Thanks for the Offer, But …

Officials in China's devastated Sichuan province are getting a crash course in a novel concept: accepting philanthropy. Since the May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people and destroyed homes across the region, millions may have been lost because officials were leery of taking money from nongovernmental organizations and private donors. In just one county, Mianzhu, a team from McKinsey Greater China recovered $2.2 million in a single week, says Qiu Tian, project manager for the pro bono effort. Her team scoured the local government's departmental logbooks for unreturned phone calls, rang back 50 neglected donors and persuaded 15 of them to renew their offers.

The problem isn't corruption or even plain incompetence. All public life in China was state-controlled until recently (anything sensitive still is), and many not-for-profit groups are barely legal even now. Local officials can't help being nervous about working with them; in other parts of the world NGOs have been criticized as Trojan horses for the West because of their efforts to open up societies and demand individual rights. Qiu says the head of one town where seven schools collapsed turned away an NGO offering psychological counseling to pupils; he worried about "involving strangers working in his area" and lacked the expertise to conduct background checks, she says. Such caution tends to be strongest among lower-level officials in outlying townships.

The hope is that better coordination will build trust between the two groups in China. Qiu and her team of consultants, for instance, are training members of a new Mianzhu government team, the Social Resources Coordinating Council. They'll be tasked with recovering more donations, and then with channeling contributions to where they're most needed. The team's newly launched Web site is seeking some $1 million to build an orphanage for 78 children, and roughly $870,000 to rebuild roads to three shattered villages.

Redirecting donations is a vital task. Mianzhu's Education Bureau is flush with cash, thanks to the public's widespread horror at the deaths of some 13,000 Sichuan schoolchildren—while other necessities like road repair have less appeal. Qiu tells of one man who wanted to rebuild an entire primary school and hoped to spend some $250,000. Tough post-quake building codes meant the sum was too small to do the whole job, and overstretched local officials reflexively said no to his offer without thinking to coordinate with other departments. The SRCC quickly called him back to discuss other important projects that could fit his budget. At this point just about everything in Sichuan is proceeding by trial and error—but they're learning.

© 2008