Working together to serve rural areas, assisting communities with writing proposals and translating official documents

For college freshmen in the prime of their lives, arriving in Chiayi County, which has the highest proportion of elderly residents, most young people might be eager to flee. But Lin Chia-wei, born in the 74th year of the Republic of China calendar (1985), fell in love with this small town full of human warmth when he came to Chiayi to study 10 years ago. He ran off to farming villages and indigenous communities all day long, and last year he even resolutely quit his job to settle in Chiayi and open the "Douzhen Non-Profit Organization Management Consulting Studio," helping communities write proposals and "translating" government regulations into plain language, using a new type of rural service industry to accompany communities in reclaiming their former glory.

Writing proposals, organizing events, explaining official documents - nothing is too difficult

The Shanglin Community Development Association is one of "Douzhen's" partner organizations. Director-general Sun Chia-jung said that Lin Chia-wei has indeed brought in many public sector resources and professional talent, giving great help with community finances and association affairs. A community can entrust part of its professional work to others, but it cannot simply throw out its own ideas; it must learn for itself in order to last. He Chia-hao, a young farmer who moved to Shanglin, also said that the community indeed has such needs, but the community must still be the main body, must be well prepared, and must have the ability to execute.

Besides community associations, Lin Chia-wei has also returned to his old line of work, helping many social welfare organizations write proposals. But NPOs usually have limited funding, so how should fees be set reasonably? He admitted frankly that he has not yet reached break-even, cannot hire employees, and is still exploring how to set prices. For example, Shanglin's community development is very mature, and someone there can explain official documents, so that fee can be deducted when providing services. Every community's situation is different, and it takes time to accumulate experience.

Rural population aging is both a crisis and a turning point. Lin Chia-wei is very optimistic about this new type of rural service industry represented by "Douzhen," but many people still cannot figure out the nature of "Douzhen," and some even suspect that he is using an NPO organization to make a profit for himself.

"My concept is to use a 'PO' to assist an 'NPO,'" Lin Chia-wei said. NPO stands for non-profit organization, while PO stands for profit organization. In his view, a non-profit organization does not mean it cannot make a profit, only that it cannot take profit-making as its main goal; the profit must be distributed. He provides services to NPOs so that they can operate smoothly. User-pays is very common in for-profit businesses, but NPOs have less of this concept.

Although "Douzhen" is currently just a one-person studio, Lin Chia-wei hopes that in the future it can gradually get on track, expand its operations, provide more NPO services, and also allow young people to stay in Chiayi to work.