During China’s Private Foundation Forum in Beijing July 2-3, the Organizing Committee of the Forum issued the “Self-Disciplne Declaration of China Private Foundations” on behalf of the participating foudnations, highlightening the need and the wish for the rising community of the 635 private foundatins in China for setting up a self-regulation mechanism.

Self-Discipline Declaration of China Private Foundations

（July 3rd, 2009. Beijing）

Under the direction of China Social Organizations Management Bureau of the Ministry of Civil Affairs,  China Social Organization Promoting Association, Narada Foundation, China Social Entrepreneur Foundation, Peking University Education Foundation, Sun Yefang Foundation, Beijing Vantone Foundation, Beijing Western Sunshine Rural Development Foundation co-organized the first Forum of China Private  Foundation on September 1st, 2008.

July 2-3,2009, with the participation of more than 110 domestic foundations，the 2009 annual conference of ” China Private Foundation Forum ” was held in Beijing. This meeting with “The Growing China Private Foundation” as its theme has discussed the issues on “Ways to Giving”, “Ways to Management” and “Ways to Conduct Self-discipline”, which fully demonstrated the great development China private foundation has achieved ever since “Foundation Management Ordinance” has been officially implemented on June 1st, 2004, especially after we involved in 5.12 earthquake relief work. In this annual meeting, we have shared work experience with each other, and also had a wide range of dialogue with government departments, academic institutions, and the media as well.

During the meeting, the forum organizing committee held a “China Private Foundation Leaders Roundtables”. The leaders of private foundation agreed that the conditions are favorable enough for us to do a good job of internal governance, professional management, and by means of its capital, we could contribute a lot in optimizing the ecological environment for social charity and then guide and promote the social charity to healthy, standardized and sustainable development.

To this end, forum organizing committee issued Self-discipline Declaration of China Private Foundation in accordance with “The Outline of The Eleventh Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of People’s Republic of China” and “Decisions of CPC Central Committee on major issues including building a harmonious socialist society ” ：

First, private foundation shall comply with the “Foundation Management Ordinance” and the provisions of relevant state laws, and consciously regulate the organization and activities of the Foundation, maintain the legitimate rights and interests of donors and beneficiaries, play an exemplary role in guiding and promoting the social forces to participate in public welfare.

Second, private foundation take serving the public interest as its mission and objectives, make strategic planning and conduct work in accordance with its missions and goals.

Third, the personal interests of private foundation council and execution team members should not be a potential conflict of the interest of foundation. When the personal interest of the foundation council members or other members is associated with the interest of foundation, they shall not participate in matters relating to the decision-making; foundation council, supervisors and their close relatives may not trade in the Foundation where they work with. Transactions and related business should be done in conformity with the best interests of the foundation.

Fourth, private foundation charter should prescribe that the foundation council is the decision-making bodies, and should explicitly stated the establishment of the Council , the appointment and removal of members, their responsibilities, and operational procedures. Members of the Council should ensure the normal and effective operation of foundation and the operation is in accordance with the quorum.

Foundation Council should have the power to decide the appointment and removal of the executive team members, and should make periodic assessment on the performance of team leaders to ensure that the strategic planning is conducted on the basis of the mission of the Foundation.

Private foundation council should audit foundation’s annual budget and final accounts and decide whether to pass them or not.

Fifth, financing of fund sources and ways of financing should be consistent with the private foundation’s missions and values. Relevant information and data provided by financing activities should be authentic and reliable. Private foundation will not raise funds publicly from non-specific objects. Financing should respect the legitimate interests of donors, including donor wishes, privacy and the right to know.

Private foundation should use funds in accordance with the wishes of the donor, special fund for special use. The use of contributions should be recorded, and foundation should regularly inform donors about that, and provide donation receipts to donors.

Sixth，the use of the funds in private foundation should be in line with the foundation’ missions and goals, foundation should carry out the work according to the annual budget adopted by the council.

Private foundation should implement the State Accounting System, carry out accounting job legally, establish a sound system of internal accounting controls and conduct internal audit in order to improve financial management within the organization.

The financial sector should provide a financial statement which can clearly reflected the financial information in every work.

Private foundation should accept the audit which is done by the independent audit institutions. The selection criteria of an audit institution should be formulated by the Council. No qualified opinion in audit reports should be involved in matters of principle.

Every year, private foundation should announce the annual financial accounting report, accept monitoring and questioning from the public.

Seventh, the project design and feasibility studies of private foundation should comply with the foundation’s missions and objectives, and should have a complete project program (or project proposal), which will point out the objective of the project, the audiences, plans, outputs and budgets. Private foundation should have open and complete procedures in funding a project.

Private foundation should have self-monitoring and evaluation on its projects. Project evaluation should be based on the views of beneficiary groups, and also reflect comments and suggestions of other stakeholders.

In accordance with the needs of the project，Private foundation could determine whether to invite external assessment, or third-party assessment. Project evaluation and monitoring process should be open, transparent and fair.

Eighth, Private foundation should establish standardized personnel and human resources management system, in order to attract, manage, nurture and inspire talents, so that they can provide high-quality and efficient services. Employment should be conducted in the principles that are open, equitable and without conflict of interest.

Private foundation should sign a standardized contract with their employees. At the same time, the Foundation should have an open, realistic assessment on staff performance and incentive mechanisms.

Foundation should carry out the recruitment and management of volunteers on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit, and should have the foundation’s missions and values accurately and clearly understood by volunteers. Foundation should let volunteers be well aware of their work, skill requirements, time investment, working environment (including hardware and software environment), as well as the possible risks involved, and clearly show that the voluntary nature of this work as well as the possible subsidies.

Ninth, Private foundation should establish a good partnership with other philanthropic organizations, especially with those who share common areas of concern with them.

Private foundation respect and uphold the reputation, intellectual property rights and trademark rights of peers. The logos, trademarks and achievements protected by IPR from other philanthropic organizations should not be used without permission.

Tenth, Private foundation should disclose authentic information of the foundation to the public in an appropriate way, which should include: mission, services; the council membership and their background; financial information, including complete audited annual financial report and financial information that is promised to be displayed to the public ; project information, in addition to the respect for the wishes of donors and the protection of intellectual property right, projects information (including project evaluation report) should be shown in an open and transparent way, and supervised by the public and the media.

Eleventh, Private foundation is willing to be supervised and managed by the Registration and Management Authorities and the Business Departments in charge of Supervision and Management, and accept the supervision, management and annual inspection.

Supplementary Provisions:

This declaration rests on the achievements of the “Self-discipline Guidelines of  China’s Non-profit Organizations” , co-developed by China Foundation For Poverty Alleviation, China Youth Development Foundation, Amity Foundation and China NPO Network.

(Translation at the courtesy of the Organizing Committee of China’s Private Foundation Forum. For original Chinese version, see http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.org.cn/newsview.php?id=773)