WAKING UP KINDNESS

With a new focus on philanthropy, Jack Ma builds on a substantial base.

- Justin Doebele

“People say I am one of the richest people in China, but I don’t think it is my money,” says Jack Ma. “It is money that people have entrusted to you, and you want to spend it in a better, smarter way.” Ma is explaining his new focus, philanthropy, in an exclusive interview with Forbes Asia in October. Having spent the last two decades building Alibaba Group, the Hangzhou, China-based internet giant, Ma announced just over a year ago he would step aside and give his executive chairman title to Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang.

“I will devote more time and effort to education, philanthropy and the environment,” he wrote in an open letter to shareholders (and the world). It was a transition that Ma had planned for a decade. “When Alibaba had its ten-year anniversary, on that day I started to think I should prepare for my retirement. That day, I decided on the day of the 20-year anniversary, September 10, 2019, will be the day I leave,” he said to Steve Forbes during the Forbes Global CEO Conference held in Singapore in October, just after receiving the Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement award.

Now, having just turned 55, Ma is entering a new chapter in his career—but one in which he already has considerable experience. Alibaba, for example, has long had CSR programs.

In 2006, Alibaba launched its first organized philanthropy to help underprivileged mothers in China, dubbed the model mother program. To date, some 20,000 mothers have gotten free training and funding to become online entrepreneurs.

The company made a major commitment in 2010, when Alibaba started to earmark 0.3% of its revenues to philanthropy. Two years later, it established the Alibaba Foundation to manage its philanthropic efforts. With $56 billion in revenues for the 2019 fiscal year, 0.3% would be $168 million (Alibaba doesn’t disclose the actual figure).