Charity sector in urgent need of professionals

Charity organizations are in urgent need of more professional staff, as the sector continues to grow, according to Hong Kong General Chamber of Social Enterprises.

Timothy Ma, the chamber's vice chairman, told the China Philanthropy Forum that as reliance on corporate donations grows, the sector is running short of trained professional fundraisers and managers to handle the rising volumes involved.

Ma has spent the past five years arranging fund-raising training in the Chinese mainland. "In the United States, this type of training takes four years," he said.

"Some universities in Hong Kong teach their students how to raise money for charitable organizations, but because of a growing lack of trained staff, many charity organizations are now struggling for raising funds."

Peking University's Guanghua School of Management became the first in China last year to offer a masters program in charity - the Social Enterprise Management Program - aimed at producing resourceful and talented charity professionals.

One of the most obvious problems already being reported across the sector, said Ma, is that benefactors have been complaining they often have to wait months for invoices, or reports on how their money is being used.

"The situation has to improve, otherwise I have concerns that there will be a shortage of trained professionals."

Co-hosted in Beijing by the China Association for Friendship, Caijing Magazine and the Beijing Charity Gala Ball, the philanthropic event gathered a large number of professionals to discuss how the growing shortfall in talent might be addressed, including Agi Veres, director of the United Nations Development Program in China.

"More charities are being created to focus on global interests and local demands.

"But we now have to start focusing more on their general running, and on the management of their resources. The role and meaning of philanthropy is expanding enormously," said Veres.

SEEC Media Group Ltd, Caijing magazine's parent company, recently revealed that as China's economy has grown, annual charity donations have increased to 100 billion yuan ($15.73 billion) from less than 10 billion yuan in 2005.

Wang Boming, the chairman of SEEC, told the forum that philanthropy is no longer about "rich people showing off, or a duty of government", it is a booming sector in its own right, demanding higher levels of skill.

He also said, however, that as with any burgeoning sector instances of corruption and inefficiency have risen too in recent years.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn