Recently, Zhejiang University has occupied the headlines.
The initial cause was that on the afternoon of May 3, Zhejiang University received donations from Shanghai suizhen Investment Management Co., Ltd., an alumni enterprise, and received donations of 1.1 billion yuan, which was called “the largest alumni donation in history”, refresh the record of the maximum amount of domestic alumni donations.
The discussion triggered by this matter lasted for nearly a week, and the topics mainly focused on the current situation of low donation rate of alumni in China and the imperfect management of alumni donation.
Zheng knew (WeChat ID:upolitics) that on May 9, Zijingang future innovation parent fund, an alumnus of Zhejiang University, was established as the management company of the parent fund, hangzhou Zhejiang university future innovation investment management company decided to donate part of the management income to Zhejiang University Education Foundation.
It is not new for colleges and universities to accept donations, but Zhejiang University has received enough donations recently and the amount is large enough.
Fund
The donation ceremony on the afternoon of May 3 was held in Zijin gang campus, Zhejiang University. At that time, the donor Shanghai suizhen Investment Management Co., Ltd. signed a contract with Zhejiang University and officially announced the donation of 1.1 billion yuan to the Education Foundation of Zhejiang University.
As you can see, the donor is in the name of the company, not an individual. The company was established in 2015, and its name “suizhen” is a school song from Zhejiang University. The investment shares of the company are alumni of Zhejiang University. The company is a social platform company. The principle of initiation is that each shareholder should not exceed 4% of the equity at most to avoid excessive concentration of equity. According to the data, the company aims to bring together Alumni of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, government and social resources. Its main businesses include venture capital, fund management, cross-border investment platform and think tank research.
These donations will be used to set up the “Zhejiang University Education Foundation suizhen Education Development Fund”. Instead of paying all the donations in one lump sum, they will donate 1.1 billion yuan in total for 10 years.
The relevant person in charge of suizhen company also stressed that the reason why 1.1 billion was chosen instead of other money was that “the fund size was 12 billion, and the expected annual income of 10% was very conservative. At the same time, it was a sword in 10 years, 1.1 billion also represents alumni’s single-minded attitude towards their alma mater.”
At the donation ceremony held on the 9th, Zijingang future innovation parent fund, an alumnus of Zhejiang University, was also established as the management company of the parent fund, hangzhou Zhejiang university future innovation investment management company donated part of the management income to Zhejiang University Education Foundation. At that time, Zhu Congyi, vice governor of Zhejiang province, Jin Deshui, secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang University, President Zhao-Hui Wu of Zhejiang University and so on all participated in the activity.
Zhao-Hui Wu said that it is necessary to continuously innovate the mechanism of alumni feeding their alma mater and promote the construction of a development community of “co-construction, sharing and symbiosis”. This time, alumni jointly initiated the establishment of parent funds and several sub-funds, using market allocation function and professional investment strategy, the management fee, management team performance reward and income are mainly used to support the education career of the alma mater. What he said can also make us know a little about the management and operation of the donated funds of Zhejiang University alumni.
Ranking
The donation of 1.1 billion yuan made a person “be” on the headlines, that is, Xiong Xinxiang, who once kept the record of domestic alumni donation amount.
He is the chairman of Chongqing Buendia Science and Technology Co., Ltd. and a 86-level alumnus of Chengdu University of Electronic Science and Technology. In September 2016, Chongqing Buendia Science and Technology Co., Ltd. donated 1.03 billion yuan during the 60th anniversary of Chengdu University of Electronic Science and Technology. The money is not a one-time donation, but a donation in 10 years through the “Buendia education development fund” established by the enterprise.
At the beginning of this year, iruishen China Alumni Association released the list of alumni donations from Chinese universities. Statistics show that as of December 2016, the total amount of alumni donations received by universities nationwide exceeded 23 billion, there are 39 colleges and universities with a donation amount of hundreds of millions.
Among them, five universities have received more than 1 billion yuan in total, while tsinghua university ranks first in the ranking with the amount of 2.529 billion yuan in donation; Peking university ranks second, with the total amount of donations being 2.144 billion yuan; Wuhan university 1.641 billion, ranked third; University of Electronic Science and Technology ranked fourth in 1.573 billion; Fudan University ranked fifth in 1.145 billion.
According to statistics, there are more than 50 alumni (including collectives) who have donated more than 0.1 billion in colleges and universities nationwide, and Tsinghua University and Peking University have the largest number. More than 10 million alumni have more than 360 people, Tsinghua University and Wuhan University have the largest number, more than 1 million donated alumni have more than 1300 people, Wuhan University and Tsinghua University have the largest number.
Among the donors, there are many well-known alumni, such as Fudan University alumni and Lu Zhiqiang, chairman of China pan Hai holding group, who donated 0.7 billion yuan to Fudan University, setting a record for Fudan alumni donations; Alumni of China Agricultural University, shao gengang, founder of Dabei Nong Group, donated 0.2 billion yuan to his alma mater; Jack Ma, an alumnus of Hangzhou Normal University and chairman of Alibaba, donated 0.1 billion yuan to his alma mater.
Gap
As soon as Zhejiang University received the news of “the largest alumni enterprise donation in history”, the discussion on alumni donation resumed.
Some critics believe that it is meaningless to emphasize “the biggest in history”. For domestic universities, it is more important to expand the donation basis. Foreign universities such as Harvard and Oxford also attach importance to alumni donation rate rather than single donation.
Compared with foreign countries, the foundation of alumni donation in our country is very limited. In August 2015, 76 subordinate colleges and universities successively announced the final accounts of 2014 according to the requirements of the Ministry of Education. Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, the top five universities on the list, the biggest source of income of Fudan University is career income, followed by financial allocation income, and finally Other income. According to the Statistical Yearbook of China’s education funds, Chinese colleges and universities received social donations in 2014, accounting for of the total income. According to calculation, Tsinghua University, which received the most social donation income in 2014, was less than 2%.
In the United States and other countries, donation has become a large proportion of university funding. For example, 35% of the operating expenses of Harvard University come from its endowment fund every year, and the contribution rate of Yale University endowment fund to the annual budget of Harvard University is as high as 44%.
In addition, the imperfect management system of social donation in Chinese colleges and universities has also caused great discussion. The use of funds is not open and transparent enough, the donation mode is not clear enough, and how the schools repay the donors is not clear enough. Therefore, some people are worried that there will be “fake donations”, or that the donors will intervene in running schools, or that the donated funds will not operate properly.
Xiong Bingqi, an educational scholar, told Zheng that (WeChat ID:upolitics), “sometimes the boundaries between business cooperation and donation are confused when colleges and universities publicize,” he said: “If the proceeds from the operation of this money serve the enterprises that provide funds, it is business cooperation, not donation.”
Some people also worry about how some installment donation plans can ensure that subsequent donations are in place on time and whether the publicity effect for enterprises will be reached, and subsequent donations will begin to be “unstable”.
Purpose
Generally speaking, the donor will specify the purpose and use the money to send grants, awards, infrastructure construction, or scientific research. If the donor does not specify a purpose, most of the money will be deposited in the bank, and some feedback can be given to the donor when using it.
The use of funds with clear direction by donors will be stated in the initial donation agreement. For example, in the 1.1 billion yuan donated by Zhejiang University this time, according to the agreement between the two parties, it will be used to establish “suizhen Industry and Finance Research Center of Zhejiang University” to support the construction of talent team, academic research, talent cultivation and international exchanges of Zhejiang University, etc, the first donation of 12 million yuan is used to set up “Chunzhen international exchange scholarship of Zhejiang University”, which will reward outstanding students of the school to carry out overseas research, international exchange, joint training and other projects.
Another example is the donation of Youxiong Xinxiang from the University of Electronic Science and Technology. At that time, the report pointed out that the donation was completed in 10 years through the “Buendia education development fund” established by the enterprise, and the fund was divided into two parts, principal Fund project and Buendia interdisciplinary innovation and development fund project. The total amount of the principal fund project is 30 million yuan, which is calculated as 6 million yuan per year. It is used to support the relevant matters that the president of University of Electronic Science and Technology has identified and carried out to contribute to the development of school education, its management and use are carried out in accordance with the process of “The principal signs the fund use letter in writing, notifies the Foundation Secretariat to carry out, and the fund use is decided by the principal.
The total amount of the Buendia interdisciplinary innovation and development fund project is 1 billion yuan, supporting the interdisciplinary innovation and development of the University of Electronic Science and technology in many fields such as environmental protection, food safety, big data, combination of industry and finance, and training of business talents, its uses include but are not limited to: Introducing first-class teachers, setting up positions of chair professors and named professors, employing full-time scientific researchers, building special physical space, setting up special development funds, etc. Its management and use process: decided by the management committee of lazy bear Kangkang interdisciplinary innovation and development fund of University of Electronic Science and Technology.
Xiong Bingqi, an educational scholar, told the government that (WeChat ID:upolitics), there is no special regulation on the use of donated funds in colleges and universities. First of all, the charity law is applicable, because alumni donations are also charitable funds. At the same time, according to the measures for information disclosure of colleges and universities, the financial information of colleges and universities is required to be made public, and the donation income is also the financial income, which needs to be made public. It is necessary to disclose who the donor is, where the funds are used, and how to repay the donor.
“But now the use of funds in this area in our country is very small and needs to be more transparent.” Xiong Bingqi gave an example of operating funds of foreign colleges and universities. In colleges and universities in the United States and other places, the school Foundation reinvests the donated income to preserve and appreciate the funds, “This is almost not available in our country.” However, he also stressed that the premise of capital operation is to be open and transparent, and to have the operation of a professional team, “Investment is risky. What should I do if the investment loses money? Therefore, it is necessary for professional personnel to operate.”
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author | Editor Gao Yuyang | Zhang Wei recently, Zhejiang University occupied the headline position of the news. The initial cause was that on the afternoon of May 3, Zhejiang University received a donation from Shanghai suizhen Investment Management Co., Ltd., an alumni enterprise, and received a donation of 1.1 billion yuan.