Life and philanthropy are eternal themes in human history. If “life” symbolizes a miraculous gift, then “philanthropy” can be considered as the dramatic highlight and spectacular display of one’s life process.
With their life-long dedication to the causes of philanthropy, Dr. David K.K. Chan and Ms. Law Meiling have successfully explored a new operational model of philanthropy, which is the combination of business elements with philanthropy. This model must, first of all, resolve those issues that are related to funding, and then to effectively promote the development of philanthropy.
Enthusiasm in philanthropic activities
Dr. David K.K. Chan is currently an associate professor and supervisor of doctoral students at the Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong, as well as the Founder and Permanent Director of the “Life Enlightenment Charity Foundation”. And together with Ms. Law Mei-ling, Founder and CEO of the “Life Enlightenment Charity Foundation”, both of them are active philanthropists who take charity works and activities as their life-long careers. Charity to them represents a sense of perfection, a pursuit and a source of happiness in life.
Since 1998, Dr. David K.K. Chan and Ms. Law Mei-ling have worked hard on promoting “life and death” education through the “Dudjom Buddhist Association (International)”, a public charity group founded in Hong Kong, China, as part of the Buddhist doctrines. They have published numerous educational multi-media CDs, VCDs and DVDs, books and magazines that are now circulated around the world. They have also generously donated these educational items to various libraries across the globe for their collections.
Ms. Law Mei-ling said, with mixed feelings that the development of modern science and technology over the last two to three hundred years has lifted mankind’s materialistic culture to a higher level. However, with the advancement of social change and materialism, it also brings along the decline of our non-materialistic and spiritual cultures, with psychological imbalances and deteriorating qualities of people’s spiritual life in contemporary times. While people nowadays have emphasized so much on their quality of living, yet their overall quality of life has not been equally emphasized.
Ms. Law Mei-ling believed that through education, as well as via charity services and activities, people will be empowered and motivated to cope with various problems concerning the fundamental issue of “life and death”, which will then help to uplift and elevate the overall quality of life for all human beings.
In order to further promote the elevation on the spiritual aspect and the quality of life of modern man, Dr. David K.K. Chan and Ms. Law Mei-ling have established another public charity association known as the“Life Enlightenment Charity Foundation” in 2008, with the support of all social sectors, and drew up another grand blueprint of a further charity undertaking. Dr. David K.K. Chan said that the purpose of this Foundation is to bring charity activities to all people in the whole world, to showcase the best of the five thousand years of Chinese history, to enhance mutual understanding
between China and other countries, and to realize China’s great ideal of the “harmonious co-existence”among all. To uplift and elevate human life itself and the whole human civilization in a holistic manner to their fullest will, indeed, be the deepest meaning and significance of doing charity works.
The efforts devoted by Dr. David K.K. Chan and Ms. Law Mei-ling in public charities have gained wide social recognitions, and have thus received many honorary awards and reputations. In 2010, at the “Honesty Construction and Public Charity


Development Forum”, co-organized by the China Social Welfare Education Foundation, China-JapanKorea Economic Development Association and other institutions, and held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Dr. David K.K. Chan was honored as one of the “Ten Best Public Charity Philanthropists”.
In 2011, at the “2011 China Charity and Economic Development Summit Forum”, coorganized by the China Public Welfare Federation and All-China Private Enterprise Federation, Dr. David K.K. Chan also achieved the reputation of the “2011 China Charity Ambassador”.
In 2009, during the awards ceremony of the“2009 China Economic Development Forum and Economic Giants” hosted by the Xinhua News Agency and the Economic Information Daily in China, which was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Ms. Law Mei-ling was honored as the “2009 Outstanding Contributor to Chinese Economic Development.”
In the same year, at the “Innovation in China— 2009 China Business Innovation Forum Annual Meeting” co-hosted by the China Association of Productivity Science and the China Marketing Association, Ms. Law Mei-ling was awarded the“2009 Excellent China Business Innovator”.
And at the “International Economic Forum Annual Meeting” held by China International Economic Development Research Center in Beijing, Ms. Law Mei-ling was again awarded the“2009 China One Hundred Excellent People in Reform and Innovation”, and was invited as, and honored to become, the “senior researcher” by China International Economic Development Research Center.
At the “2010 China Economic Development Forum”, Ms. Law Mei-ling was awarded the “2010 Excellent Outstanding Representative in China’s Economic Development”. At the “2011 China Social Welfare and Economic Development Summit Forum”, she has achieved the honorary title of the “Top 10 Outstanding Figures with Professional Honesty”.
Public nature of charity foundations to be in congruent with commercial nature of private businesses
Dr. David K.K. Chan and Ms. Law Mei-ling share the view that the growth of charity organizations that are purely based on donations will be very slow. Yet, if there are commercial elements to be introduced into charity, it will achieve much better results in a much faster speed. Through their past experiences in adopting such a strategy for the past decade or so, Dr. David K.K. Chan and Ms. Law Mei-ling have been successfully promoting their own charity works and activities to many countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Singapore, and thus benefiting a countless number of people.
Ms. Law Mei-ling explained that the public nature of charity activities does not necessarily have to be in conflict with the commercial nature of the business world, simply because the long-term development of charity organizations would not be possible without the continuous and never-ending driving forces (such as labor, capital investments and raw materials) to back them up, just like any other business activities. Any business enterprise would have declined, or even be closed down, if it lacks of capital investments and other driving forces. This rule also applies to all charity organizations, and so it would be, indeed, a great pity if many charity projects would have to be stopped because they are in lack of these driving forces.
Business projects have excellent advantages because they possess the driving forces for their sustainability in the operations of their projects. Thus, if these innovative business spirits and sustainable driving forces were injected into charity organizations, then the continuous growth and development of these charity works and activities will become possible. That is to say, some kind of a business model could be used for charity organizations so as to increase their funding and to better carry out their charity activities, and thus reflects a perfect combination of the public nature of charity foundations with the commercial nature of private businesses.
A combination of charity activities with commercial elements
The “Life Enlightenment Charity Foundation” is being considered as such a practical combination of both charity and business. It has mapped out a three-stage plan to realize its target and goal of “life enlightenment”.
The first stage is to organize and invite world famous experts and scholars to hold a series of lectures on “life and death”. The aim is to enable and help people to realize and understand the importance and significance of “life and death” education.
The second stage is to start planning on the“Life Enlightenment Hospital” project, which combines both charity and business elements, thus bringing enormous business opportunities with huge profits for investors. The Foundation itself will also be able to reap quite a large amount of resources, which will then be used for multiple charity projects in the future. Indeed, this kind of service innovation of the proposed hospital model

is, indeed, most unique and prospective.
Ms. Law Mei-ling also mentioned that, according to research findings, social demands for such kind of project are huge, and thus believing that this project will not only take root and develop in Hong Kong, but may also find its way across the whole world in various options. Thus, the spreading of this project will generate adequate resources to support other charity activities.
By the third stage, both “life and death education” and the “Life Enlightenment Hospital” projects will be further expanded to integrate with other community services in order to establish a “perfect and humanistic”community which will set the base of providing a comprehensive human service, and thus serve as a role model to create the “harmonious society” in improving the overall quality of life for all people, to be further promoted across the whole world.
This “Life Enlightenment Hospital” project will operate as a private hospital, which will provide a new series of holistic and integrative medical and health services. This project will be run by the Foundation and other community groups, enterprises and legal bodies under the principles of the share-holding model. The profits thus gained will be implemented, distributed and shared in accordance with the Law of Corporation and the shareholding system.
Dr. David K.K. Chan said that, besides those investors who will gain their profits to be generated from this project, the Foundation itself could also put in the part of its profits into other charity activities and project constructions. This kind of a model is sustainable, and can achieve an ideal“win-win-win” situation for the three parties concerned, meaning that the business enterprises will receive huge profits in return for their investments, the charity organizations will receive inexhaustible resources, and the receivers of charity activities will get comprehensive and full supports.
Therefore, being innovative and creative is the key when it comes to injecting business elements into charity projects, and is thus considered as the perfect solution for all. If this solution can be applied to a project with huge potentials and demands, then both the business elements and the charity nature would bring out the best of each other.
Each of the three development stages of the “Life Enlightenment Charity Foundation” is closely connected with each other, and their main purpose is to promote charity activities in a comprehensive way. Take the Foundation’s “Life Enlightenment Hospital” project as an example, after gaining its successful operation in Hong Kong, this will be promoted across the whole of China in the form of “franchise operation”, and even to the whole world, thus benefiting 1.3 billion Chinese compatriots and other people across the world with such innovative and creative caring services of “life enlightenment”.
This is a standard model for future developments. The “Life Enlightenment Charity Foundation” will further enhance its slogan of “Life lights up life”, so as to uplift and elevate the quality of life, and to understand the real essence of life.
The “Life Enlightenment Charity Foundation” wishes to arouse more public attention to its goal, so that more people can come to identify with its upheld beliefs in becoming either its members, or cooperation partners, to fulfill its vision and mission. This is a rare historical opportunity, and the “Life Enlightenment Charity Foundation” has great confidence in being able to achieve such a remarkable undertaking.
If life is a miracle, then we should enjoy the various miracles that life brings to us during our limited life spans, and to face the various changes of life with a more peaceful and harmonious attitude. This is exactly the true beauty of life, and the real essence of life will then comprise of endless meanings as more and more miracles of life will unfold before us. Thus, people will become motivated to take up “Life lights up life; together we build a harmonious society” as their life goals, which is also the ultimate purpose of the “Life Enlightenment Charity Foundation”.