About Dominos
Dominos Philanthropy Academy is a social enterprise dedicated to growing a new generation of lifelong givers and learners in China, integrating philanthropy framework and research-based educational methods.
Mission
Grow lifelong learners and givers
Vision
Giving becomes part of everyone’s life and personal growth
Experimental Growth
With a clear vision of the end and a vague idea about the path toward the vision, Dominos Philanthropy Academy was founded on the Thanks Giving Day in 2017 in Shanghai. From the very beginning, we’ve made a decision to start with youth.
Shortly after the inception, we realized that we would be operating in an environment where youth philanthropy was a vacuum and where mainstream educators (teachers, parents, or school principals) had had no prior experience of giving or volunteering.
Despite the challenges, we’ve come to build a model to integrate educational concepts and tools, such as growth mindset, 21st-century skills, design thinking and Project Based Learning, into our course on philanthropy and service project.
Current Focus
Youth Grantmaking
Believe it or not, among the 7,000+ foundations in China, less than 1% of them are grantmaking foundations, the rest being operating foundations. Grantmaking is a new concept in China and critical to the development of Chinese philanthropy in the long run. We have just wrapped the country’s first youth grantmaking program, which has led us to believe youth can be the catalyst to change the philanthropic culture in China.
Digital Bridge between Urban and Rural Communities
Covid-19 and online classrooms have made salient the problem of the digital divide and disparities between urban and rural communities. We are designing a service learning program to facilitate youth in the cities to help close the digital divide with their talents and to create opportunities for youth in urban and rural communities to connect on a personal level for mutual understanding.