Jack Ma: Charity changes yourself, then the world
Chairman’s speech outlines reasons for giving money, time, and talent
When Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in 2009 moved into a new headquarters in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang province, the e-commerce giant held a special “house-warming” event by inviting some of its employees to swim in a race across the city’s Qiantang River.
When some of the employees finished the contest, they were found wearing all kinds of plastic bags and other garbage they had picked up in the water. Shocked by the environment in which they live and the water they drink, Alibaba employees started to take action to make the change from that day on.
“From that day, we decided to donate 0.3 percent of our annual revenues to establish a foundation to protect the environment of the city, the nation and the world,” Executive Chairman Jack Ma said in Alibaba’s inaugural Xin Philanthropy Conference held earlier this month. An edited version of Ma’s keynote speech follows:
• Public welfare undertakings need more than money. They are a bit different from philanthropy. The key of philanthropy lies in giving while the key to public welfare undertakings lies in action.
• One may not be in a position to be a philanthropist, but he or she should participate in public welfare undertakings. Philanthropy always involves donating money. But, anyone can spend time, energy, wisdom and other tangible assets on public welfare.
In our opinion, the most rewarding thing one can get in his or her life is participating in public welfare undertakings and charity. We have found several like-minded “colleagues” on our way to charity in the past seven years. They have been exploring, trying and changing life and the world we live in. Thus, we think that people like us need a platform and an opportunity to share and exchange our experiences and views.
Take Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Gordon Brown, Salman Khan, Yao Ming and Jet Li for example. The reason why they are respected lies in the fact that they devote their time and hearts to charity, apart from doing whatever they are good at.
• Your donation changes who you are, more than the recipients. In the year of the Japan earthquake, an earthquake also struck our Yunnan province. Alibaba made a decision to donate 3 million yuan ($448,000) to Japan and 1 million yuan to Yunnan because the disaster impacted Japan more. There was a huge internal debate in Alibaba at that time. Some employees argued about why we donated money to Japan.
I told my colleagues that they may have reasons to donate or not. However, it is wrong if they stop other people from donating money. Your small personal donation will not change any area in the world or any disaster areas. But your donation will change yourself. And, only if you change, will the world have the chance to change.
• We are unable to save all the poor and the sick, but we can wake up the kindness of the world. Therefore, we believe that every penny you donate will change yourself — then the world changes. You cannot save all the poor or cure all the sick.
However, we are able to wake everyone’s kindness and goodwill. This is the fundamental reason why we participate in various public welfare undertakings and why we organized this philanthropic conference.