RETHINKING DEVELOPMENT: LESSONS LEARNED FROM SOUTH KOREA - SOCIAL RESOURCES FOR SOCIAL INNOVATIONS [PART 2]

During the recent trip to South Korea, we learned many lessons on successfully managing, organizing, and operating social initiatives and alternative development movements. A summary of this business trip by the VCIL Community can be viewed at: https://www.vcil.community/post/rethinking-development-lessons-learned-from-south-korea-study-and-connection-trip-to-south-korea

Our question: How to initiate and maintain a sustainable social innovation?

We realized that the common denominator of successful organizations often lies in their ability to mobilize community participation, achieve consensus (toward a common goal/ideal), and especially in how community projects and social organizations address financial independence and mobilize social resources. Many movements and organizations have grown to the point where they can influence policy and reform laws to serve common development based on actual conditions.

In other words, compared to the conventional approach in development, which is social change usually from the top-down—focusing on policy advocacy and support from the government as well as reliance on funding from agencies or large corporations or local government budgets—the organizations, cooperatives (co-ops), and movements in South Korea that we interacted with (many of which have existed for 30-40 years and have a significant impact) all operate from the grassroots level (from ordinary people).

In a pluralistic society with a free market and capitalist economy like South Korea, relying solely on policy advocacy carries many risks. Different administrations and political parties in power will have varying development priorities and policies. Of course, not all policy advocacies, especially those that have been codified, can be easily changed. However, specific support in terms of implementation and financing can change more easily than ever. For example, the previous mayor of Seoul was very supportive of social innovations and "experiments" for the "future."

He led the establishment of Seoul Innovation Park, a platform supporting initiatives/innovations to address social issues on over 100,000 square meters of land in northern Seoul, attracting over 235 groups and about 1,200 people to carry out various social projects/experiments/innovations. However, with the new mayor and the new government of South Korea, policies and support for social innovations have been cut and are no longer encouraged. Consequently, Seoul Innovation Park will be closed in October this year, and over the past 1-2 years, it has seen a decline and desolation due to the departure and closure of many social projects/social enterprises.

Additionally, in a recent conversation with a Vcil friend related to top-down approaches, the viability of policies at the community level remains a significant question. Can local communities absorb these policies based on their actual conditions and capabilities? Of course, we support policy advocacy and the support of the "public" sector or large organizations/enterprises for their potential to create long-term impacts and significant influence, but that is a whole process not everyone can accomplish, and the actual results are not always as desired.

Therefore, at the grassroots level, creating "experiments" together, solving the community's problems and needs, and maintaining these innovative organizations financially and operationally is a practical issue we need to pay attention to. Perhaps, if successful, these projects can create direct, rapid, and long-lasting impacts with very few resources.

The question is, how have successful organizations, projects, movements/co-ops in South Korea managed to mobilize community participation over a long period (with high commitment)? In this small article, we will briefly share the financial aspects of these organizations and practical lessons for VCIL Community and organizations in our country, Vietnam.

A community screening session organized by Vcil Community in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

Lessons learned from South Korea

☘️ First, there's the Neutinamu Library model (located in Gyeonggi-do, about 30 km from Seoul)—a library functioning as a Private/Public Library entity. It is neither a public library nor a private library but a community library built and operated by local residents. It is neither privately owned nor state-owned. Over its 20-year history, the library has received donations from over 1,450 people, and currently about 500 people contribute monthly to its operations, with an annual budget of around $800,000.

Because it does not receive money from the government or NGOs but rather from the local community and is operated by local residents, the library enjoys significant freedom in its operations and practicality in its activities, selecting books based on the actual needs of the local community. The local community benefits practically and personally from the library, and the space has become a public venue for many educational and cultural exchange activities.

The sign next to the question mark: Citizen’s Collection / Book category E9: “What should I do in the world of artificial intelligence?”

The library has gradually become an essential part of the local community, serving essential and practical needs. Consequently, local residents are very willing to contribute monthly to maintain the library. The building, constructed in 2007 at a cost of $3 million (entirely from public contributions), has seen an increasing trend in donations over the years, as shared by the library director, Ms. Young-Sook.

Initially, it was challenging to convince people of the importance of a local library, resulting in little support. However, over time, practical and effective actions benefiting the local residents (especially children) and directly addressing the community's needs have increased trust and voluntary contributions.

Neutinamu teaches us that community resources are substantial (the key is how to attract them), and with organized efforts, they can significantly impact development and cohesion within the community, as Neutinamu transformed a town plagued by issues due to the Asian financial crisis of the 2000s into a cultural, educational, and developmental space for local residents and foreign workers in the area.

🌾 The second story is about the success of the solidarity economy—specifically, the "consumer" cooperative model. Established in 1997, iCOOP consists of six small cooperatives that formed a federation. Today, among the four largest cooperative federations in South Korea (iCOOP, Hansalim, Dure, Happy Coop), iCOOP is the largest in terms of annual revenue (6.243 trillion won), serving over 332,444 member households and 252 stores across South Korea.

Additionally, with contributions from members, iCOOP has established three industrial zones in South Korea. In these zones, besides producing goods and essential daily products for members, iCOOP has also built a cancer research center, a facility for benign food, a hospital, a sauna, a meditation room, and a wellness center to meet members' health care needs. Through these industrial zones, iCOOP has revitalized the rural economy and created jobs for local residents.

To achieve this, iCOOP has implemented numerous innovative governance and financial mobilization strategies from its members, including a monthly membership fee (10,000 won - 180,000 VND) and an initial joining fee of 50,000 won (around 900,000 VND) to receive discounts of 20-30% compared to the retail price for non-members (with a per capita GDP of nearly $35,000, spending $7.5 per month on iCOOP's quality products and services is negligible).

However, this "negligible" amount from households creates "significant" impacts on the cooperative, the community, and society, as well as on the future of individuals/families in terms of health care and consumption.

Additionally, iCOOP has a system for advance payments from members and a price stabilization fund, responding to natural disasters. iCOOP not only positively impacts its members but also stabilizes and supports suppliers, farmers, businesses, and agricultural cooperatives. Small, regular contributions from many people can lead to substantial impacts. In other words, when the community comes together, each small effort by individuals is amplified many times over. To achieve this, iCOOP—operating as a consumer cooperative—differs from private enterprises focused on maximizing profits (for shareholders). As a cooperative owned by its members, iCOOP focuses on stable operations and long-term benefits for all its members.

Lessons from Jungto Society

☘️ Jungto Society is a community of engaged Buddhist practitioners founded by Zen Master Pomnyun Sunim. Through their practice, practitioners at Jungto Society seek freedom from personal suffering while also working to create a better world. To achieve this, in addition to daily personal practice, practitioners contribute at least $1 a day and volunteer whenever possible to support those in need and contribute positively to society. As a result, Jungto Society operates four NGOs with different purposes in South Korea and various countries worldwide in areas such as: humanitarian aid/refugee support, environmental issues, research, and peacebuilding on the Korean Peninsula.

In India, through JTS (Join Together Society), the Jungto community has built and operated a school for over 700 students in Dongheswari—a place that previously had no school, where children had to beg instead of attending school—along with a hospital and development projects for the local people. In the Philippines, JTS has built over 70 small schools. They have distributed more than 200,000 gas stoves to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, provided housing and food aid to thousands of people during the historic floods in Pakistan, and constructed 100 houses, 1,000 wells, and more. The achievements of Jungto Society and JTS are truly remarkable, demonstrating the power of practice, engaged Buddhism, volunteering, and the impact of $1 a day.

Jungto Society has transformed contributions from mere monetary donations into a daily, meaningful, and sacred practice of giving. Each dollar saved—even if small for Koreans—each action to reduce consumption helps provide a meal for someone, contributes to building a home, or enables a child to go to school. However, JTS is not a traditional aid or charity organization; its members are not professional humanitarian workers but practitioners serving society. Thanks to the consistent, regular contributions from practitioners and Buddhists, Jungto has a stable and independent financial base, allowing them to uphold their principles, values, and commitment to their humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding projects without external interference.

Balwoo gongyang: a typical "frugal" breakfast at Jungto Society

This is particularly significant in South Korea, where religious institutions often receive some level of government support and/or operate as businesses to survive. While Jungto views financial contribution as part of their practice, from a community development and social change perspective, their model is worth learning from and applying. It goes beyond financial contributions to include anti-consumerism (resisting consumer culture), living frugally, simply, and sufficiently (in line with Buddhist philosophy and practice). Saving money, choosing simpler meals, cutting unnecessary expenses, and redirecting resources into social and community assets significantly contribute to social change, providing opportunities, food, education, and clothing to others, and making the Earth cleaner and healthier.

Buddhist practice at Jungto emphasizes engagement and service to society.

The “membership economy/subscription-based” model is not new; Netflix and streaming services are prime examples. However, in social and community sectors, especially in Vietnam, it remains relatively novel. While the model may seem similar, the spirit and purpose of membership programs for social organizations differ greatly—this is what preserves the value and sustainability of these organizations.

APPLICATION AND "EXPERIMENTATION" AT VCIL COMMUNITY

VCIL Community has never received funding from any fund, enterprise, or organization throughout its operation, nor does it have any large individual sponsors; all resources have been gathered bit by bit. This is also one of the questions VCIL Community frequently receives about how it operates, where the funding comes from for organizing international field trips or sponsoring scholarships. The activities at VCIL Community are made possible thanks to significant support from partners and contributions from participants. Additionally, to operate the organization, a small portion of the costs is contributed by former members of the programs as well as the recently launched membership program (VCIL Community Membership).

In the field of education, VCIL Community operates two main projects: The Soil Project and VCIL Travel School. Besides, VCIL Community engages in numerous community building activities, networking both domestically and internationally to foster collaboration and create an ecosystem serving projects/organizations/individuals on their journey to create societal change according to a new paradigm.

With this direction, VCIL Community has effectively utilized cooperation and support from partners in various countries in the region to connect and support individuals in Vietnam, primarily through educational activities. At this stage, VCIL Community aims to connect more with domestic organizations and focus more on collaboration and support with members to develop their projects and harness community strength and resources. In this regard, the development of the VCIL Community Membership program is a key activity.

A gathering happened within VCIL Community Membership members

VCIL Membership consists of individuals who connect and share the mission, vision, values, and beliefs with VCIL Community, voluntarily participating and contributing financially monthly (minimum ~ 10$) to become members and part of the VCIL Community. Additionally, there are VCIL Membership members who do not contribute financially but offer various other supports to VCIL Community (in media, organization, etc.) and are engaged in some social contribution work. Since they have dedicated time, effort, enthusiasm, belief, and finances to build VCIL Community, VCIL Membership members enjoy several "family" benefits such as:

• Receiving early information (2-5 days) about VCIL Community programs/courses (to ensure priority participation/registration/reservation for members) as well as a discount of at least 10%-50% on program costs (the discount usually ranges from 2.4 million to 12 million per program). Additional financial support is available exclusively for members in certain programs.

• Receiving a monthly exclusive newsletter, as well as participating in meetings/gatherings/workshops/programs/consultations/connections dedicated to members.

• Free access to the VCIL Community library and connection to volunteer/internship programs within VCIL Community's international network.

• Access to use products/services from the member network with special offers and discounts.

• Requesting customized training programs, coaching and connecting to suitable resources based on the needs of members.

VCIL Membership will help us focus more on the priority group of members who receive care, support, and companionship, facilitating deeper connections and impacts. Additionally, the funding from the membership fees will support VCIL Community to stabilize its operations, develop programs, projects, opportunities for collaboration, and exchanges between organizations, expand the network, and conduct various research in the fields in which the organization operates.

Simultaneously, it will also provide funding for members both inside and outside the community, directly reducing costs for learners, and offering scholarships to suitable young individuals—thereby increasing impact and equalizing access to opportunities, education, and training for the public. In the future, the fund, along with the VCIL Community Membership, could become a resource for supporting social entrepreneurship or initiating personal projects of the members. The benefits for members will increase or decrease depending on the financial and human resources of the member community.

Typically, in financial planning for programs/courses, we often have to account for costs related to risks, minimum registration levels required for the program to take place, program design and preliminary costs, personnel costs, organizational operation costs, and media/marketing expenses. Therefore, once these costs are shared by the membership fund and through media support or participation by members, the costs of VCIL Community's programs and projects for members can be significantly reduced. That is why, in addition to recognizing members' contributions, the fact is that members help reduce organizational costs, so the fees for members in VCIL Community's programs are at least 10-30% lower than the publicly announced costs.

With lessons learned and experiences from Korean organizations in connecting and leveraging community resources in grassroots organizations/movements, VCIL Community believes that the community has abundant resources that can be synergized to create significant impacts. This is also the direction of VCIL Community in the future, by organizing activities in the form of a social enterprise, learning from consumer cooperative models, and building a membership system to contribute and share together to leverage community resources for individual development and sustainable societal change.

☘️ The above is a brief sharing about our operational model and how we address financial challenges, experiences in mobilizing community participation and resources into social projects and organizations. We hope these provide ideas, experiences, and inspiration for solutions to financial and resource shortages for innovations in the development and social sectors from the grassroots level. At VCIL Community, we continuously learn and experiment with various initiatives and models for our activities. Occasionally, we share these experiences to invite everyone to discuss solutions to the complex problems of society