On The Development Of American Philanthropic Foundations And Its Implication For China

American philanthropic foundations, as an important part of the whole NGOs in America, have played an active role in American civil society. Working as a necessary supplement to the functions and responsibilities of American government in public governance, American philanthropic foundations have exerted a great influence in nearly every field of the society, such as aging, housing, education, health care, environment protection and disaster relief, etc. Although philanthropic foundations are not the unique outcome of American society, the scale and influence of American philanthropic foundations make them unparalleled in the world. The reasons for the development of American philanthropic foundations can be dated back to the colonial times, and be clearly observed in every period of their development.American philanthropic foundations, in the last one hundred years, developing from a period of pre-formation or "preparation", to a period of coming into being or "arising", and later to a period of "growing-up in ordeals", eventually arriving at the present state of "flourishing development", have experienced a long and zigzag course of development. The religious doctrines, for instance, Christianity and Protestant ethics, have grounded a solid ideological basis for charity. The prosperous economy has created both a great number of self-made men, who firstly became extraordinary successful businessmen and later well-known philanthropists, and the unprecedented social wealth that formed the material basis of philanthropic foundations. There are also some challenges or obstacles on the way of philanthropic foundations' development, for example, the suspicion and criticism towards philanthropic foundations from both the government and the society. As a matter of fact, these criticism and investigations both strengthened supervision of philanthropic foundations and improved the management of them. In the process of investigations and supervisions, a series of laws and regulations were enacted which ensured the healthy development of philanthropic foundations.The development experience of American philanthropic foundations has a great significance to Chinese philanthropic foundations. Now, Chinese philanthropic foundations are just at a beginning stage compared with their counterparts in America. As there are many similarities in their development process, it is important and necessary for Chinese philanthropic foundations to learn some precious experience from America, for instance, to strengthen governmental management and public supervision through tax laws and administrative regulations, to establish guilds or foundation associations which shoulder the responsibility of information disclosure, and to introduce the strategy of venture philanthropy into the management and operation of Chinese philanthropic foundations.However, there are also various differences between China and America, among which the most basic and obvious one is the prosperity of a civil society. American philanthropic foundations are deeply rooted in the reality of civil society which highly appreciates the tradition of association, whereas China is a country with a tradition of long feudal society prohibiting free association. In this sense, though some measures have been made to encourage the development of philanthropic foundations, the regulations to philanthropic foundations will still be tight and strict in a certain period. But, in the long run, the rapid development of Chinese philanthropic foundations will in turn propel the development of a prosperous civil society in China.