The East Asia region includes China, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, North and South Korea. We give highest priority to projects in the largest urban centers of East Asia. Specifically, we focus our granting in the following cities: Beijing, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Nagoya, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Taipei, Tianjin, and Tokyo. The average grant-size in this region is $4,200.
The most successful applications have significant funding and accountability from the church, are in an urban area, and have a creative and innovative approach to share the love of Jesus Christ in word and action. We give priority to small, dynamic start-up initiatives that plan to become locally managed or sustained. We do not provide ongoing support for projects that began more than three years ago.
The Foundation will only fund up to 50 percent of the total cost of any given project. Therefore, organizations that are heavily funded from outside their local community and have little church support are less likely to receive significant funding. Because of our emphasis on partnering with the local church, if the applicant is a parachurch organization, we require that it have a strong financial connection to a supporting church body.
In East Asia, the Foundation encourages creative means of outreach to different target groups. For example, basketball team for youth, factory ministry targeting migrant-labors, and bookstore outreach for college students. The Foundation also values the importance of discipleship and leadership training. In past few years, we have funded a number of church based discipleship and leadership training courses. Moreover, the Foundation would like to encourage economic empowerment projects to improve the income and living standard of individual believers.