Program Overview

Program Basics

Dates and locations

• November 9-16, San Francisco
• November 17-22, Boston

Participants Profile

• They are women entrepreneurs or retired entrepreneurs from Mainland China, age between 40-65.
• They come from diverse industries, including manufacturing, retail, real estate, international trade, investment, etc.
• Their level of participation in philanthropy varies. Most of them give money to charitable organizations; some of them volunteer at nonprofit organizations; and some play a leadership role through board participation, part-time or full-time work at nonprofits.
• It’s our intention to put together a group who are eager to learn, open to explore, and dedicated to a greater good.

Unique Positioning

Among all the study tour programs and learning programs for Chinese to learn from American social sector, our program is the first, and currently the only, one to help participants dive deep to explore their personal values and passions, then make personal connections to their philanthropic activities.  

Instead of jumping right into HOW to “DO” philanthropy, we take a deliberate step back and start from answering questions around “WHY” and help participants clarify their philanthropic purpose. In this process, we will incorporate professional assessment tools to build a stronger self-awareness.  

This unique approach is rooted in our belief that a philanthropic journey is also about continuous learning and personal development. 

Integration as Core Feature

There is a wide information gap between Chinese philanthropy and American philanthropy.  From our past experiences, we have seen how well-intended information-heavy learning sessions have created hasty misunderstanding and drained the energy of the participants.

We understand it’s extremely important to offer a structure to program participants who are new to American philanthropy, otherwise they can easily get lost in an overwhelming amount of fragmented information during the intensive learning and visiting process.

As shown in this diagram, our exploration and learning are integrated into a 3-level structure:

1. Personal level: exploring personal values, passions and the connection with philanthropy
2. Social roles:  exploring the implications of the social roles and unique roles a woman entrepreneur can play in family, workplace and society
3. A broader philanthropic landscape: exploring the horizon beyond oneself and Chinese boarder

All our activities will cover one or more elements in the structure. Each session is not isolated. Instead, the sessions reinforce each other.  Through this way, accompanied by our carefully designed facilitating process, we can ensure each presenter’s efforts will achieve the most desirable effectiveness and make a maximum impact on our participants.

Questions to be answered at each level:

Connection as Central Approach

We intentionally do not calling this program as a study tour.  We call it a leaping journey.  It’s a journey about exploring, discovering and dreaming. Wherever the participant is currently on her philanthropic path, our goal is to help her leap into a new level.

The Chinese women entrepreneurs we have worked with are a very powerful group of people with enormous untapped potential.  We acknowledge there is a lot for Chinese to learn in the field of new philanthropy.  We also believe knowledge itself is not power.  Knowledge with a purpose is power.  That’s the power we aim to offer our participants by facilitating connections.

More specifically, we will help the participants connect the dots in their own life, connect their purpose with their resources, whether tangible or intangible, and connect them to an inspiring global community.

In the end, we hope the participants will obtain the drive to seek knowledge they haven’t known yet,  act on the knowledge they’ve already gained, and embark on a philanthropic path of their own dream.

Impact as Ultimate Goal