The “Project Hope” is a civil undertaking of public welfare, sponsored and carried out by China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF). By raising civil funds, this public welfare project aims at aiding those children who are unable to go to school because their families are poor. In present-day China, the “Project Hope” has been a most important civil undertaking of public welfare in terms of scale and influence. China Youth Development Foundation which sponsors the activity has become the largest civil public welfare organization in China. The process of the implementation of the project has been involving interactions and cooperation (including conflicts) among public welfare NGOs, the related departments of the Central government, local governments, the Communist Youth League organizations, and enterprise legal persons. Through the description and analysis of the “Project Hope”, we can gain a deep understanding of the foundation for the development of the Chinese NGOs (especially those civil foundations), the ways of conducting their activities, external circumstances, usable resources, the possible prospect for their future development and especially its relation to social governance.

Text presented on the chinese website: www.governance.cn

Sun Liping is Professor of Sociology at Peking University