China Philanthropy: A Blog of Social Venture Group

As I was doing further research into tobacco use in China and seeing if there were already previously established advocacy groups or nonprofits dedicated to reducing tobacco consumption, I stumbled upon this outstanding website called China Philanthropy: A Blog of Social Venture Group.

Social Venture Group (for those who like myself had never heard of them) is a team whose mission is to: "multiply the impact of philanthropy to China by 1) increasing the efficiency and transparency of charitable giving; 2) building a community of generous, committed donors; 3) fostering a healthier social sector." The group has provided assistance and consulted a wide range of nonprofits, corporations, and individuals who wish to provide goods and services at the grassroots level in China.

Besides its actual ground work, Social Venture Group also runs the China Philanthropy blog I originally stumbled upon and mentioned above. This blog is the real reason for my post today. First, directly pertaining to my social venture, I found an interesting article from October 2011 on how and why tobacco usage continues to grow in China. Besides many of the facts I have mentioned before, the post (link below) also makes reference to the role cultural norms play in the prevalence of cigarette usage in the country. I was shocked to find out that at least 100 schools were funded by the tobacco industry and tobacco names, slogans, and promotions often appear around these schools. Apparently one slogan on a gate of a school read "Genius comes from hard work- Tobacco helps you become talented."

This concept of social norms and cultural influences seems to be a huge part of what my social venture will have to address when working on an awareness campaign for smoking prevention in China. While this topic is something we briefly touched upon in class, I don't think I really understood its ramifications until reading this article today. I am sure some of the rest of you might find similar problems or issues in your areas of innovation, so I do hope this article will be of some help/interest to you. Also after spending some more time on the blog site, I have seen many interesting articles pertaining to multiple different fields. While in general the articles are based on experiences in China, I am sure many are applicable to other countries or situations. The links for my specific article as well as the social venture groups website are below.

http://blog.socialventuregroup.com/svg/2011/10/tobacco-use-continues-to-grow-in-china.html#more

http://www.socialventuregroup.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1