BACKGROUND
Chen Feng serves as chairman of the board of directors of the HNA Group. Since its establishment in 1993, HNA Group has successfully transformed from a traditional local aviation transportation company to a conglomerate with businesses in aviation, hospitality, tourism, real estate, retail, finance, logistics, shipbuilding, and eco-tech. In July 2017, HNA Group ranked 170th on the Fortune 500 list with revenues of USD 53 0353 billion (RMB 323 515 billion). While expanding the business at a fast pace, HNA Group is also dedicated to creating employment opportunities. By the end of 2016, HNA Group had provided over 410,000 jobs.
Over the past two decades, with the leading culture of “doing something for society, doing something for others,” HNA Group has been committed to philanthropy and has generously contributed over USD 1 64 billion (RMB 10 billion) to different causes. Some of the most well-known projects include HNA Brightness Action, HNA Benevolence Wells, and HNA Send Love Home In 2010, to better fulfill its corporate social responsibilities and give back to the community, HNA Group set up its private foundation, the Hainan Cihang Charity Foundation, and donated 22% of its equity to the foundation in 2013. The Cihang Foundation focuses on education aid, poverty alleviation, disaster relief, culture and arts, healthcare, environmental protection and scientific innovation. By the end of 2016, over 40 philanthropic projects have been initiated, with a total giving of nearly USD 65 6 million (RMB 400 million)
MOTIVATION
HNA Group is dedicated to social responsibility. As indicated in its foundation’s name, the group believes in “boundless love and integrity” and shares the common pursuit of “benefiting human well-being and world peace.” In addition to supporting a variety of philanthropic projects, HNA Group also encourages its employees to bear goodness in the heart and be willing to do good deeds.
IMPACT
The Cihang Charity Foundation has launched a series of philanthropic projects at home and abroad. Since 2013, its HNA Send Love Home project has been implemented in over 50 cities in China, helping nearly 800 students, volunteers to the Great West, uprooted urban workers, and migrant children to go home and reunite with their families during the Chinese New Year. Its HNA Treasure Island Scholarship (grant-in-aid) has given USD 1.23 million (RMB 7.5 million) to over 600 students in Hainan Province for college education in five years. Another project, HNA Benevolence Well, plans to invest USD 3.3 million (RMB 20 million) to solve the drinking water problem for people in Hainan Province. A total of 91 wells had been drilled by the end of 2016, benefiting over 220,000 people.
Among all the projects, perhaps the Brightness Action project has had the most far-reaching impact. Brightness Action has been providing desperately needed surgeries to those suffering from cataracts since 2004. By the end of 2016, more than 6,200 had benefited from the project and regained their eyesight. The project extensively reaches people in remote regions such as Qinghai, Gansu, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous regions. In 2010, along with the expansion of HNA’s overseas business, HNA Brightness Action also went beyond China’s borders and entered into African countries including Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Mozambique.
The foundation also attaches great importance to projects involving social impact investing that use the company’s resources while combining investment with philanthropy to achieve greater sustainability. Since 2011, the HNA Group has invested USD 1.15 million (RMB 7 million) in a variety of competitions that promote social innovation and encourage solving social problems through venture capital processes.
In addition, he Cihang Charity Foundation embraces a globalized strategy by partnering with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF); the United Nations World Food Program (UNWFP); and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to address worldwide issues in education, poverty, refugees, environment, and culture that need immediate attention. The strategy has fully demonstrated the company and its leader’s grand vision of a prosperous world for all.