This reporter? Jin Xiaoyu
Since the outbreak of the pneumonia epidemic caused by the new coronavirus, many enterprises up and down the country have actively responded to the aid, and in the first time donations, hoping to fight the epidemic to do their share of corporate responsibility. One of the major forces is automobile and parts-related enterprises.
According to incomplete statistics, up to now, the total value of cash donations and materials from enterprises across the country has reached 14 billion yuan, while the total value of donations from the automotive industry has also exceeded 1 billion yuan. At the same time, these donation figures continue to increase.
On one side is the enthusiasm of all walks of life in the country to help Wuhan and fight the epidemic, while on the other side are many hospitals in Wuhan and other places to protect the supplies again and again, the two "torn" scenarios ultimately triggered the public's anger, and the Red Cross and other charitable organizations in Hubei Province into an unprecedented public opinion vortex.
Car companies have donated so much money and materials, why in the actual effect is stretched to the limit?
On January 26, in order to mobilize charitable forces to participate in the prevention and control of the epidemic in accordance with the law and in an orderly manner, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a public notice, the Hubei Provincial Red Cross, Hubei Provincial Charity Federation, Hubei Provincial Youth Development Foundation, Wuhan Municipal Charity Federation, the Wuhan Municipal Red Cross, five charitable organizations are listed as the recipient of the collection of funds and materials. This also means that as long as the enterprise's donation target for Hubei or Wuhan, in principle, must be through the above five charitable organizations.
"Due to the rapid development of the epidemic, in just a few days, tens of billions of dollars of funds and materials such as a tidal wave to this limited number of local public welfare organizations, which far exceeds its daily budget control capacity, emergency response experience and manpower to protect the support, and therefore for a time fell into a very chaotic situation of resources and demand deployment, and even triggered the crisis of confidence. " Lang Hua, a partner of the independent consulting organization "Business Way" in the field of corporate social responsibility, told reporters.
Lang Hua believes that, in this special period, it is not the enterprises swarming to donate more money the better, but also need to take into account the emergency digestive capacity of charities, in some extreme cases, donations may be difficult to accurately arrive at the demand side in a short period of time, and it is difficult to achieve the expected results. Therefore, enterprises should not blindly follow the trend when donating, but should return to the essence of business, that is, to rethink, how to give full play to their own business expertise, to find a good "point of participation", so as to ensure that the maximization of the effect of assistance.
Of course, many companies and individuals are eager to participate in the rescue, and want to see immediate results. However, according to the provisions of China's Charity Law, individuals and organizations that do not have the qualifications for public fundraising cannot initiate charitable fundraising. Therefore, Shenzhen Jun Hexin tax firm director Hu Mianpeng in an interview with the "Public Welfare Times" also suggested that enterprises can seek to cooperate with the anti-epidemic experience and high credibility of charitable organizations with the qualification of public fundraising, the establishment of anti-epidemic special fund, the initiator can be elected to have the experience of the personnel and charitable organizations to form a special fund management team, *** with efficient and transparent management of the money and materials.
This also means that car companies in the practice of social responsibility, anti-epidemic donations, in addition to a passion, should also give full consideration to two levels: First, donations are by no means a simple and brutal donation of money, but more in-depth consideration of their own expertise and make full use of their own resource network to explore the potential energy of this business expertise; Second, if you donate money, not to donate the money out of the hands to finish! Secondly, if you donate money, you don't just give it away and leave it at that, but you have to keep investing in human and material resources, and work together with your partners*** to put the money where it's really needed.
If we look back at the automotive industry's record of donations over this period of time, it's not hard to find some cases that are worthy of reference.
January 28, Geely Holding Group announced to join hands with Li Shufu Public Welfare Foundation, the establishment of 200 million yuan new pneumonia epidemic prevention and control special fund. In the official announcement, this special fund will be used in four specific areas: to buy urgently needed emergency supplies for the epidemic; to support the construction of temporary hospitals in the epidemic areas; to provide necessary support for the relevant personnel on the front line of the fight against the epidemic; and to support the research and development of vaccines and curing medicines, as well as public ****health science and technology work.
So why didn't Geely just donate money like other companies? That was one of the big questions that arose when reporters read the news.
After inquiries, Geely's founder Li Shufu in the early years of the Li Shufu Public Welfare Foundation of the same name, is registered as a national formal non-public charitable organizations. As a corporate public welfare fund, the foundation has independently operated a number of ongoing charitable projects, with a mature team and certain operational experience. This is the basis for its ability to quickly establish a special anti-epidemic fund directly under an independent corporate foundation.
"The establishment of a special fund, rather than direct donations, mainly also hope that the donation of special funds every money spent on the knife edge, play Geely in the global resources synergies, the procurement of medical supplies required by the epidemic on the ability to do anti-epidemic money more targeted, more effective." Geely relevant person in charge told reporters.
To put it bluntly, Geely does not want to be constrained by others, and hope to use their own advantages to grasp the initiative in the fight against the epidemic. Based on this, with the support of the special fund, Geely mobilized its global network, in Sweden, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other regions to purchase the shortage of medical protection materials, with direct action to alleviate the domestic production shortages of the urgent need. At the same time, Geely also urgently donated Jiaji MPVs to the prevention and control commands in Wuhan and many other places to be used as emergency work vehicles for the commands. In addition, its Cao Cao Travel and Long Distance Commercial Vehicle Group also set up emergency prevention and control support fleets in the infected areas to provide support for community travel and material delivery. All of these are things that Geely, as a car company, is "capable of doing" and "good at doing", systematically utilizing its business expertise.
It's especially worth mentioning that Volvo, a subsidiary of Geely Holding Group, is taking a different approach, hoping to contribute to vaccine research and development at the "root" of the problem. Obviously, the field of medical research and development is not the car company's own expertise, so Volvo, under the guidance of Li Shufu Public Welfare Foundation, avoided the Wuhan area, five designated overburdened charities, and chose to cooperate with the Shanghai Medical and Health Development Foundation, and the establishment of a special fund to fight the new coronary virus, the first batch of one million donations will be directed to support the Shanghai Public **** Health Clinical Center of the new coronary virus, the pathogenesis of clinical trials, clinical trials, and the development of the new coronary virus. The first batch of 1 million donations will be directed to support the Shanghai Public*** Health Clinical Center's research on the pathogenesis of the new coronavirus, clinical treatment, vaccine research and development, as well as the development of related drugs. The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, which it supports, is the first professional organization in the world to successfully analyze and publish the full gene sequence of the new virus in this outbreak.
"In general, it is a common practice for companies to donate money directly to foundations. However, we have suggested to the Foundation that we would like to communicate directly with the grantees to further understand their actual needs, so that our donations can truly meet the needs of the grantees. So, throughout the process, there was direct communication between the Shanghai Medical and Health Development Foundation (the charity), the Shanghai Public **** Health Clinical Center (the grantee) and Volvo Cars (the donor)." Zhao Qin, vice president of corporate communications for Volvo Cars Asia Pacific, told reporters.
The reporter was privy to the fact that the daily running expenses of the Shanghai Public **** Health Clinical Center are mainly supported by government funds, while some forward-looking scientific research projects need to apply for special funds separately. However, the application process for special funds is long, while the research and development of vaccines takes every second. As a social force, Volvo's targeted donations came in quickly and within a few days, providing strong support for the vaccine's development.
At the same time, thanks to the direct communication between the three parties, Volvo's donation of 10 million yuan of medical supplies and equipment to several tertiary hospitals in Shanghai was delivered in just five days. Volvo was able to achieve immediate results in an area where it was "not very good", thanks to its high degree of involvement in the donation process.
Also worth mentioning is Azera. As a member of the new car-making forces that are not rich in the cold winter of the car market, Azera still joined the battle against the epidemic in the first place. In addition to the initial donation of 300,000 yuan of medical supplies, Azalea also announced the launch of a user trust fund on January 29th, and set up a special fund of 5 million yuan.
Likewise, instead of choosing to donate directly to charity, Azera borrowed the form of a trust. The Azalea User Trust is a trust commissioned by Azalea founder Li Bin to be set up by a professional trust organization to allow for a deeper connection between Azalea and its users, and its top decision-making body consists of nine board members.
Officially, the purpose of the special fund under the trust is divided into two major areas: 2 million yuan for the social anti-pneumonia public welfare fund, which is a direct donation of 1 million and 1 million matching donations, supervised and collaborated with the local car club in Wuhan to the front line of the fight against the epidemic. The other 3 million yuan for the anti-pneumonia user care special fund, will be used during the epidemic car owners care, including epidemic prevention materials, diagnosis care, anti-epidemic medical care, special project support.
With the help of the trust, Azera has fully mobilized the active participation of the community users and extended the support to many car clubs across the country, bringing together a lot of unexpected grassroots public welfare forces; at the same time, Azera has also gained more public welfare freedom with the help of the trust, and is able to flexibly allocate and supervise the use of the funds according to the opinions of the council and car clubs, opening up a flexible, open and efficient public welfare model. The trust has opened up a flexible, open, and efficient model for public welfare.
Reporter's commentary
Geely, Volvo and Azera are just three small microcosms of the auto industry in this battle against the epidemic. In addition to fervor and action, they have filled the vacuum area of the traditional donation model, which has temporarily failed due to excessive pressure, with greater autonomy and participation, showing the importance of social power at critical moments. As the difficult battle against the epidemic continues, these cases inspire us with the question of how to use "rationality" to dictate public welfare behaviors to truly shine and support the whole society*** through the difficult times in the midst of the complexity of emotions in these special times.
This article was written by the author of AutoNation, and does not represent the views of AutoNation.