as they look for a "…

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How Do Cities Organize Communal Life & Maintain Social Harmony?

As part of the 8th Europe Asia Young Leaders Forum, I was asked to present my thoughts on two questions:   How do cities organize communal life and maintain social harmony? What can business contribute to these processes?   .. and I was given 15 minutes to do so. The questions for me were ones that I regularly think about (particularly the first) as I walk through…

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The More You Travel, The More You See, The More You Give

Recently, while reading Philanthro-capitalism, the author made brief mention of the fact that successful business people who took the time while traveling to get out of their hotels and have real experiences tended to give more thought to the role in their own communities. It was a point that, like Marketing 101 terminology, I already knew, but the way the author threaded the two issues, the mo…

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Labeling China’s NGOs

In the recent Ethical Magazine article, NGOs and activists - Zealot, hypocrite or genuine article?, Brendan May writes out his thoughts on the various species of NGO that exist in his world. The tunnel-visioned zealot The hypocrite The angry activist The smiling salesman The overfed giant The genuine article The critical friend Doing a good job to highlight that there is…

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