"An organization or a community is not an isolated case, but a microcosm of society. To achieve a bigger change, we have to start from achieving smaller changes", said Xiao Zeng, a monthly donor in the summer of 2022.

Over the past six months, we have interviewed 32 post-90s young monthly donors and had in-depth conversations with them about the opportunity to come into contact with charity, their experiences and rewards of participating in monthly giving, in an attempt to explore the deeper motivations for their persistent giving, and use this as a basis to provide sound advice for charity projects and organizations that wish to attract more young donors.

Now that the study is nearing its end, we are also approaching the spring of 2023. In this first spring after the liberalization of prevention and control policies, there is a constant sense of elation but also a touch of unease. The anxiety, uncertainty and confusion caused by all the "uncertainties" during the epidemic are always on our minds. If you feel the same way, perhaps these stories of monthly donors will inspire you. These small, sustained, and definitive acts of charity born out of concern seem to be finding an outlet for our uncertain lives, giving them more meaning, and perhaps even bringing about a greater social transformation.

Lu Zee learned about Cat Alliance, an environmental organization dedicated to the scientific protection of wild cats in China, when she was a volunteer at the Red Mountain Zoo. She was very interested, but only Cat Alliance monthly donors could sign up to participate. She decided to try to believe it and join the monthly donation program, and then withdraw if it didn't work out.

But she never quit again. She has been secretly observing the Cat Alliance monthly donor group of hundreds of people for 15 months, attending live online classes organized by the staff in her free time, listening to the teachers' in-depth biological knowledge with monthly donors who are also concerned about environmental protection and ecology, "I am a layman in the Internet industry who can quietly understand ". She also reads the regular monthly reports sent by the organization and learns that Cat Alliance will give villagers subsidies for leopards eating cows and will help them solve the problem of wild boars destroying crops. It is difficult for people living in the city to understand what wildlife conservation really is, and they do not have much concept of human-animal conflict. But Cat Alliance opened her eyes: "The villagers are the ones who live with the wildlife, and they must be made willing to cooperate in order for species conservation to move forward."

Soso has been concerned about ecological charity since college. He loves birdwatching and has volunteered half a dozen times at Shenzhen Mangrove Park, giving birdwatching talks to visitors. The volunteer activities were initiated by the Mangrove Foundation, which recruits and trains birdwatching enthusiasts to become docent volunteers each year to lead public tours of the mangroves. During his volunteer work, Soso met the staff of the Foundation and was impressed by their professionalism and passion for nature conservation, so he chose to become a monthly donor with little hesitation.

Soso says, "Donating a few dozen dollars a month has little impact on my life, but it keeps me connected to nature and ecological conservation and reminds me to cherish this ideal. ".

There are many other monthly donors who are interested in the field of ecology and environmental protection like Lu Zee and Soso. After joining the monthly donation, they witnessed the achievements of the organization in ecological protection and learned more professional knowledge. For them, monthly donation is not only a simple contribution, but also a small piece of fun for themselves, where they can communicate and share with more like-minded partners, and learn and grow together.

At the time of the New Guinea outbreak in early 2020, Hamiqua had just started her college life. Trapped at home by the epidemic, she was unable to do anything about it as she watched the Internet flooding with requests for help, and she was deeply anxious and upset. Later, she participated in an online tutoring program for Wuhan students, and felt empowered and supported by the concrete actions she took. After that, she started to follow charity activities consistently, joined an internship in a charity organization, and naturally became a monthly donor to the internship organization and several other projects.

Hamiqua has a deep trust in the programs and organizations she donates to. She focuses on gender education and women worker development, which she feels is currently a relatively niche area in China. In her opinion, charity projects that are willing to work deeply in these areas are committed enough to be trusted. She is also very careful to understand all kinds of information related to the projects, including the progress of specific activities, the financial use of the project and even the personal style of the founder of the organization. She sees a donation as an expression of support for the organization through a vote, and she needs to be held accountable for such support. If her vote goes to an inefficient and non-transparent organization, "I don't feel responsible for the issue.

She, like many young people, likes to share her life on social networks, including posting the monthly gifts she receives in her circle of friends. On the one hand this is a response and recognition to the institution, and on the other hand she hopes that through such sharing the project will be seen and understood by more people. Hamiqua believes that charity projects focusing on issues such as gender education and women workers' development are difficult to get support from commercial organizations and lack resources, so she actively helps spread the word about the project and participates in issue advocacy in addition to donating. She says, "If I don't do it, there may not be anyone else, there may not be as many people doing it."

Monthly donations for her are to accompany the organization to grow together, "Many social problems can not be solved by one-time donations, but need long-term persistence to make a change".

Xiao Zeng is a high school teacher in a small border town, and usually has little contact with charitable organizations. One day, two years ago, he suddenly found a social network was called "in Shenzhen, 10,000 Dingdang need your help" of the help article screen, he clicked in to see, and thus learned about the charity organization Green Rose and the story of women workers and mobile children in the urban village of Shenzhen. In the article, he learned about Green Rose's work in the urban village for women workers and the various activities it organized. He found it very meaningful and followed the organization's WeChat public number to keep an eye on their activities.

Later, when the organization opened up monthly donation, Xiao Zeng joined and entered the online community of monthly donors at the first time. He often checked the news inside and read the monthly summary of the organization's work. He was most surprised and touched by the project of women workers' theater performance. With the help of the organization, the women workers, who are traditionally far away from theater in public perception, are fully engaged in the creation and performance of theater, "as if I can feel their happiness through words and pictures. Xiao Zeng said he liked a play by the women workers of Green Rose, "The floating ducklings meet again", because he found the theme "warm and imaginative, that people become floating ducklings, but there is such a place to meet again".

When asked why he wanted to help a group of unfamiliar children and women in a strange city, Xiao Zeng replied, "The endless distant places are all related to me. I know that reality is full of thorns and many people's lives are suffering, but I don't have the means and courage to put more action into it. Donating is a relatively simple and effective way to help more people by supporting a professional organization. An organization or community is not an isolated case, but a microcosm of society, so if we want to achieve greater change we have to start by achieving smaller changes."

"Recognizing and expressing emotions is important, and poetry allows children to better express their emotions; it's the accumulation of each unique feeling that makes a person special." He was struck by the form of emotional education and seeing children's poems published in beautifully bound books.

"When I was a kid, my family would give some of the fruit they grew in excess to each family, and it was pretty common in traditional rural societies for neighbors to help each other." His experience in the countryside has made it easier for him to empathize with children from far away, and the habit of mutual help in the neighborhood has also helped him to develop the concept of "not doing anything for a good cause. He hopes that through monthly donations, he can "help a little bit.

In addition to the above stories, many other monthly donors shared their feelings about their participation:

Lele said, "If I have to say what is the meaning of (monthly donation), it's that - there are always people trying to do something in this bad world, and this thing is good in itself".

Deer said, "Because of their own little contribution, the world has a few more children who can be relatively happier and more happy. Although we have not met, but see the children are getting better and better, I myself is also quite happy".

Zhongxia said, "Maybe one small thing is enough to change a person. Life is too hard, and it is quite meaningful to bring a little warmth to others (through monthly donations)," he said.

When I was in college, I was troubled by the fact that I couldn't think about the meaning of life, but later I realized that being able to think about the meaning of life is a luxury, and many people don't even have the opportunity to think about their lives and destiny. If (through monthly donations) I can help others have the opportunity to think about life, then that's the meaning of my life."

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Monthly giving as a sustainable way of giving.