Tencent today announced the conclusion of 99 Giving Day, the most popular annual charity festival in China jointly initiated by Tencent Charity Foundation and thousands of other charity organizations, enterprises, celebrities and media from September 7 to 9. With the theme of "Together We Can”, this year’s event has raised a total donation of RMB3.044 billion. More than 57.8 million donors, thousands of institutions and 10,000 enterprises participated in the campaign, which broke the record for giving among China’s internet charity industry.

Since its establishment in 2015, Tencent's 99 Giving Day has become a renowned charity festival with the largest number of participants, the most influential contributors and the addressing the most diverse range of charity scenarios in China. The sixth 99 Giving Day opened to a strong start at 9:00 a.m. on September 9. The amount of donations in the first two minutes exceeded RMB100 million, and was close to RMB600 million after 30 minutes, making it a trending topic online. 

In the past six years, the total amount of users’ donations for 99 Giving Day increased from RMB128 million to RMB2.32 billion by more than 17 times. In the same period, Tencent charity platform attracted more than 156 million participants. Given its rapid scale, growth rate and influence, 99 Giving Day has transformed into a festival of national goodwill and philanthropy for society.

Chen Yidan, Co-founder of Tencent and Founder of Tencent Charity Foundation said: "in the post pandemic era, 99 Giving Day establishes a new starting point, to support charities facing new opportunities and challenges. Jointly with our partners, Tencent Charity will put more effort to continuously cultivate transparency, digitization and efficiency in the charity ecosystem."

Chen Yidan, Co-founder of Tencent and Founder of Tencent Charity Foundation

For 99 Giving Day this year, Tencent Charity Foundation announced it would invest RMB399.9 million in matching donations and announced a special support fund of RMB200 million, coming from Tencent's RMB1.5 billion Anti-COVID-19 Fund established this February.

Business Participated With Matching Donation and Consumption Coupons

When started six years ago, Tencent's matching donation became a major feature of the 99 Giving Day. To meet the needs of many enterprises who wanted to participate in this event, Tencent created a participation mode for enterprises to provide matching donations to charity programs expanding the platform to businesses and positive impact to charity organizations.

This year, considering those businesses affected by the pandemic, 99 Giving Day created special tools such as charity consumption coupons, which can be issued by businesses to donors who can deduct cash when consuming, so as to embody the spirit of "Together We Can" for both businesses and consumers in the fight with pandemic.

Digital and Blockchain Supports Efficient and Transparent

Today rapid technology development is supporting the growth of charity.

Transparency is the basic indicator of health status and the cornerstone of the charity ecosystem. This year, 99 Giving Day is using blockchain technology to improve transparency. All charity projects will be based on blockchain to improve disclosure and ensure contributions which will be traceable, rechecked, and transparent throughout the whole process.

Digitalization is the key to efficiency of Internet charity ecosystem. This year, the technical team of Tencent Charity platform launched the "Charity SaaS Plan", to support charity organizations improve efficiency by offering open source cloud computing and big data. Now, there are 50 charity organizations participating in the program, and 100 is expected by end of this year.

Film Stars and Media Makes The Day Interesting and Diverse

The vitality of charity needs the passion of the younger generation, it should be more creative and personalized.

On 99 Giving Day, listening to songs, walking on the road and reading books, can all provide a fun way to make donations and support charities. As an example, Tencent developed the game of "little safflower", where one can gather more safflowers by donating money and interacting with friends. Based on the final number of safflowers, contributors can get different times of matching donations. 

Meanwhile, many superstars, KOLs and uploaders are involved in live streaming, WeChat official accounts and idol charity programs. More than 120 superstars’ fan groups and hundreds of official accounts joined the "We Media Partnership Program" to claim and promote charity projects.  More than one hundred KOLs formed "We Media Charity Team" to promote 99 Giving Day in social media channels.

Many cross-border stars, KOLs and uploaders participated. During the 99 Giving Day, more than 120 superstar fan groups customized dragon solitaire activities. Thousands of official accounts launched the "We Media Partnership Program", claiming official account projects in one to one way, and nearly one hundred KOLs formed "We Media Public Service Team" to promote 99 Giving Day in social channels.

The 1st 99 Giving Day in Hong Kong 

Adhering to the mission of "Tech for Good", Tencent Foundation introduced the initial 99 Giving Day in Hong Kong for the very first time. Without leaving home, Hong Kongers can donate and support charity using their mobile devices. 

Orbis and Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, two reputable charity organizations that have gained long-term support from people in Hong Kong and elsewhere, participated in the HK 99 Giving Day and set up charity programmes for donations on WeChat Pay HK charity platform which will be matched by Tencent Foundation. 

This program received an enthusiastic response from Hong Kong residents, with donations nearly 100 times higher than the usual donation traffic on WeChat Pay HK charity platform.

"The people of Hong Kong are enthusiastic about charity. We are very happy to have 99 Giving Day in Hong Kong this year to help local charity organizations raise money through mobile Internet platforms," Chen said. “There is no boundary between love and public welfare. This is also the first time in HK for Tencent Foundation. We look forward to cooperating with more charity organizations to stimulate the goodness of science and technology and make the world a better place. "

Living up to expectations, the 99 Giving Day ended with a big success in 2020. However, Chen Yidan said: "the amount of money raised is no longer an indicator of success to 99 Giving Day, but the positive social impact conveyed, the charity perception how many people recognized, and the power to social goodness in a longer period of time, these are the goals we have been pursuing and valuing."