Chinese Foundations and Grassroots Social Organizations

This study explores how Chinese foundations interact with grassroots social organisations (SO) and why Chinese foundations act the way they do. In addition to involving well-documented empirical investigations in China, the study was conducted using anecdotal evidence accumulated over a 10-year period from 2008 to 2019, when Chinese foundations started their interaction with other SOs. The findings show that Chinese foundations interact with grassroots SOs in six different ways, namely special funds, joint fundraising, high-engagement grantmaking, and awarding grants to projects, organisations and individuals. However, Chinese foundations’ grantmaking logic does not overlap with the needs of grassroots SOs, because they do not fully understand each other’s difficulties and because their focus and development paths are not the same, which results in less interaction. This book provides new and inspiring insights for scholars and students of China’s emerging and flourishing third sector. It will not only interest those in academia, but will also appeal to those working in China’s third sector.