Ya'an quake relief funds accounted for in report

Foundation applauds increased transparency of charity sector in explaining use of donations

The level of information disclosure by China's charity organizations has been raised considerably, amid a slew of measures to improve the sector's self-discipline and regulation, according to a leading foundation.

"Compared with a year ago, the number of charitable groups engaged in relief work in the earthquake-stricken area of Ya'an, Sichuan province, for instance, which have disclosed their donation details, has increased by 120," said Tao Ze, vice-president of the China Foundation Center, an online charitable foundation service platform.

A report published by the center, entitled "Where is my donation?", has tracked donation flows following the tragedy in Sichuan province.

Tao said the report was completed using information and statistics published by charitable institutions online and covered a wide range of charity projects, including infrastructure reconstruction, distribution of relief supplies, financial aid, scholarship for students and psychological aid.

It showed 339 foundations have been involved in the emergency rescue and reconstruction efforts in Ya'an, which was hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on April 20, 2013, which killed 196 people and injured more than 12,200 others.

The foundations raised 1.89 billion yuan ($309 million) in funds, of which around 1.38 billion yuan has been spent or allotted.

About 86 percent of that spending, or 1.18 billion yuan, has gone to specific purposes, such as being used in infrastructure reconstruction or scholarship.

The Chinese government and the charity industry are both paying increased attention to information disclosure and donation transparency.

Shortly after the earthquake, the Ministry of Civil Affairs stated that charitable institutions should publicly detail their income and spending.

At the end of last year, Premier Li Keqiang told an executive meeting of the State Council that the philanthropy sector should be a "transparent pocket".

The foundation center has joined forces with 42 charitable groups to set up a relief operation self-discipline alliance to publish wide-ranging details on the use of charity contributions for Ya'an.

Chen Jicang, vice-director of the Chengdu office of China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, said: "We provide detailed plans for all our contributions and inform donors of how their money will be spent. The public can get all the information on our website.