China Social Entrepreneur Foundation
The China Social Entrepreneur Foundation (YouChange) is a non-profit charitable organization with independent legal status. It is formally approved by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China and officially registered at the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The first of its kind in China, YouChange is an innovative private foundation funded by entrepreneurs from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. YouChange operates through providing participatory grants that support projects and organizations for public interest endeavors.
YouChange operates under the sponsorship and supervision of the State Council’s Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.
YouChange One Two Three Four Five Strategy
One Goal:
To become a leading Chinese philanthropist organization, and a social force that plays a decisive role in promoting the harmony and progress of human beings
Two Mission:
To identify and support the leaders of “new philanthropy”, explore and promote social innovation methods to solve social problems.
To build cross-sector cooperation network and platform for “new philanthropy”.
Three "new philanthropy" Concepts:
1. To emphasize the equal importance of poverty alleviation at both spiritual and material levels. Spiritual poverty is a widespread phenomenon in today society and to some extent a cause of
material poverty. New philanthropy is committed to harmonious development and the unity of material needs and spiritual pursuits. Volunteerism and social entrepreneurship are two main concepts that new philanthropy advocates.
2. Stress the systematic belief that man is an integral part of nature. In addressing poverty and other social problems, particular attention is given to the relationships between human beings, between individual human beings and society and between human beings and nature in order to realize sustainable social development and philanthropy.
3. "Passing on love and compassion" is a permanent theme of philanthropy. Philanthropy is not simply a give-and-take business. It calls for emotional input, the transmission of love and compasssion, rebuilding of dignity, empowerment and public participation. New philanthropy aims at effecting positive social change in its processes and outcomes.
Four roles of YouChange with different features of operation:
1. Innovator:
To identify and discover innovative models
To incubate pilots
To develop standards
To promote and replicate successful models
2. Facilitator: Carrying out participatory grant-making methods to
Implement YouChange-led projects in cooperation with other agencies;
Finance and build capacity at other public interest organizations to implement projects in line with YouChange’s concept.
3. Catalyst:
To support multi-sector campaigns that advocate for a common philosophy
To provide proficient services to foster and support cross-border cooperation
4. Open interaction:
To promote broad participation of a variety of stakeholders, to transform the external driving force into internal drive, and to achieve a cooperative, sharing, interactive and win-win situation.
Five cultural DNAs:
1. Seeing the world as one and promoting inclusive cooperation
2. Holding a thanksgiving heart with humility and reverence
3. Being kind to each other with honesty
4. Acting as living cells of the organization with subjective initiative
5. Continuously pursuing excellencies
