Challenges

Zheng, Raindrop's director, said a lack of funding and poor management skills are the biggest challenges facing startup NGOs.

"To register Raindrop with the authorities, I was told to provide an office address. But for recent graduates like me, an office in Jinan is unaffordable," she said. "In addition, we spend most of our time in communities, so a fixed office is impractical."

However, she was fortunate: the problem ceased to be an issue when the Shizhong civil affairs bureau founded the Social Organization Incubator Park to aid the development of NGOs. The facility was based on existing models in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Guangdong province - the places where NGOs are most active.

When it opened, the park began recruiting startup NGOs whose services could potentially benefit local communities and complement the government's role.

New NGOs are provided with free offices and training related to social work and management skills for 10 months, and the park authorities help them to apply for financial support from the government, usually 5,000 to 10,000 yuan ($777 to $1,555) per program.

The management has also invited legal and auditing professionals and mature NGOs to base themselves in the park to ensure that their services are inexpensive and readily available. Fledgling NGOs are required to leave the park once they are able to operate independently and governments begin purchasing their services.

Qi, from the Shizhong association of social organizations, said startup NGOs are also provided with specific services, such as policy interpretation seminars to enable them to fully understand and react to new government strategies.

Training

The Shizhong district association of social workers is one of the mature NGOs in the park. It provides training for social workers and matches them with startup NGOs in different areas. Ren Yan, the director, said the association has trained 86 social workers and satisfied the "startup NGOs' need for talent".

In addition, the local government provides mature NGOs with 60,000 yuan to 80,000 yuan a year to encourage them to develop community-level organizations, usually in the form of interest groups or groups that control their own affairs.

One such group is Lan Majia or "Blue Vest", a volunteer group formed by 65 retired Party members.

The group provides voluntary services in the community, such as security patrols and the removal of illegal posters, three times a week, and the funds the group receives are used to buy cleaning equipment and uniforms.

"These mini-NGOs help to bring community governance back to local people, whose ideas are usually tailored to suit their own needs," Ren said.

Although incubators have been crucial to the development of fledgling NGOs, there is still room for improvement.

Wang, from the Lixin Social Governance Consultancy, said the incubators alone will not be sufficient to foster new NGOs, because the process is only effective if it is supported by complementary policies, especially those related to local government purchases of services.

"Some local authorities are not open-minded enough. Even when they fail to excel at certain tasks, they are unwilling to purchase services from the nongovernmental sector," he said.

Marketing

Zheng, Raindrop's director, is hoping that a recently founded department in the Social Organization Incubator Park will provide consultancy services related to brand marketing. "Many startup NGOs have little awareness of brand value, which is a real problem," she said.

Qi, from the Shizhong association of social organizations, said local governments should further diversify their "shopping lists" for services to foster fledgling NGOs in a range of fields.

"At present, governments mainly favor programs related to poverty alleviation or those that provide assistance to people with disabilities or to seniors. They rarely invest in programs that focus on environmental protection or the preservation of culture, but these are equally important issues," he said.