A city based development center will open in Pudong, Shanghai this month to serve as an incubator of nonprofit organizations.

"The capacity and accountability of grassroots NPOs are not strong enough. Many of them lack regular offices, stable source of funds and professionals," said Lu Zhao, director of the incubation center. "So we have established an office center in Pudong for those NPOs for free."

Funded by the local Pudong government, the center aims to provide support services to Shanghai's growing not-for-profit sectors, especially grassroot NPOs.

As NPOs in China are still in their infancy, the center will provide professional training programs such as financial management, volunteer management, fundraising and strategic planning.

From this month, NPOs in the city run by members of the public can apply to become members of the incubation center.