Foundations have supported the development of Chinese civil society organisations since the mid-1990s. Against the backdrop of the looming introduction of China’s Foreign NGO Management Law the speaker traces the evolution of foundations in the PRC and compares and contrasts foreign and domestic grant-making foundations based on their specific historical development trajectories, legal statuses, and modes of operation. This talk explores how in a period of political uncertainty, first and second generation of foundations – foreign and domestic, public and private, operating and grant -making – are likely to continue to co-exist, while converging and diverging from one another to varying degrees.