Jet Li's One Foundation

1. This article appeared in Reader's Digest January 2009 issue.

2. Jet Li is a famous international famous kungfu star from China. He was once China's martial arts champion, trained at the renowned Shaolin Temple.

3. He had a brush with death on 26th December 2004, when the tsunami killed about 300,000 people. At that time he was in the Maldives with his wife, two daughters and their nanny. One of his daughters and the nanny almost drowned but was saved by four bystanders. That incident shook him up and prompted him to take a closer look at what he wanted to do with his life. He was a changed man after that.

4. He spent a lot of time learning about philanthropy including speaking to academics around the world and visiting the Rockefeller Foundation to learn what makes a successful non-government organisation (NGO).

5. "What I learned is you need transparency." People need to trust that their money actually reaches the needy.

6. The idea behind One Foundation is simple: think big by thinking small. If everybody gives one yuan every month, it will add up to billions of dollars.

7. He teamed up with Alibaba.com's founder Jack Ma who allowed him to make use of his online payment system without any processing fees.

8. The foundation raised $16 million in about 18 months.

9. One Foundation wants to build a platform, a bridge between people who want to give the money and the NGOs that need it.

10. Jet Li and Jack Ma stayed up late three nights in a row, trying to figure out how to make One Foundation a model for NGOs in China.

Innovative way of doing charity

Sunlove Abode for Intellectually Infirmed, a charity in Singapore, has come up with an innovative way of helping the poor. They are buying staples like rice in bulk, repacking them into small quantities, and then selling them at cost.

This way, they can help the poor without hurting their own wallets.

For report, see The Straits Times, January 9, 2009.

Budimas raises RM30,000

1. Budimas 3rd Annual Christmas charity bazaar managed to raise RM30,000 for unfortunate children.

2. Budimas is now supporting more than 500 orphans and poor children from 10 homes.

3. Budimas recently set up their own home called Pusat Jagaan Kebajikan Budimas Orion in Petaling Jaya.

For full report and list of the 10 homes supported by Budimas, please see The Star, 23 December 2008.

4. The Budimas Charitable Foundation was incorporated under the Trustees Act 1952 on September 14, 1998 and is under the royal patronage of Her Royal Highness, Duli Yang Maha Mulia Seri Paduka Baginda, Raja Permaisuri Agong. It came under a new Board of Trustees when Malaysian Assurance Alliance Berhad (MAA Assurance), a Melewar Group Company, adopted Budimas in November 2001.

Muslim Care charity helps all races

1. Muslim Care is a charity organisation set up in 2000 by Mr Zulkefli bin Mohd Nani, a consultant at SIRIM Malaysia.

2. The charity helps people from all races and background.

3. They also contribute towards natural disasters outside the country such as tsunami victims in Acheh.

4. They also contribute towards refugees in Palestine, Syria and Iraq.

5. In times of worldwide conflict, such a charity fostering love among different races and religion is indeed commendable.

For full report, see The Star, 23 December 2008.

Singapore NKF scandal

1. Only 10% of every dollar had gone to healthcare in Singapore's National Kidney Foundation (NKF).

2. "Squeaky-clean" Singaporeans consider the scandal a national shame.

3. Former CEO of NKF, TT Durai, drew a yearly salary of S$600,000, together with perks, including first-class flights paid for by donor funds, and the upkeep of his Mercedes.

4. The scandal shows that abuse of funds can happen in any charity in the world. It all depends on the people handling the money; how ethical they are.

Reference: http://www.littlespeck.com/content/politics/CTrendsPolitics-070113.htm

The Star, 23rd December 2008.

Donations drop more than 60%

1. Rising costs due to rise in petrol prices have hit charities badly.

2. Couple with the current world financial crisis, charities in Malaysia are now in dire need of funds to keep themselves afloat.

3. Some charities like Penang-based The Hiding Place, a drug rehabilitation and juvenile centre, has also seen a reduction by more than 60 percent.

4. Charity Malaysia appeals to all donors to keep the funds flowing, even at a slower pace. Please do not stop giving. Charities in Malaysia depend on you.

For full report, see Malay Mail, July 21, 2008.

One Egg One Child (OEOC)

One Egg One Child is an outreach programme initiated by JC Inspirations Sdn Bhd founder and chairman Dr Peggy Wong, with the aim of providing breakfast for the hardcore poor on school days.

For full report, see The Star, 7th May 2007.

Public view of charities

1. Marina Mahathir says that the public's view of charity has not evolved with the times.

2. She is the daughter of our former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad.

3. There is a mistaken belief that charities must be run by volunteers.

4. There is no such thing as a full-time volunteer.

5. All charities should be accountable for money given to them.

6. There should be a way of defining and regulating professional fundraisers.

7. It is most disturbing to find people hanging around banks and restaurants trying to raise funds.

For full report, see The Star, 25th April 2007.

Fundraising a big task for charities

Charities in Malaysia are exploited in various ways. This is because it is a big task for them to raise funds. Sometimes they have no choice but to engage professional fundraisers.

See full report at The Star, 15 April 2007.

Charity funds abused

1. Abuse of charity funds can take various forms, says veteran fundraiser, Ann Woo.

2. Ann Woo is not sure if legislation is the answer.

3. She says, "At the end of the day, it all depends on how ethical those involved in fundraising are."

See full report at The Star, 15th April 2007.

Dr Tan Kee Kwong's name used

1. Member of Parliament, Dr Tan Kee Kwong's name was used by unscrupulous people. Dr Tan is the son of famous politician, Dr Tan Chee Khoon, remembered for his many contributions and service to the poor and needy.

See full report at The Star, 15th April 2007.

Middlemen get 60% of donations

Fundraising has become very competitive in Malaysia.
Middlemen are getting a big slice of 60% of funds raised for charity organisations here.

See report at The Star, 13th May 2007 (a) and (b).

Charity organisations exploited

Huge chunks of public donations end up in the pockets of people who least need help.
See how professional fundraisers are fleecing the public.

The Star, 15th April 2007.

Why CharityMalaysia? Part Two

Advantages of donating via CharityMalaysia.com:-
o Accountable. Amounts collected will be displayed at each charitypage.
o Transparent. Charities' contact details are available for donors' easy reference and confirmation.
o Secure. We use proven payment systems used by big organisations like Amazon and Air Asia.
o Fast. It's online - saves time, travelling and other costs.
o Easy. Just follow the instructions on the screen.
o Screening. You can view the profile of the charity concerned before donating.
o In touch. You can access data such as total funds received by any charity to-date, top donors and top recipient charities, appreciation and testimonies as well as photos.

Advantages of raising funds with CharityMalaysia.com:-
o Secure. Your donors will be able to contact you via all your contact details given by you.
o Cheaper than traditional ways of fundraising.
o Easy. Only 4 simple steps. Refer "How To Get Listed".
o Prompt payment via online remittances.
o Fast.
o Convenient and flexible. You can change your profile, writeup or upload photos.
o Worldwide audience.
o No initial setup costs.
o Confidential.
o Storage. Your data can be stored for a long time.
o Categorised. Your charity is categorised for easy retrieval and viewing by interested donors.

CharityMalaysia provides a secure and convenient way to raise funds as well as make donations. We will be using proven online payment systems used by big organizations such as Amazon and Air Asia. We are currently using Paypal, the most popular online payment system in the world. We will soon be incorporating other secure systems like Worldpay, 2CO and online bank debit systems in the near future.
We welcome all parties to raise funds at this site but we do not support any particular race, religion or political ideology.

Even with the recent bad press on these so-called professional fundraisers mentioned earlier, CharityMalaysia is confident that the Malaysian authorities are able to distinguish our efforts from the activities of these rogue fundraisers. As highlighted in our advantages above, the difference is obvious.

Why CharityMalaysia?

CharityMalaysia was initially launched to address one problem, the operation of heartless and unscrupulous individuals disguising themselves as professional fundraisers in Malaysia. These syndicates capitalise on the fact that people, in particular Malaysian citizens, are benevolent in nature and always have a soft spot for the needy. They then devise numerous ways to fleece the public of their hard-earned cash, at the same time depriving the desperate and needy of their deserved contributions.

These wolves in sheepskin brazenly offer their services to charity organisations that are too weighed down by daily operations to raise funds for their cause. They charge up to 70% of the amount of funds collected as their service charge. And that is not all. Often they take advantage of these helpless charity organisations ignorance and run away with the full amount collected. They do this by using the names, photos, documents and other paraphernalia to ask for donations from the public without the knowledge and consent of the charities concerned.

In our neighbouring country Thailand more atrocities were being committed. It may sound like a horror movie but it is true. Normal people have their limbs chopped off and were forced to beg on the streets by these syndicates. We were told that some of these beggars could be children from Malaysia.

In Singapore, more criminal scandals have been uncovered in recent years where the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) misappropriated a major portion of funds donated causing a public outcry against the perpetrators. They were subsequently indicted and are now serving jail sentences.

As we do not want to wait to be told to the right thing, the founders of CharityMalaysia have taken upon themselves to set a standard in this region to be first of all accountable and transparent in all our fundraising activities. We aspire to be a benchmark in the management of our funds raised through direct donations to our website. Our in-house charity activities will focus on financial education, as we believe that financial ignorance is causing untold misery everyday.

We aim to launch CharityMalaysia officially in June 2007. However, visitors are welcome to start raising funds or make donations now. The mode of payment currently is only via Paypal/credit card. We will be working on a direct debit payment system for Malaysian donors.