Donating to the needy made easier and more transparent

Making donations of goods and materials in China for people in need could be as transparent and convenient as buying a gift for friends, thanks to the rapid development of e-commerce and logistics.

The e-commerce company JD.com Inc launched a donation platform of goods and materials on its app on Friday. In the platform, consumers can choose projects they want to donate to and buy whatever the projects needs, and then JD delivers the donation as soon as it can.

Throughout the process donors can track delivery of their donation, ensuring it gets to the recipient. In a trial over three months, about 30,000 donations of 250,000 items of goods and materials were made using the platform, JD said.

Welfare organizations can propose projects on the platform, and then JD negotiates with vendors on goods and materials on the platform and offers free shipping.

Fu Changbo, assistant dean at China Global Philanthropy Institute in Shenzhen and a professor at Beijing Normal University, said donors will benefit from the platform through the transparency it offers. For example, JD's strong logistics network by which goods and materials can be sent to remote areas rapidly would be greatly beneficial in cases of natural disasters, he said.

He suggested that when some companies make donations they could harness their assets such as technology and work with public welfare organizations, rather than donating just money.

Ma Libo, secretary-general of the JD Public Welfare Foundation, said that when Chinese consider making donations they can be daunted by the number of worthy projects or think the process is complex and opaque sometimes. When public welfare organizations are considering projects they face difficulties such as buying goods and materials and delivery, she said.

"We are an e-commerce platform and are strong on logistics and can support the projects from all perspectives, such as sourcing goods, delivery, and after-sales service," she said.

Zhang Zetian, honorary director of JD Public Welfare Foundation, also launched a project on the platform to deliver raincoats to children in remote areas of Yunnan province, where heavy rain is frequent and raincoats are scarce.