China Social Entrepreneur Foundation (YouChange)’s Reviewing Regulation on
External Project Financing
Chapter I General Matters
Article I This regulation is made, on the basis of the Constitution of China Social Entrepreneur Foundation (hereinafter referred to as YouChange), to standardize reviewing ways and procedures on YouChange’s external project financing, improve reviewing efficiency, ensure sound and objective decisions on charity projects, and effectively implement the rights bestowed on YouChange departments and staff.
Chapter II Reviewing Body
Article II The highest decision-making body of YouChange is the Board of Directors;
All important business activities and plans, including fund raising, management and utilization plans, should be decided by the Board of Directors;
Except for earmarked donations, important business activity refers to any single external project financing with more than five million yuan.
Article III Project decision making committee is responsible for the strategic framework of YouChange’s projects, development of administrative regulations on the establishment, implementation, supervision and assessment of specific projects, and the exercise of decision making power;
Article IV Project decision making committee is chaired by secretary general and its members include secretary general, deputy secretary general, director of finance, and heads of the department of research and strategy, the character education center, the volunteer support center, the department of communication, the department of external relations, the department of general administration, and the project organizing department, as well as external experts deemed necessary by the project decision making committee.
Chapter III Reviewing Mechanism
Article V Project decision making committee should conduct thorough discussion on candidate projects and forge its opinions;
Project decision making committee votes on candidate projects and a project will get approval to be financed if more than half of committee members agree; voting can be conducted in meetings or by communication (including correspondence, fax and email); meeting records, communication records, and other materials of project decision making committee should be kept as project records;
Chapter IV Reviewing Procedure
Article VI YouChange’s project review procedure is as follows:
1. The project organizing department is responsible for collecting Project Application Forms according to YouChange’s project application process, conducting formal examination and assessment on applying organizations and projects, submitting suggestions or advices to relevant departmental leaders on the basis of input from different sources, and reporting to the project group for initial assessment;
2. The project group designates project officials for follow-up; project officials should know applying organizations and projects well before they put forward suggestions and advices to Project Application Form; project officials should conduct investigations and, after the confirmation of the project group, recommend to the project decision making committee and suggest to the committee that a review be conducted on the candidate project;
3. A project, once approved by the project decision making committee, will enter into the implementation stage; the project organizing department will prepare a cooperation agreement and other related project documents, the secretary general, on behalf of YouChange, and the applying organization will sign the cooperation document with Project Proposal (detailed) and other project-required documents as annexes; the department of finance will provide funds according to the cooperation project and copies of relevant project documents will be kept in the project organizing department, the department of social work, the department of research and strategy, the department of finance and the department of general administration;
4. Project officials designated by the project organizing department are responsible for follow-up work on project progress reports and financial reports according to the cooperation agreement; final project report, final financial report, audit report and project officials’ concluding report should be reviewed by the project organizing department and approved by the secretary general before the department of finance provides the next batch of funds; and copies of submitted reports should be kept at the department of social work and the department of research and strategy;
5. Project Assessment Process
During project implementation and after its conclusion, the project organizing department, along with the department of research and strategy and the department of finance, will conduct end-to-end assessment to ensure funds are well-spent and further improve project outcome; assessment outcome will be reported to the project decision making committee and passed by the committee after discussion;
Third-party assessment may be introduced if necessary for project with funds of more than 500,000 yuan; assessment outcome will be reported to the project decision making committee and passed by the committee after discussion; after the project is concluded, copies of relevant project records should be kept at the project organizing department and the department of research and strategy for research and development of future projects;
6. Should the following major matters occur and differ from the cooperation agreement, applying organization should provide written explanation to project officials who will submit their opinions on whether these changes be accepted or not to the project organizing department; these changes can be implemented only after the review and approval by the project decision making committee:
a. Changes to the project leader;
b. More than 10% changes to the project budget;
c. Changes or adjustments such as merger, abolition and leadership of the applying organization;
d. Major changes to the design in the project proposal due to force majeure;
e. Other important matters that may affect project objective or project implementation plan;
Article VII The project organizing department should hold a project decision making committee meeting 30 workdays after the tender is closed;
Chapter V Other Matters
Article VIII The right to interpret and revise this regulation is reserved with the project decision making committee, and revision to this regulation can only be adopted after full discussion among committee members and signing by the secretary general;
Article IX This regulation comes into force upon its release;
Article X Should there be any conflict between this regulation and YouChange’s constitution, the latter will prevail.