Charity Platform

JFS Newsletter No.71 (July 2008)
"Unique NGOs in Japan" Article Series No.10

Creating a Culture of Donation and Support for Non-profit Activities

http://www.charity-platform.com/ (Japanese only)

The Charity Platform, a non-profit organization (NPO) in Japan that supports the activities of NPOs, was established in May 2007 by Daigo Sato, who continues as its head.

In 1996, Sato started an internship project, which was still rare at the time. He established an NPO for the project in 1998, and ran it for about ten years before establishing the Charity Platform. One day, he heard an NPO member, who now serves as a board member, saying, "People continue to donate money only when they are inspired by the NPO's activities," which caused Sato to look back for the first time on not only his own NPO but also NPOs in general.

Then he realized that not many NPOs conducted enough follow-up activities with their supporters. Initially, he thought it was because they were too busy with their activities and unable to afford it financially, but later he concluded that, often, they didn't receive further funding because they failed to follow up with their supporters, and they were always busy because they failed to receive funding. To break this vicious cycle, he decided to establish the Charity Platform, a registered NPO to provide extensive support for the fund management of NPOs.

Many NPOs face difficulties with operating their organization on an ongoing basis, despite the noble focus of their activities. Sato said, "No one has ever successfully created a funding cycle for NPOs in Japan. This is a new area, just like the internship program I started. I think it is challenging to create something from scratch without any models to follow."

Financial Help as a System to Support Sustainable NPO Activities

The Charity Platform aims to connect NPOs working for the general public with supporters and sponsors wanting to contribute to society, thus bringing smiles to everyone. The three pillars of its support activities for NPOs are subsidies and management, project formulation, and fund-raising and public relations. Among them, funding is essential to make any NPO sustainable, so subsidies draw special attention.

Donating money is one way that companies and individuals can contribute to society. The Charity Platform has been working to build a system that supports NPOs financially on an ongoing basis through donations.

Sato says, "Japanese corporate donation reportedly amount to 500 billion yen (about U.S.$4.76 billion), so it's clear that Japanese companies are not entirely indifferent to the idea of providing funding support. Therefore, we provide secure and reliable information, mainly to businesses, based on sound research on NPOs engaged in activities that benefit society, and propose contributions to society in cooperation with NPOs."

Internal Reform is Essential to Receiving Ongoing Support

Sato often heard business people saying that no NPO had ever approached them seeking support for a project. This means that most NPOs fail to effectively promote their activities and propose projects to potential individual and corporate supporters who could increase their funding.

"Compared to their counterparts in the United States and United Kingdom, advanced countries in terms of supporting NPOs, Japanese NPOs have not been very skilful in approaching businesses. In our research of as many as 3,000 NPOs in Japan, we have found that many of them did not have any contact with businesses. Even if they did have some contact, in many cases, they did not propose concrete advantages to the businesses for supporting them, but simply made appeals, like 'Please help us save the Earth' or 'Please donate to us because you are making a profit.' Such approaches are hard for business people to respond to," Sato said.

Currently, Japan has about 35,000 NPOs nationwide (as of May 31, 2008). Some of them are able to work well based on their firm financial footing. "These NPOs are 'super A-class organizations' and can work well without our support. The Charity Platform would like to lend full support to organizations just below this class, and try to make them more attractive. Like many ambitious young people admire venture capitalists, we would like to create a field where such young people admire the work of NPOs and social entrepreneurs and encourage them to take up the challenge. To this end, NPOs should reform themselves in such a way to receive ongoing support from businesses and give them a sense of security," Sato said.

The Charity Platform aims to provide support to NPOs that have an annual budget of more than 10 million yen (about $95,000) that have a full-time employee who can reply to e-mails within 24 hours. This is especially significant, because it gives businesses a base to consider an NPO as credible enough to support.

Sato also said, "Most NPOs are 'volunteer organizations.' I feel that this may lead to them working when they want or can, but at the same time they can quit whenever they want. The Charity Platform is itself an NPO, but we are engaged in activities using the same approach and systems as an ordinary business. Our mandate is to obtain ongoing financial support. As we work sincerely as professionals, we also try to encourage other NPOs to be professional. This sense of professionalism is a key to obtaining ongoing support from businesses and the general public."

Making a Culture of Donation Take Root in Japanese Society to Support NPOs

In Japan, only a few organizations are entitled to tax deductions for financial donations. Even if authorized, the charitable tax status is only allowed for five years, and they must provide a large amount of documentation when they get the authorization. With such controls and regulations by law, it is difficult to create an opportunity to share the joy of support between supporters and recipients.

Sato says it's necessary to create more of a donation culture in society by raising awareness that donating is not just an action of contributing money with good intentions -- it's "buying" an experience that touches you. The Charity Platform is aiming to nurture the attitude in society that recognizes that we can have contact with society and be of help through donating.

In April 2008, one year after its establishment, the Charity Platform started actual operations. Since then, in a relatively short period of time, through research on roughly 3,000 NPOs it established a reliable database website, dubbed Charity NAVI (nicknamed "Chari-Navi"). It already provides funds to some 120 organizations by registering as a supporting member in those organizations.

"Among our various projects, the NPO 'Juku' project (a "juku" is a kind of school), a subsidized project of the Non-Profit Organization Support Center for NPO Program Development, is particularly aimed at offering communication opportunities. Under the project, we hold meetings where NPO managers can have dialogues and discussions directly with those from other groups. In 2007, some 500 managers of 300 organizations attended the meetings. We believe it is useful in that we can hear from the people actually working for NPOs, and that they too can understand our stance. Last year we organized 13 of these meetings, and this year we will visit ten locations to meet with people from 200 to 300 organizations," said Sato.

On June 25, 2008, the Charity Platform placed an ad in the Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan's major daily newspapers, to call for donations for two organizations that are carrying out support projects in Myanmar after it was hit by a cyclone. The Charity Platform had already sent funds to these organizations, so this ad campaign was sort of a second investment in them. So far, the response rate was not as high as originally hoped for, partly because the campaign was carried out about two months after the disaster. Still, the Charity Platform regards it as a useful test case to consider for future projects, with the hope of continuing such efforts.

Although the voice of one organization may not be heard or acknowledged by the government, it may not be able to ignore ten organizations when they say the same thing together. Such collective action could solve social problems faster, accordingly. In that sense, placing ads jointly by some organizations is a strategic move to establish such a model.

"I think it would be good for NPOs to sit down at the table more often and talk with other organizations working in the same area. We hope to help create a private citizen sector that has the same clout or power as governments and businesses have," Sato said.

NPOs work voluntarily to build a better society. The Charity Platform supports their efforts so that they can continue developing their activities on a sustainable basis. Ultimately, it aims to create a society that has a positive cycle of smiles and happiness -- a society where NPOs work more and more actively, which brings more smiles to people's faces, who then feel more motivated to support NPOs, which enables them to do more good work.

(Written by Reiko Aomame)