Kicks off its largest internet campaign focusing on inclusion and transparency
Tencent’s annual philanthropic campaign “99 Giving Day” kicks off on September 7th this year with a focus on public participation, inclusion, and transparency. The three-day donation initiative comes at a time when social welfare is more important than ever for holding together and supporting each other as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect people from all walks of life.
This year’s event is highlighted by the participation of 18 internet companies forming an alliance in the spirit of “Together we can.” Online donations have also been redesigned to include new features such as issuing consumption vouchers and using live streaming during the fund-raising process. These efforts are aimed at integrating charitable behavior into daily life scenarios such as consumption, cultural activities, social networking, and coronavirus prevention awareness.
Social welfare faces new opportunities and challenges
Tencent Charity Foundation, the philanthropic unit of the company, will use 299.99 million yuan of funds to match donations from the public. An additional 100 million yuan will be donated as a non-targeted charitable contribution. This marks Tencent’s sixth year leading the charity campaign, connecting hundreds of thousands of NGOs, enterprises, and different sectors of the community for joint participation.
In addition, Tencent will allocate 200 million yuan of funds from its Anti-Pandemic Funds to help social welfare organizations recover from the epidemic, favoring those with a proven track record, as well as outstanding performance in this year’s campaign. Tencent announced a USD100 million Global Anti-Pandemic Fund in March to support international efforts against Covid-19. Prior to that, the company also announced a 1.5 billion yuan domestic fund to help fight the epidemic.
As the largest of its kind in China, the 99 Giving Day campaign was created by Tencent from the ground up. As of September 5th, 2020, Tencent Charity Foundation’s social welfare online donation platform has attracted more than 356 million donations and raised over 9 billion yuan of funds, benefiting more than 92,000 social welfare programs.
Value for Users, Tech for Good
At the launch ceremony of 99 Giving Day this year, Tencent’s Chen said that the company will provide more technical support to internet-based charities based on three tenets: transparency, digitization, and ecological efficiency.
Transparency is the foundation of a healthy philanthropic ecosystem, as well as a cornerstone in supporting the sustainable development of the industry. To this end, all projects this year will utilize blockchain technology to ensure data traceability.
Tencent has gained extensive experience in the application of blockchain technology, such as in the tax field. Blockchain has the power to make social welfare initiatives more transparent and more digitalized. There will be no need to worry about issues like ‘data tampering.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Tencent organized internal volunteers to support the development of epidemic prevention apps, online tools, and other public service projects to enhance public service partners’ capabilities in epidemic relief. Tencent Charity Foundation vows to utilize the experience of the volunteers as a model to build a “digital philanthropy mutual-aid platform”.
