Charity Slam-dunk for Yao Ming

By HU JINYI

The Yao Ming-Steve Nash charity game in Beijing raised millions of yuan for Project Hope on September 14, 2007.                                                                                                                China Foto Press

IN late July the basketball superstar Yao Ming organized two charity games, one in Beijing and one in Taipei.

As the most recognized Chinese sportsman in the world, Yao Ming is putting his influence in Chinese society to work on behalf of charity. Initially, he simply donated money and acted as a spokesman for philanthropic organizations, but as Yao’s influence has grown, so has his involvement. In 2007, he and Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns jointly organized a charity game and auction in Beijing, raising RMB14 million for Project Hope to help school dropouts back into education. In 2008, in the wake of the deadly Wenchuan Earthquake in Sichuan, Yao Ming personally donated millions and established his own fund – the Yao Foundation.

It Needs More Than One Individual

Four years ago, at the launch ceremony of the College Dream of China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) Yao Ming watched a movie based on the real-life struggle of two brothers in a drought area. The boys helped pay their way through primary and middle schools by carrying water from a dozen miles away – at one cent a bucket. Both passed the college entrance exam but the family could only afford for one of them to take up a place. Each brother unselfishly wanted the other to go. There was a happy ending: each boy received RMB 8,000 from the CYDF in July 2006, and both graduated from college this year. “Yao Ming came looking for me after the movie,” Wang Min, deputy secretary of the CYDF, recalls. “He wanted to do a good thing but didn’t want the publicity that would come with it. At first, he tried to keep his philanthropy low-profile, but the story of the brothers changed his view of charity.”

In June 2008, five weeks after the Sichuan quake, Yao Ming set up the Yao Foundation, with the knowledge that all the help an individual can offer, even a superstar athlete like himself, is just a drop in the ocean in face of stark needs across society. “Charitable giving will realize its full value only with support from the society as a whole. Celebs should not just donate money or materials, but also act as role models to encourage the public to give. We may all just give a little but it can be a tremendous help for those in need,” Yao says. “The foundation was an idea I’d been mulling over for some time and I made contact with people involved in the field a couple of years earlier. The Earthquake accelerated the timing of its creation.”

According to the Regulation on Foundation Administration issued by the State Council in 2004, foundations are separated into public and non-public. Unlike their public counterpart, non-public foundations, established by enterprises or individuals, are not allowed to raise money from the public in China. This regulation rules out the chance of public participation, Yao’s goal in creating his foundation, if he ran the organization independently. So his Chinese agent Lu Hao approached the CYDF for help. The two sides finally agreed on a partnership placing the Yao Foundation under the umbrella of the CYDF, an arrangement that permits Yao’s organization to raise funds from the public.

“The CYDF taught us a lot more about Chinese laws and regulations concerning foundations, including audit and finance. Our cooperation goes way back and Yao’s focus on youth education and welfare is in line with the CYDF guidelines,” Lu speaks of the fellowship between the two foundations.

With the support of the CYDF, the Yao Foundation completed the application process in only 40 days. The initiating fund came from the RMB 14 million raised at charity events co-initiated by Yao Ming and Steve Nash in 2007. Of this sum RMB 2 million was donated by Yao himself.

It's Your Sporting Idol Calling

In the early days after the Sichuan earthquake the CYDF set up the first tent primary school in Wenchuan. However, all grades and classes were mixed in together with no streaming. Many kids were studying out in the open air, and some had no schools to go to at all. According to CYDF data, 185 schools in the province needed complete reconstruction, and some 8,000 classrooms needed renovation or reinforcement. It cost about RMB1.1 million to rebuild a school for 300 students. The grim situation in the quake zones worried Yao, but his preparations for the 2008 Olympics precluded a personal visit to the disaster area at the time. He told Lu Hao to give out the money raised for the restoration of schools as soon as possible, and to make sure “every dime will be used for children in the disaster area.”

During that period, Yao continued to do whatever he could. He called up kids in hospital whom his media contacts told him had been particularly brave, or who were there as the result of injuries sustained when helping others out of danger. Yao asked for media confidentiality about the calls in case it embarrassed the kids.

It was September 2008 before Yao finally got to visit the disaster area. He confessed that the prospect made him much more nervous than the Olympics. “I did a lot of preparation, like how to talk to kids, in what kind of tone, what might be sensitive subjects,” Yao says. “But once there I was happy to realize I’d been wasting my time. They were optimistic, which is just what I wanted to see.”

This trip helped Yao decide upon the first Yao Foundation project – the Xueyan-Yao Foundation Primary School in a village in Guangyuan, Sichuan. At the foundation-laying ceremony, Yao told the students that he hoped to come again once the new school was completed. Sadly he was unable to attend the opening ceremony one year later because of an injury. Even so, he put in a call to the kids he’d had a game with.

“He made two calls before the ceremony, just to be sure of getting an OK signal,” recalls Li Lu, PR man of Yao’s team, who was there at the ceremony. “And he didn’t hang up for the half hour between the calls and the opening ceremony, in case the signal might cut out, which would disappoint the kids a lot.” According to Li, Yao doesn’t want to miss anything related to his foundation, and tries to attend all its activities. At the annual management conference, he listens very attentively to each and every speech.

“The Most Meaningful Way of Using Money”

In the last two years, the Yao Foundation has helped Yao Ming achieve his dream – encouraging more people to join the charity through his own actions. Deng Guosheng, director of the Research Center for Innovation and Social Responsibility of Tsinghua University, believes Yao sets a good example in China’s charity sector. “As the best known Chinese athlete in the world, he can be a model, a promoter in the development of charitable undertakings,” Deng says. “His philanthropic actions will prompt more sports stars, public figures and eventually ordinary citizens to get involved in charity work. This will be a step toward building a harmonious society where everybody looks out for each other.”

Understandably Yao cannot devote himself 100 percent to charity for the moment. “He’s done his utmost, but I think people still want him to be a good basketball player above all else,” says Lu Hao. The Yao Foundation is also taking a look at other Chinese foundations for collaboration possibilities. “We hope to find some foundations with experience in initiating and operating projects, financially transparent operations that can put money where it’s most needed and can do most good. That way we can channel what we raise through them so as to help more people,” says Yao.

So far the Yao Foundation has funded six primary schools in Sichuan and Yunnan and a special-care school in Gansu, enrolling 3,638 students. As the sporting giant declares: “This is the most meaningful way to use money.”

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HU JINYI is a reporter with Sports Illustrated China.