Beijing takes in more donations than any other Chinese city while Shenzhen tops the nation for donations received per capita, a charity research institute said Wednesday.

In 2008 and 2009, donations to Beijing-based philanthropic organizations totaled 1.85 billion yuan ($285 million), according to research by the China Charity and Donation Information Center (CCDIC), a Beijing-based non-profit organization.

Shenzhen in Guangdong Province comes a close second with 1.80 billion yuan received and is top of the list in terms of donations per capita, mainly thanks to its smaller population.

The CCDIC lists, based on the center's survey of 100 cities across China, are a teaser for a more detailed index to be launched in August that will study the philanthropic performances of Chinese cities and, the center hopes, will also encourage more transparency in charity finances.

"With this index, which will be China's first, I hope we can help push the government to take its share of responsibility to make China's charities more open and transparent," CCDIC director Peng Jianmei said Wednesday at a press conference.

Beijing is the preferred base for China's charitable organizations, said CCDIC research director Cheng Fen, who led the index research.

But the ranking does not indicate where donations are spent, she added.

Emergencies such as natural disasters are the causes attracting the most money in China, with donations reaching 100 billion yuan in 2008, a year that saw the devastating Sichuan earthquake as well as heavy snow blizzards in southern provinces, Cheng told the Global Times.

"About 70 percent of donations were for disaster relief," she said.

Donations dropped by almost half to 54.2 billion yuan in 2009, a year that passed without major disasters.

"China's philanthropy is still disaster-driven rather than paced to its general economic growth," said Cheng, something she and her colleagues believe is a problem.

"Philanthropy hasn't become a regular part of Chinese life as it should be," said CCDIC deputy director Liu Youping.

Chinese individual givers only contributed less than a quarter of donations in 2006 and 2007, Cheng said, with corporations being the major donors. Individual donations shot up to account for 54 percent of donations in 2008 but fell back to about 30 percent the following year.

Part of the CCDIC's mission is to promote individual giving, Liu said.

The August index will measure the philanthropic performances of Chinese cities using 36 criteria including donation sustainability and government support.

"Charity is an act of compassion, but as an industry, it must be done with professionalism," said Peng, the center director.

China is not quite there yet, Peng said, citing the absence of a culture of transparency.

"Information freedom is practically non-existent here," she said, adding that the CCDIC's donation lists also suffer from a lack of data.