The China NonProfit Review Vol.14_CNPR article 2

An Emerging Way of Giving? Giving Circles in China

Xijin Jia, Guiquan Cai, Qiyuan Tong，Bona Zhang, Ting Feng*

Abstracts: Giving circles, as new ventures in philanthropy, have grown globally and attracted research attention in recent decades. The concept is very new, with little research done in China. This study takes the giving circles hosted at the Shanghai United Foundation, the first batch of and currently the largest hosting agency for China's giving circles, as the research object. This article attempts to explore two aspects of the questions: the characteristics of China's giving circles in international comparison; and the motivations of these giving circles and their effects. Quantitative research is used as well as in-depth interviews. The study found that trust is the primary motivation in China's giving circles, which is different from the international pattern of " doing philanthropy differently". Furthermore, trust motivation has positive effects on philanthropic engagement and then affects public participation. The development boundaries and constraints of giving circles in China are also discussed. This paper is an initial study of China's emerging giving circles, and further follow-up exploration is suggested in the next stage.

Key Words：Giving, Giving Circles, China, Motivation, Trust

Please click the link to see the full article. E002-Xijin Jia- Giving Circle in China.pdf

* Xijin Jia, Associate professor, IPTU, SPPM, Tsinghua University, Email: xijinj@tsinghua.edu.cn; Guiquan Cai(co-first author), Post-doctoral researcher, IPTU, SPPM, Tsinghua University; Qiyuan Tong, Undergraduate student, Tsinghua University; Bona Zhang, Shanghai United Foundation; Ting Feng, Shanghai United Foundation. The survey is supported by Tencent Foundation’s 100 grants program "Research on the Chinese Model of Giving Circles to Stimulate Public Charity Participation" of the Shanghai United Foundation.