Digital technologies bring convenience, transparency to charity sector

Driven by digital technologies such as mobile payment and blockchain, online charity has become popular in China as it offers more convenience and transparency compared to traditional methods of donating.

A vivid example of this trend is the transformation of Xinmu Cinema, a charity program for visually impaired movie-goers launched by Wang Weili in Beijing.

A community worker shows a senior citizen how to use smart fitness equipment by scanning a QR code during a public welfare training activity for seniors in the digital era in Yangzhou city, east China's Jiangsu province. (People's Daily/Zhuang Wenbin)

Since 2004, volunteers in the cinema have been "reading" movies for visually impaired people. "In the beginning, we just had a few dozen chairs in a 15-square-meter room," said Wang. In 2012, the cinema opened branches in 20 cities across China. Six years later, a commercial cinema promised to provide a screening room for the blind so that they could "watch" movies regularly.

However, not many visually impaired people were able to go to these cinemas to enjoy the silver screen until the charity program was moved online.

In May 2020, the cinema started to "read" movies for the blind across China every Saturday evening via live-streaming sessions on Chinese tech giant Tencent's WeChat. The live-streaming service allows visually impaired people to "watch" movies at any time, thanks to the video playback feature.

"We can also invite volunteers to 'read' classic movies online for us so that we will not miss good movies," said one visually impaired audience member.

The live-streaming service has attracted more blind people to "watch" movies and encouraged more volunteers to join the charity program. By April 24, Xinmu Cinema had held 47 live-streaming sessions to "read" movies for the blind, directly benefiting 6,086 visually impaired people and attracting 57 volunteers.

The charity program has also received donations from users of Tencent's online charity platform and realized transparency in the management of its funds.

Some 8.2 billion yuan (about $1.29 billion) was donated to charities in 2020 via 20 online platforms designated by China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, up 52 percent year on year, said Wang Aiwen, vice minister of civil affairs, at a recent summit on internet public welfare via video link.

File photo shows a participant recycling plastic bottles using a machine to exchange public-welfare gifts at the 2021 summit on internet public welfare.

According to Wang, the figure has grown by over 20 percent in recent years. Online charity activities gathered more than 10 billion clicks, follows, and participants across China in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Tencent's charity platform received about 3.85 billion yuan in funds from 118 million people last year. As of April, the platform had received donations worth more than 11.7 billion yuan, which were channeled to over 90,000 charity programs.

While digital technologies attract more Chinese people to engage in online charities, they also help improve the transparency and efficiency of online charity activities. For instance, with the application of blockchain technology featuring decentralization, a charity program’s entire process can be traced, ensuring the transparent use of donations.

For the Xinmu Cinema program, the records of donations by an enterprise and 2,072 people have been uploaded in the blockchain of Tencent's charity platform, guaranteeing that the information is open and transparent.

Chen Yidan, the founder of Tencent's charity platform, expects digital transformation to make the charity sector more decentralized and that more and more people will make donations online to charity organizations.