Shanghai hosts new charity park

Xiao's vision for the future is that the park will serve as "a platform through which more people can get to know us".

I hope the park can research the needs of each NGO and introduce the resources we need," Xiao said.

The park, which has set the ambitious goal of becoming a city landmark for charity work, is about more than just providing workspaces for NGOs.

It also tries to involve the general public through exhibitions, concerts, salons and other interactive events, Chen said.

With towering trees, gardens and grassland, the park has 3,000 sq m of open space for showcasing NGO projects.

Shanghai has built 18 hubs to incubate grassroots NGOs and social enterprises.

The park's co-builder, Shanghai-based NPI, was founded in 2006. It has helped more than 150 such grassroots NGOs to start businesses in recent years.

But New Charity World is a bit different from them, Chen said. While traditional hubs function as supporting the grassroots NGOs by providing free office space, facilities, capacity-building programs and microsubsidies, the new park absorbed organizations that already had stable projects and were self-sufficient.