China’s Social Innovators to be Found in Social Innovation Carnival 2014

It can be the best of times, and it can also be the worst of times. Wealth gap, social turmoil, environmental pollution, climate change, excess production, economic stagnation and other challenges in today’s world have only raised alert and reflection in small circles—what do we really want? Information fragmented by the Internet has created chaos in the world. Facing unlimited options and temptations, we still need to answer—what do we really want? Are we going to choose exploit at any cost or return to simple values. The answer lies in our internal pursuit—whether this pursuit is firm or not.

—YouChange Chairperson Wang Ping

“Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of his country.” In this changing world, we see heroes keep emerging from our communities. Committed to their country, family and themselves, they are exploring ways to make our life better. Their innovation efforts need your participation. The Social Innovation Carnival 2014 will lead you to discover and participate in the ongoing and coming social innovations.

On 28 March, 2014, Social Innovation Carnival 2014 sponsored by YouChange and co-sponsored by ifeng.com, China Philanthropist magazine, zhongchou.cn, China Auto Rental Holdings Inc. and iyiyun.com, was formally launched. With the theme “Social Innovation Big Discovery”, the carnival this year aimed to discover and assist social enterprises and social innovation endeavors, advocate and encourage “social value investment” to further stimulate the dynamics of social innovation and explore new charity models of social enterprises. Representatives from the business, media and academic communities as well as a large number of practitioners in social innovation attended this launching event.

YouChange Chairperson Wang Ping believed that innovation in the future would come from concerns over the whole society, include the government, the business community, NGOs and other sectors, and push forward the social eco-system as a whole. “Borderless will become a key word in future social innovation as everyone is a participant and beneficiary of innovation. The carnival this year aims to identify social innovation drivers that go beyond specific businesses and societies, those who can trigger systemic changes. We hope that our carnival will become such a driver with your participation and support.”

YouChange is an early advocate and active practitioner in social innovation in China. Seven years into its establishment, social enterprise and social innovation have become YouChange’s DNA. Social innovation carnival is a cross-sector charity event launched by YouChange in 2010, a platform to advocate social innovation and to promote cross-sector communication. The carnival this year is the third one. Outstanding corporate citizens, government departments, academic institutes, and media organizations participate in this exciting and popular event to create a cross-sector, cross-regional and cross-field environment for social innovation. It aims to stimulate the general public to give more attention and input into charity and encourage new methods, new thinking and new explorations for more effective solutions to social problems. The inaugural carnival, held in Shanghai, advocated “Everyone’s Philanthropy, Happy Philanthropy and Innovative Philanthropy” and identified 134 cases of social innovation.

The carnival this year has four stages—identify, visit, exhibit and support. An integrated online-offline approach will be used to place more emphasis on the integration of neo-philanthropy and the Internet. “As a platform to support social innovation, YouChange will work hard to seek real Chinese cases of social innovation and more importantly give strong support to these social innovation practices,” told Chairperson Wang Ping.

Offline, the carnival will launch “Discover Social Innovation” events with local partners in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places. They will have in-depth discussion on the directions of social innovation, models of social enterprises and mechanisms of social investment mechanisms through forums, case sharing and “World Café”. At the same time, the carnival will partner with China Auto Rental Holdings Inc. to organize field visits on social innovation for academics and journalists. In September, the carnival will hold a forum on social value investment in Shenzhen to explore effective ways to support social enterprises.

Online, YouChange has entered into cooperation with zhongchou.cn, ifeng.com, Sina, Sohu, gmw.cn, ce.cn, and iyiyun.com to launch a social innovation carnival in the cyberspace.

The neo-philanthropy crowd fundraising channel launched by zhongchou.cn will provide a platform for social innovators to promote their business and raise money. The social enterprise channel started by ifeng.com will advocate the concept of social enterprise, build a database of social enterprises, and hold a forum on social enterprise. Sina will collect topics on social issues and encourage public participation through “microtopic service”. Sohu will launch an election and voting on neo-philanthropy “social innovation stars”—practitioners in this field. Gmw.cn will hold a photo collection initiative on social innovation. Ce.cn will focus on social entrepreneurs and talents in social enterprises in its media coverage. Iyiyun.com will launch a “social enterprise map” project to give greater exposure to social enterprises in China.

The carnival enjoys extensive public participation and support. YouChange hopes that more media will support and participate. “One priority of the carnival this year is to identify social innovators with sustainable business and social responsibility. They are real social entrepreneurs. We hope the whole society will give them more attention and support,” said YouChange Chairperson Wang Ping.

Sheng Jia, NCF Group CEO, said he was very happy to participate in the carnival and enter into strategic partnership with YouChange. “As one of the most influential crowd fundraising websites in China, zhongchou.cn fully supports neo-philanthropy and social value investment. The rising Internet financing has brought new opportunities to the development concept and ways of financing to charity in China. Through the carnival, we will support social innovation practices, promote social value crowd fundraising and investment, and jointly explore effective ways for deeper integration of the Internet and charity. We will launch a neo-philanthropy crowd fundraising channel and rally for neo-philanthropy in the future.”

Crowd fundraising donation in charity projects will not only strengthen communication between donors and fundraisers, but also forge closer relations between charity projects and participants. In addition, it will also enable more people to more easily participate in charity. It helps good charity ideas to become practice and the general public to support their favorite charity ideas in diverse ways.

Wang Tao, chief editor of the charity channel in ifeng.com, said that ifeng.com paid close attention to social enterprises and hoped charity would be run in a more transparent, professional and efficient way. “Real entrepreneurs are not only participants of China’s economic miracle, but also forerunners in building a civil society and creating social values. To resolve social problems in a business way is both viable and promising. We believe in the power of the market and the effectiveness of business-like charity. This echoes with YouChange’s neo-philanthropy. We appeal to our media colleagues to work together with us, pay more attention to social innovation and social enterprise, and help integrate business with charity in a more effective way.”

The opening ceremony of Social Innovation Carnival 2014 was followed by a forum on social value investment and social startup enterprise. YouChange Chairperson Wang Ping, Huang Yasheng, Associate Dean of MIT Sloan School of Management, and other guests made remarks on social value investment and social enterprise.