Over the past 40 years since the start of reform and opening-up, social organizations in China have grown in both number and scale, with their role in the provision of public services, social governance and urban and rural community construction becoming ever more prominent. After the Charity Law took effect in 2016, the operations of social organizations, especially charitable organizations, have become increasingly mainstream and transparent.

But despite this, the capacity building of domestic social organizations still faces severe challenges. According to our research on HIV/AIDS social organizations, social organizations' lack of independent capabilities hinders sustainable cooperation with governments.

Independent capabilities refer to the comprehensive capabilities of social organizations, presented through their in-depth exploration of the fields in which they operate, their achievements and how long they have been in operation. Professional staff and well-organized volunteers, stable partnerships gained through long-accumulated experience and social capital also equip social organizations with strong capabilities.

Social organizations with greater independent capabilities generally specialize in certain fields and gain more effectiveness due to their irreplaceable competitiveness, therefore achieving more effective cooperation with governments. As a result, such social organizations and governments will develop stable cooperation with mutual reliance. However, the independent capabilities of social organizations if limited to certain fields can make it hard for them to gain the initiative in their cooperation with governments.

Differently, social organizations with poor independent capabilities will be less competitive and can be easily replaced by other organizations in the cooperation with governments. Not able to take the initiative, such social organizations are controlled by governments and have to rely on governments to gain resources. Moreover, social organizations with weak independent capabilities often engage in a variety of fields and aggravate competition among themselves.

By comparing different types of HIV/AIDS social organizations on Chinese mainland and Taiwan, 48 from the mainland and 23 from the island, we have studied the cooperation between the social organizations and governments over the past 40 years and found that the social organizations with stronger exclusive capabilities on the island have gained an equal footing in cooperation with local governments. In comparison, the HIV/AIDS social organizations on the mainland present weaker exclusive capabilities, and governments still largely dominate their cooperation.

To conclude, social organizations are different in terms of their independent capabilities, which plays a key role in affecting the cooperation between the organizations and governments, leading to different modes of cooperation.

According to the comparative study of the independent capability of HIV/AIDS social organizations on the mainland and Taiwan, three factors have been identified as being important in the cooperation between social organizations and governments. The first is relevant institutions and policies are needed to support social organizations in their work. Governments also need to provide easier access for the participation of social organizations and propose the need for cooperation in a timely manner. The second focuses on the conditions of social organizations in terms of recruiting specialized talents for activities in specific fields, providing them with stable incomes and improving their professional abilities. The last factor emphasizes the favorable condition that external evaluation such as accountability and performance assessment of social organizations be relatively loose, allowing the organizations to focus on developing their independent capabilities.

Based on our study of the cooperation between governments and social organizations on AIDS prevention and control, similar research has been conducted on the cooperation on environmental protection, poverty alleviation, urban and rural community governance, as well as trade and industry associations.

Overall, the independent capabilities of social organizations is the most influential factor in determining the form of cooperation between governments and social organizations. With the boom in social organizations, cooperation between the two sides has become an increasingly prevailing, even mainstream, phenomenon, while the greatest challenge facing social organizations is still the lack of independent capabilities.

Currently, domestic charitable organizations with different independent capabilities have presented polarized development, in which only a few can continuously gain resources and opportunities in cooperation with governments and steadily improve their independent capabilities to achieve innovation and growth. In fact, most domestic charitable organizations are still caught between serving as social and charitable organizations and struggling to survive in the cooperation with governments, so it is hard for them to develop their independent capabilities.

Since this situation is largely attributable to the lack of targeted support from institutions and policies, as well as personnel training systems and assessment and evaluation mechanisms, it is suggested that improving independent capabilities of social organizations needs to be taken as a key goal in furthering the reform of the organizations so they can fully play their roles.

Apart from launching necessary reforms and adjustments of the current policies and mechanisms of government procurement services and social organization assessment, performance appraisal and evaluation systems in terms of independent capabilities also need to be developed. To enhance overall performance of the organizations, domestic social organizations need to develop more specialized operations and build professional teams to steadily improve their independent capabilities.

The author is professor and PhD adviser at the School of Public Management and dean of the Philanthropy Research Institute at Tsinghua University. The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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