My Story

Intro

Philanthropy in China is facing an inflection point as evidenced by the accelerating rate of philanthropic dollars entering China and the 2008 Sichuan earthquake also brought a tidal wave of donations. Even so, many philanthropists interested in China are inhibited to give for reasons that include the comparably weak nonprofit organizations in China, lack of transparency and accountability in Chinese charities. Li Zhang’s company is providing much needed consultancy to help connect donors and charitable organizations.

About Me

I come from a rural village of China and got my college education in Fudan University in Shanghai. After graduation, I became a stock analyst for a securities company. In 2006 I and some of my friends founded Social Venture Group, a social enterprise that aims to increase the philanthropy giving in China.

I have a strong desire to give back to the society with my acquired skills. When I was still a child, I was inspired by the conversations with my grandfather, who frequently reminded me, “When you can give a hand, never say no to a neighbor who is requesting your help.” When I was in college I volunteered with several nonprofit organizations.  While I was amazed by my colleagues desire to change other people’s lives for the better, I also found that these organizations had extremely limited resources at hand, especially funding. I saw that the lack of funding had become a main obstacle of NGO development in China and began to think about how to help them in the long term.

In 2007 my cousin got into a serious accident at the factory where he works in Jiangsu province. A giant weight broke off from its position and fell on him, crushing his legs and paralyzing him for life at the age of 19. It was a tremendous blow to our family. This experience caused me to think deeply about the marginalized and disadvantaged in China, as I thought about what the future would hold for my cousin. I realized that I have been given so many opportunities like going to college and being involved in charitable, that that my desire to bring change to China’s charity sector could no longer be a peripheral interest.

I also enjoy starting new things and love the feeling of bearing a high level of risk to pursue opportunities and to make large influence. In term of personal interest I like traveling, watching movies and many sports including soccer, basketball and baseball.

My Venture

Social Venture Group (SVG) is philanthropy advisory organization registered in Shanghai and Hong Kong providing an end-to-end solution for foundations, businesses and individuals who give to charitable causes in China.  The mission of SVG is to serve and promote philanthropy and grassroots non-profit work in China by identifying high impact NGO projects, providing assessment, due diligence and ongoing performance evaluations on behalf of donors.

I used to be involved in fundraising events for the China branch of a US-based orphan foundation called Love without Boundaries and saw firsthand how difficult it was for donors to track how funds were being spent by orphanages. The lack of transparency in the fund usage had correspondingly hindered the contributions to these NGOs. The vicious circle confirmed me that there needed to be a vital bridge between donors and needy causes in China. When I heard the business model of donor advisory firms I found I could use my skills in stock evaluation to assess/evaluate nonprofit projects for donors and serve as the absent bridge.

Since there was no such kind of organization in China at that time, I decided to start one with several of my friends. Our services include project sourcing and project due diligence, writing research reports on charitable sectors in China; post-project evaluation and donation management for our clients.

Our team wants to make Social Venture Group the leading donor advisory organization in China, setting up a new benchmarks for the Chinese charity sector in the future.