Students have free lunch at a classroom of a primary school in Mashan county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The Free Lunch for Children project has benefited 465 schools in poverty-stricken areas across China. Provided to China Daily

Answer: Yes

Draft: Unqualified organizations and individuals can cooperate with qualified charitable organizations and raise donations from the public through them. The donations will be supervised and managed by the qualified charitable organizations. Any organizations and individuals are prohibited from carrying out fund-raising activities to fraudulently raise money in the name of charity.

Interpretation:

The Charity Law does not prohibit individuals from seeking help from the public. If someone, or their relatives, were in trouble, they can raise some money from the public to solve the problems. The law does not ban such behaviors. Such behavior is mutual aid behavior in communities, and donors have the prospect to get help from the beneficiaries later. The behavior is not real charity, and the Law does not ban it.

by Kan Ke, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee

If individuals launch fund-raising activities through the Internet, not for themselves and their relatives, such behavior is illegal. When the law is enacted, even fund-raising activities launched online by social celebrities in their name are still illegal.

by Li Yinglu, an executive director of the China Philanthropy Research Institute under Beijing Normal University