US and European philanthropy guides are now available in Chinese translation thanks to a partnership between the Foundation Center in New York City and the Beijing-based China Foundation Center.

The titles are part of GrantCraft, a joint project of the Foundation Center and Brussels-based European Foundation Centre, which taps the collective knowledge of funders to share insights and help them hone their craft.

Among the 31 titles that have been translated are "Communicating for Impact," "Funder Collaboratives," and "Making Measures Work for You." GrantCraft guides such as these aim to improve the practice of philanthropy by drawing on the experiences of funders to share innovative ideas and lessons learned.

In a handful of cases, the US-specific nature of the guides meant that China Foundation Center chose not to translate them.

Philanthropy as a professional field in China is relatively new, and those on the forefront are eager for information that will help them build on the knowledge of their colleagues around the world.

Tao Ze, vice president at China Foundation Center, said they were able to overcome hurdles in translating the history, tradition, and theories of philanthropy of US philanthropy from English into Chinese through an effective partnership with Foundation Center.

He also said it was important to build a “’translating dictionary’ which standardises the translation of classic words or terms” and use a “translating team with a mixed background” because of the wide variety of subjects that GrantCraft titles cover.

GrantCraft materials have already been translated into Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Russia and Spanish.

Lisa Philp, vice president for strategic philanthropy at the Foundation Center, said: "Partnerships like this expand the diversity of GrantCraft resources and make the practical wisdom of funders accessible to peers around the world."

Philp also said that she looks forward to working with the China Foundation Center on new GrantCraft material based on Chinese funder examples and their local context, which can be translated into English.