Table of contents:

About the author(s):

Description:

The first piece, “An Empirical Analysis of Charitable Activities During the Wenchuan Earthquake: Telling the NGO Story,” uses a broad literature review, surveys, and interviews and attempts to analyze comprehensively post-quake NGO activity, explaining the characteristics and effectiveness of different types of NGOs. It also emphasizes the importance of credibility in expanding the charity market and makes recommendations regarding the participation of NGOs in the post-quake work of reconstruction. The second piece, “A Comparison of the Transparency Levels of Donor-Funded Earthquake Relief Organizations,”uses public information to conduct a deep empirical analysis of the transparency of different types of foundations receiving money after the earthquake. It concludes that levels of transparency among foundations are, on the whole, not high, and that actual levels of transparency do not match earlier official transparency estimates. It also concludes that many highly transparent organizations were not included in the official review. This demonstrates that a large gap exists between the government’s and society’s choices, and that government mandated donation violates the logic of social choice based on voluntary donations. The third piece, “Lessons Modern Chinese Charity Workers Can Take from Society’s Response to the Wenchuan Earthquake,” is a submission we specially requested from an official directly managing earthquake donations and who, from his personal experience, analyzes several important issues from the social donation campaign and provides authoritative and accurate quantitative data. He also identifies tensions and problems that appeared in the areas of management, operations, policy measures, coordination, and social consciousness and proposes several conclusions and policy recommendations. In “The Coverage of the Wenchuan Earthquake: An Overview,” the author performs systematic research and analysis of disaster-related coverage from major Chinese-language periodicals and newspapers for the period of 140 days after the earthquake. The piece concludes that the coverage follows three major themes and that even though coverage was not without specific and systemic design and suggestions, there was very little academic discussion with theoretical depth.

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