Measures on Information Disclosure by Charitable Organizations

Promulgation Date: 2018-8-6
Title: Measures on Information Disclosure by Charitable Organizations
Document Number:民政部令第61号
Expiration date: 
Promulgating Entities:Ministry of Civil Affairs
Source of text: http://www.mca.gov.cn/article/gk/fg/shzzgl/201808/20180800010515.shtml

Article 1: These Measures are formulated on the basis of the "Charity Law of the People's Republic of China" , (hereinafter "Charity Law") so as to regulate information disclosures by charitable organizations,and protect the lawful rights and interests of donors, volunteers, beneficiaries, and other participants in charitable activities, to preserve the public's right to know, and to promote the development of charities.

Article 2: Charitable organizations shall perform information disclosure obligations in accordance with law, and information disclosures are to be truthful, complete and timely.

Charitable organizations shall establish information disclosure systems to clarify the scope, methods and responsibilities for information disclosure.

Charitable organizations shall be responsible for the truthfulness of disclosed information, and must not have misrepresentations, misleading statements, or major omissions; and must not use models such as press releases or advertising campaigns in place of performing information disclosure obligations.

Article 3: Charitable organizations shall follow the provisions of relevant laws and regulations and of these Measures to disclose the following information to the public unified information platform provided by the Ministry of Civil Affairs (hereinafter referred to as the 'unified information platform'):

(1) The basic information provided for in these Measures;

(2) Annual work reports and financial accounting reports;

(3) Public fundraising situations;

(4) Circumstances related to charitable programs;

(5) Circumstances related to charitable trusts;

(6) Circumstances such as major asset changes, investments, major exchanges or transactions, and capital flow, and related party transactions;

(7) other information that laws and regulations require disclosure of.

Article 4: Charitable organizations shall make the following basic information public on the unified information platform within 30 days of the date on which it is formed:

(1) The charter as approved by the civil affairs departments;

(2) Information on the members of their decision-making, implementation, and supervision bodies;

(3) The name, time of establishment, standing, and scope of operations or main functions of offices, branch organizations, or representative offices, special funds, and other such bodies that are established;

(4) Founders, principal donors, managers, a party being invested in, as well as any individuals or organizations that have control, joint control or a relationship with major impact on the charitable organizations(hereinafter an "important affiliate")

(5) That organizations' contact persons and contact methods, and network platforms such as web portals, official microblogs, official Wechats, or mobile clients opened in that organizations name;

(6) That organization's information disclosure systems, project management systems, and financial and asset management systems.

Where basic information is a matter in the charitable organizations' registration, the civil affairs departments are to disclose it, and the charitable organizations may be exempted from disclosure.

Charitable organizations may have paper versions of their basic information placed in the organization's domicile to facilitate public access and reproduction.

Article 5: The basic information that shall be disclosed for charitable organizations with public fundraising credentials shall further include:

(1) Annual disclosure of the amount of compensation received by the top five highest compensated employees in that organization

(2) That organization's standards for foreign (non-mainland) travel expenses, vehicle purchase and operations costs, reception costs, and business travel costs.

Article 6: Charitable organizations shall publicly disclose their annual work report and financial accounting report on the unified information platform in the time designated by laws and regulations. Charitable organizations with public fundraising credentials' annual financial accounting reports must be audited.

The specific content and basic format of the annual work reports shall be formulated by the civil affairs department under the State Council.

Article 7: Charitable organizations carrying out public fundraising activities shall prominently display the name of the organization, the public fundraising credential certificate, the fundraising plan on record, contact information, methods of inquiring about fundraising information, and so forth, at the sites of the fundraising activities or on fundraising media, and disclose it to the public on the unified information platform. Where charitable organizations carry out public fundraising in cooperation with other organizations or individuals, they shall also disclose relevant information on the cooperating party.

Where charitable organizations carry out public fundraising through the internet, they shall publish information on the fundraising in accordance with relevant provisions.

Article 8: Charitable organizations with public fundraising credentials that are carrying out public fundraising activities shall disclose the following information on the unified information platform within three months of completing the activities:

(1) Circumstances of the funds and property raised;

(2) The uses of collected funds and property that have already been used, including expenditures for charitable programs and other purposes;

(3) The plan for using collected funds or property that have not yet been used.

Where the period of public fundraising exceeds six months, the information provided for in items (1) and (2) above is to be disclosed at least once every three months.

Article 9: When setting up charitable programs, charitable organizations shall disclose the name and content of those charitable programs on the unified information platform, and where the charitable programs are completed, shall disclose the relevant circumstances.

Where charitable organizations with public fundraising credentials carry out public fundraising activities for charitable programs, they shall also disclose the name of the public fundraising activities.

Where charitable programs are supported by charitable trusts, they shall also disclose the name of the relevant charitable trust.

Article 10: Charitable organizations with public fundraising credentials shall publicly disclose charitable programs' operating circumstances on the unified information platform within three months of concluding the charitable programs, including: The program's name, program content, the area of implementation, beneficiaries, income from public fundraising and other sources, project spending, and where there are assets left over at the conclusion of the program, their disposition shall also be disclosed.

Where programs' implementation period exceeds 6 months, the program implementation situation is to be disclosed at least once every 3 months.

Article 11: Where charitable organizations serve as trustees of charitable trusts, they shall publicly disclose the status of the handling of the trusts' affairs and the state of financial affairs, through the unified information disclosure platform.

Article 12: Within 30 days of the following circumstances occurring, charitable organizations shall disclose the specific content and amount to the public through the unified information platform:

(1) Major asset changes;

(2) Major investments;

(3) Major transactions and capital flow;

The specific standards for the major asset changes, major investments, major exchanges and capital exchanges in the preceding paragraph are to be provided by charitable organizations on the basis of laws, regulations, and rules in the organization's charter or in the provisions on its asset and investment management system.

Article 13: Within 30 days of the following related party transactions or other such conduct occurring, charitable organizations shall disclose the specific content and amounts to the public through the unified information platform:

(1) Accepted donations from important affiliated parties;

(2) Funded important affiliated parties;

(3) jointly invested with important affiliated parties;

(4) Retained important affiliated parties to carry out investment activities;

(5) Transactions occurred with major affiliated parties;

(6) Capital transactions occurred with important related parties.

Article 14: Charitable organizations shall establish an independent information entry on the unified information platform for each year's annual work report and financial accounting report, and for every public fundraising activity and charitable program.

Where charitable organizations need to make corrections to information on the unified information platform, they shall complete and release an explanation of the correction on the unified information platform, and where there is an independent information entry, release it beneath the corresponding information entry. Where there are changes to basic information, charitable organizations shall release it on the unified information platform within 30 days of the change:

Article 15: Where charitable organizations carry out directed fundraising, they shall promptly inform the donors of the fundraising and about the management and use of raised funds and materials. Where donors request that the management of donations and materials be disclosed to the public, charitable organizations shall disclose them to the public.

Article 16: Charitable organizations shall inform beneficiaries of information such as their funding standards, work processes, and work regulations.

Charitable organizations are encouraged to disclose the information provided for in the preceding paragraph to the public.

Article 17: Charitable organizations' recruiting volunteers to participate in charitable services shall publicly announce all information related to the charitable services, as well as risks that might occur in the course of service.

Article 18: When charitable organizations make a public announcement about registrations, approvals, or filings by a relevant organ, their information shall be the same as that from the relevant organ.

Information releases by charitable organizations shall be mutually consistent

Information published by charitable organizations through other channels shall be consistent with the information it published on the unified information platform.

Article 19: Information related to state secrets, commercial secrets, or personal privacy, as well as information such as the names, titles, address, and contact method of donors, volunteers, beneficiaries, or charitable trust trustees who do not consent to it being disclosed, must not be made public.

Article 20: Where Charitable organizations do not promptly disclose matters that should be disclosed, or where the facts disclosed are untrue, any unit or individual may make a complaint or report to the civil affairs departments.

Article 21: The civil affairs departments may require charitable organizations to make explanations of the relevant matters for disclosure, and may make give them a talking-to when necessary, and disclose this to the public.

Article 22: Where charitable organizations violate the provisions of these Measures, the civil affairs departments may order them to make corrections within a set time.

Article 23: Where charitable organizations have any of the following circumstances, the civil affairs departments are to punish it in accordance with the relevant provisions of article 99 of the "Charity Law":

(1) failure to perform information disclosure obligations in accordance with law;

(2) Revealing private personal information of donors, volunteers or beneficiaries, as well as information such as the names, titles, address, and contact methods of donors, volunteers, beneficiaries, or charitable trust trustees who do not consent to it being disclosed, must not be made public.

Article 24: Where charitable organizations violate relevant laws, regulations, rules, or these Measures in information disclosures, the civil affairs departments shall make a record and report the relevant situation to the relevant departments, to carry out joint disciplinary action in accordance with relevant provisions.

Article 25: Where the staffs of civil affairs departments abuse their authority, twist the law for personal gain, or derelict their duties, the relevant departments at the level above or the supervision organs is to order corrections in accordance with law; where a punishment shall be given in accordance with law, the organs for hiring and terminations, or the supervision organs, is to give sanctions to the persons who are directly in charge and other directly responsible personnel:

Article 26: These Measures will take effect on September 1, 2018.