Social Welfare Organizations

It refers to legal, non-governmental, non-profit, non-partisan, non-member organized and self-administered civil voluntary social intermediary organizations, which are dedicated to social welfare and solving various social problems. Social welfare organizations take social welfare as their main goal. Many early social welfare organizations originated from charities, mainly engaged in humanitarian aid and outrelief activities. Social welfare organizations are commonly classified as “non-governmental organizations” in the West, and are termed as the “third sector” or “non-profit organizations” in China to distinguish them from government organizations and corporate organizations, etc.

The work of social welfare organizations involves the rights and interests of women and children, poverty alleviation, the elderly, the disabled and special groups, life and health, animals and plants and eco-environmental protection, etc. In terms of organizational forms, social welfare organizations mainly include: corporate social welfare organizations and non-corporate social welfare organizations, association type of social welfare organizations and consortium social welfare organizations, public funded social welfare organizations and non-public funded social welfare organizations, operating social welfare organizations and mobilizing social welfare organizations, registered social welfare organizations and unregistered social welfare organizations, etc.