Where does the money for public welfare come from?

When I started to work, a very specific and important question jumped out: Mother Teresa.

Leave the monastery and start a charity mission.

No money. On the first day, she taught five children to read on the ground with branches. Although the children's parents are poor, when they see someone who can do this for their children, some people slowly bring stools and some people make room. She asks for money everywhere after class every day.

Sometimes it can be rough. She once wrote in her diary: Even in the name of God, let me accept the insult again! It was with such "begging" and the rescue operation that she didn't stop without a lot of money that she slowly won.

Donations from all sides. Although she was short of money, Mother Teresa decided not to apply for any government funding at the earliest. She thinks it will take too much time, and the same time is best spent on rescue operations. Today, charitable missionaries have spread all over the world (not in China, but in Hongkong and Macau).

In the headquarters office in Calcutta, India, there are only a few typewriters, which are taken care of by several nuns.

When Master Yan Zheng founded Tzu Chi, she vowed not to accept support, so she and her disciples cultivated and made candles by themselves. All donations are used for charity, not to support wizards and disciples. The money she used for charity originally came from 30 housewives. The following passage describes the situation at that time:

Yi personally sawed 30 bamboo tubes from the bamboo forest behind the temple and sent them to 30 believers who love Yi-they are simple housewives-so that they can buy food every day and put 50 cents in the bamboo tubes, so that they can save 15 yuan every month, and after one year, the surplus is considerable.

"Why do you want to save fifty cents a day?" Believers don't understand: "Isn't it easier for us to spend 20 yuan a month?" "Not the same." Yi shook his head: "Pay once a month and be kind once a month." Save 50 cents a day. Although the money is meager, it is precious that you have the heart to save your lover every day. "With the word" fifty cents can save lives "passed from mouth to mouth, this incident spread rapidly in the vegetable market in Hualien, and many housewives responded one after another, and more and more people participated, and finally gathered into a force. So in 19,

1962 On March 24th, Tzu Chi Meritorious Society was formally established. A group of housewives with food baskets wrote the first page of Tzu Chi history. Iraq's wishes finally took root.

The way they raise funds is to rely on donations. I wrote in an article before that China's policy now only allows about 10 government-run non-profit organizations to "publicly raise funds", that is, they can publicly raise donations from the public. This makes grass-roots non-profit organizations in a difficult situation. However, the diamond gong

Avon, the founder of Yishe, told me that the key to non-profit development is not public offering or private offering, but trust. We can also see from Mother Teresa and Master Yan Zheng that they didn't have a strong influence at first.

Scale public offering. They gradually gained people's trust, and their support came from all directions.

Another way to raise public welfare funds is Bill Gates, which is what most people want to believe: I succeed first, then I do good deeds. Bill Gates made money, and then he did good things by himself. His good friend Buffett donated money to Bill Gates, an organization he trusted. This is another way. Bill Gates and Buffett did it, but I predict that many people who say they want to be "Bill Gates" will not be able to do it in the end. As Zhu An said, "This is my life. It is not the hard work that must be done to get freedom, but freedom itself. "

People who really want to do public welfare don't have to wait until the day of freedom. Doing public welfare itself is a form of life and freedom itself.

There is also a way of public fundraising, which is becoming more and more popular now, that is, combining making money with doing public welfare. For example, Yu Pengnian built Pengnian Hotel for the benefit of the hotel, which can be used for public welfare. There is another model that has won many people's welcome, but it is not yet mature: SocialEnterprise.

What social enterprises do is for public welfare, which is the highest goal; Secondly, but crucially, the Organization should be able to function. Social enterprises and general enterprises have one thing in common: they must be self-reliant, and it is best to develop for profit. no

Similarly, general enterprises aim at maximizing profits; When profit conflicts with social interests, profit comes first. But in fact, many companies have indirectly done a lot of public welfare, because companies that can win benefits must be for

The public provided useful services and products. Social enterprises aim to achieve public welfare goals, so public welfare goals will be the most important when choosing strategies and products.

I tend to do public welfare with social enterprises. But this road has just begun to be explored all over the world.