education

An NGO in Western China has made a commitment to transparency that is rarely seen even among nonprofits in the developed world, by giving the general public direct online access to its accounting systems. It has also developed online systems for managing project donations, as well as direct sponsorship of disadvantaged students, both of which are also fully open and searchable via the web.

Gesang Student Aid, named after the Kelsang Flower of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, is an NGO based in Xining whose mission is to support education in Tibetan communities. The online project center introduces their current projects, and welcomes online donations via AliPay. All donations (both online and offline) are listed here.

Apparently very popular with donors is the student sponsorship programme. Poor students identified by Gesanghua that meet the specified criteria are listed on the programme homepage, and via the website users can not only donate but also exchange messages with the child which they have sponsored. At the time of writing, being the middle of the school year, there are no active appeals on the website. However, all past beneficiaries and donations can be viewed or searched, and reports can be generated broken down by date and by geographic area.

Finally, the organization's internal accounting system is open to the public, allowing anybody to view the organization's up-to-the-minute itemized bank accounts, income accounts, and expense accounts.

These systems were developed in-house, and Gesanghua has expressed its willingness to share the software with other NGOs at no cost. It reports that it has already provided its accounting software to another organization.

Gesanghua Student Aid is one of 30 finalists in the Intel "New World" Innovation Award for Non-Profits. The award website invites the public to vote on their favourite projects between now and April 9. Over the coming days, we will continue to introduce some of the finalists on this blog.

The Student Aid Angel Action (link in Chinese) is offering CNY 10 million to fund programmes that give financial assistance to students. Based on both online votes and a panel of judges, six "Student Aid Angels" will be selected from among the applicants. Applicants, who may be either individuals or representatives from organizations (such as NGOs), propose how they plan to use the prize money to help needy students.

Success depends heavily on the participants' online performance:

1. During the first phase (which began on 22 November 2009 and ended last week on 10 January 2010), applicants register on the website and earn points by completing their profile, participating in online discussion, and so on.
2. 100 applicants are then selected by judges to proceed to the second phase of the competition, in which they seek online votes by posting blog entries, photos and other content. Votes account for 50% of their final score, and an interview with the judging panel accounts for the other 50%. This phase runs until February 6.
3. 15 applicants will enter the final stage of the competition, in which they will complete a special task (still to be announced) and put together a proposal for how they plan to use the prize money to provide aid to students. Interestingly, this phase of the competition coincides with the Chinese New Year holiday period. The final judging will be held on March 20, and again will depend on both online votes and the judging panel.

Five "Student Aid Angels" selected in this way will each receive CNY 1 million to carry out their proposal. Additionally, one "Special Angel" selected by the judging panel alone will receive CNY 5 million.

The prize money has been provided by Giant, an online game developer, and the competition is being run in collaboration with Sina, Umiwi, and Today Art Museum.

1KG MORE is a website that helps kind-hearted travellers to add community service to their travel plans. Prior to a trip, people can use the website to find needy schools in the areas that they will visit (there is information on about 800 rural schools, and more are gradually being added). They can then announce their plans online, so other website users can join the activity too.

Volunteers are encouraged to donate books or stationary to the school and its students (to "carry one kilogram more in their luggage", hence the name of the website), as well as communicating with the students through discussion, games or other activities.

The website is organized geographically by city or prefecture, for example Haidong Prefecture in Qinghai, and uses the Google Maps API to display the location of the schools. It is also possible to browse the map for the whole country.

Edited to add: 1KG MORE's founder, An Zhu, recently gave a presentation at TEDx Shanghai, in which he describes the project and the motivation behind it. You can watch it online (13 minutes; English subtitles).

Portal website Zhuozhuo has launched an online campaign (link in Chinese) that invites users to donate money and used goods to selected schools in Qinghai province.

Donors can read about the needy schools, choose one to support, and pledge a donation online. Their pledges, optionally accompanied by a message and photograph, will appear on the page for all to see.

There are currently six schools listed on the page, but additional schools can be nominated by completing an online form.

Wiz World Online is an online fantasy game, developed by 8D World in Shanghai, which aims to help children between the ages of 7 - 12 develop practical English skills.

Although currently free to play, after beta-testing is complete the company plans to charge a subscription fee for the service. Some children may also benefit from school subscriptions. Currently, government schools in Shanghai are already using the game in their classrooms.

Read more: A Virtual Game to Teach Children Languages (New York Times)