Shenzhen Institute of international public welfare

On June 1, 2018, CGPI EMP (Executive Management of Philanthropy) 2018 Spring Cohort (Session 9) Opening Ceremony was held in Shenzhen. Present were Gao Zimin, Deputy Mayor of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government; Liu Zhiyong, Deputy Head and Member of the Party Leadership Group of Futian District, Shenzhen; Ma Weihua, Chairman of the Board of China Global Philanthropy Institute (CGPI) and Ms. Geng Ming, Deputy Director of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation China Office. Prof. President Wang Zhenyao and faculty of CGPI attended the ceremony along with 71 newcomers from 13 mainland provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, as well as the Hong Kong SAR. Wang hoped that the newcomers would know "truth", "philanthropy" and "great love" better to make philanthropy more powerful!

Gao welcomed the newcomers to Shenzhen on behalf of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government. CGPI has cultivated hundreds of senior management talents with international vision, theoretical accomplishments and strong executive ability for philanthropy, thus making outstanding contributions to the building of Shenzhen into a "city of philanthropy", said him. Shenzhen is a city of innovation, charm and volunteers. Shenzhen's development has been inseparable from philanthropy. Social harmony and intergenerational equity are most important to sustainable development, and they are exactly the true quality of philanthropists. Thus, the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government is wiling to provide better support and services for the development of philanthropy and CGPI. He also sincerely invited CGPI's students to offer their valuable opinions on Shenzhen's development based on their philanthropic experience.

Ma expressed his sincere thanks to the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government and Gao for their strong support to CGPI's construction and development. He said Shenzhen is a city of innovation and love. Ma reviewed CGPI's founding, noting that philanthropy is transforming and needs to integrate with finance. "New philanthropy is managing philanthropic institutions with modern enterprises' management methods, allocating philanthropic resources under the principle of market and achieving the purpose of philanthropy by financial means," said him.

Geng shared the experience of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its achievements in promoting global health. She encouraged the newcomers to set aggressive goals, learn knowledge, make connections, find like-minded ones, explore innovative solutions and carry out unprecedented cooperation through the platform built by CGPT, in a joint effort to eliminate inequities. At last, she cited Gates' saying to encourage the newcomers: Human intelligence and wisdom can light up the dim future.

Wang said that CGPI's motto is "All-embracing Love and Benevolence", hoping that the newcomers would learn Chinese virtues including benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trust with philanthropism, know the meaning of "truth", keep enriching their knowledge, know their mission better, learn great love, open their mind and value the process of learning philanthropic knowledge. "Learning philanthropic knowledge is actually making philanthropy more powerful. Thus, we need to interact, learn and energize philanthropy through learning, to lead the world and China forward intelligently and powerfully," said him.

CGPI pools superior resources and faculty from across the world, and advocates application-oriented research, action learning and knowledge-action unity. According to the Alumni Development Report 2017, in 2017, CGPI's alumni launched and implemented 855 philanthropic programs in 31 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions and special administrative regions across the country, the alumni's institutions spent over RMB 4.7 billion on philanthropy and registered a total donation income of RMB 6 billion; 96 percent of the alumni made donations with a total amount of over RMB 100 million, over 42 percent carried out cooperation, and 35 percent practiced philanthropic finance and social innovation.

Adhering to action, innovatively addressing social problems

CGPI EMP2018 Spring Cohort opened on the 69^th International Children's Day. Xiao Xingping, an alumna at EMP2016 Spring Cohort (Session 5), Chairman of the CGPI Alumni Board and Deputy Dean of China Lions's School of Philanthropy delivered a speech on behalf of the board. The board upholds the concept of co-building, sharing and symbiosis, said her, hoping that all the alumni, from EMP Session 1 to 9, would co-build the great philanthropic environment in China, share common philanthropic resources and grow together.

Founded in October 2016, the CGPI Alumni Board has brought together alumni and over 200 students for EMP, GPL, ELP and other programs. In the future, it will attract more industrial elitists and partners, become a leading philanthropic organization, perform CGPI's mission of leading social civilization with philanthropy, advance infrastructural construction, deepen services and strengthen connection. The council, supervisory board and secretariat perform respective duties, the council comprises nine special committees, three regional branches and two industrial branches, and the establishment of the Child Philanthropy Branch drew great attention.

Based on the board's network, the alumni have integrated programs to establish the Child Philanthropy Branch, built the Solidarity Alliance, served and developed alumni partnerships. The branch is committed to building a matrix of child service programs through pilot county-level service, supporting the government in systematically improving local children's conditions, and exploring other philanthropic programs of the board to connect all the branches horizontally and help address more social problems.

EMP advocates "action learning, crossover cooperation", and aims to build a knowledge chain, make knowledge dynamic and apply learned knowledge in action. EMP Action Plan has attracted over 80 participants and promoted the initiation and implementation of over 30 programs. Two action plans of EMP2016 Spring Cohort won the gold award and the bronze award in the 2017 China Charity Project Contest respectively. The alumni's institutions have kept earning praise from the society and won a lot of social awards.

Ye Dawei, an alumnus at EMP2013 Autumn Cohort (Session 1), Executive Deputy Secretary-General of the CGPI Alumni Board and Secretary-General of Yao Foundation said, "In the past five years, EMP has changed China's philanthropic talent structure and rebuilt a philanthropic ecological chain. While learning philanthropy, we need to learn tools for modern management at CGPI." He shared Ray Dalio's speech at CGPI Beijing Teaching Center which moved him, "I always tell myself that I ought to be an instructor instead of a leader."

As an alumna at EMP2017 Autumn Cohort (Session 8), Li Hongmei, Hostess for CCTV's Humanities of the Great Power program and Head of the Press Center, Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Think Tank shared how EMP changed her. Coming to CGPI is the biggest turning point in her life. "There is a number of students with strong positive energy at CGPI, here we are no longer impetuous and can systematically learn how to make philanthropy more effective," said her.

As an alumna at EMP2017 Autumn Cohort (Session 8), Li Hongmei, Hostess for CCTV's Humanities of the Great Power program and Head of the Press Center, Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Think Tank shared how EMP changed her. Coming to CGPI is the biggest turning point in her life. "There is a number of students with strong positive energy at CGPI, here we are no longer impetuous and can systematically learn how to make philanthropy more effective," said her.

Openness, inclusiveness and crossover

CGPI's EMP2018 Spring Program will continue to build a modern philanthropic concept in the context of philanthropic economy, advocate social innovation through the "philanthropic knowledge" curriculum system, address social problems through specialized philanthropic knowledge innovation, and cultivate philanthropic talents with a strong sense of social mission.

Based on an overall analysis of previous experience, student feedback and curriculum evaluation, the curriculum of EMP2018 Spring will be optimized with fine and classical required courses, as well as lightweight and modularized optional courses.

Thus, based on four elements -- value and mission, thinking, methodology and management tools, EMP2018 Spring will integrate theoretical courses, practical courses and action plan, build an interdisciplinary curriculum system, and highlight the features of "action learning, dual tutors, innovative thinking, problem orientation and global resources".

The newcomers of EMP2018 Spring Cohort have an average age of 40.7. 92 percent are from the decision-making level and the management, 49 percent hold master degrees or above, 23 percent studied or worked abroad, and 24 percent hold MBA/EMBA degrees.

Students this year are from more fields, including representatives of philanthropic organizations which are indispensable, wealth philanthropic elite including AIA, GF Securities, China Resources Bank, Embraer S.A. and Tuxun Sports Goods (Ningbo) Co., Ltd., as well as domestic and foreign industrial leaders including Southern University of Science and Technology Education Foundation, Beijing Women's International Communication Association and Lien Aid.

By May 2018, EMP had some 480 alumni, including alumni of EMP Cohort (Session 1-8), alumni of EMP Series Courses and European alumni of EMP Scholarship Program. They will join hands to fly the dream of philanthropy at CGPI.

Zhang Biwei, Chairman and Founder of Art Dream and Yang Xin, General Manager of Hunan Dinghan Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. delivered speeches on behalf of the newcomers of Beijing Class and Shenzhen Class respectively. "Firstly, we are responsible for our lives, keep pursuing the meaning and value of lives, and hope to be meaningful to others and the society, this is philanthropy. Secondly, we believe our lives are connected to others, and uniquely responsible to ourselves, others around and this world, this is righteousness. Thirdly, everybody hopes to realize their life value through effective philanthropy, this is wisdom. Similar in philanthropy, righteousness and wisdom, we have come together at CGPI," said Yang, hoping that all philanthropists will work happily like innocent children. "We learn philanthropic knowledge in the new era together, stay more united and act philanthropically, in a joint effort to become the nucleus in the philanthropic era," she added.

Witnessed by all present, student representative of EMP Session 8 -- Zeng Haibin, Chairman of Guangzhou Tianhe Xiaokuan Art Promotion Center presented the institute flag to the student representatives of EMP Session 9 -- Ding Gan, Deputy Director of Cooperative Development (Enterprise Engagement) at One Foundation, Shenzhen and Jin Xia, Chairman of Gaoqiao Jinfan Experimental School, Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou. Chairman Ma Weihua and President Wang Zhenyao of CGPI presented institute badges to the newcomers. The opening ceremony was wrapped up.