Don’t Re-Invent the Wheel: Limits to Building“We may have been re-inventing the wheel— but it...
Transcript of Don’t Re-Invent the Wheel: Limits to Building“We may have been re-inventing the wheel— but it...
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Don’t Re-Invent the Wheel: Possibilities and Limits to Building Capacity of Grassroots International
NGOs
Allison Schnable, Indiana University, Bloomington Susan Appe, SUNY-Albany
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GINGOs
Grassroots International Non-governmental Organizations • Volunteer-driven, annual budgets of less than
$250,00 USD Elsewhere: • Private Development Initiatives (PDI) (Kinsbergen,
2014; Lau and Kinsbergen 2016) • Citizen aid • DIY aid groups, MONGOs (Berman, 2016) • “Butterflies”(Swidler and Watkins, 2017)
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New 501c3s Working in International Relief and Development
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Dispersed
1990
2010 Source: Schnable, A. 2015. “New American Relief and Development Organizations: Voluntarizing Global Aid. Social Problems 62:2, 309-329. 5
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Personal and Expressive
“We may have been re-inventing the wheel— but it was OUR wheel!” (GINGO leader, Schnable 2015).
"I don't want to RE-invent the wheel, but there's so much need out there, what I want to do is more, I want to personally connect with people" (GINGO leader; Appe & Telch 2017).
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Personal and Expressive
Expressive rationale (Frumkin 2002) The workweek was a true pilgrimage and a test of faith. We worked through the week in a steady rain. Everybody pitched in and worked as hard as they could go for 10 and sometimes 12 hours a day. . . . One thing that made this project so meaningful to the locals and Americans was that the humanitarian aid was given facetoface. There was no massive bureaucracy doling out huge amounts of materials. It was a transatlantic barn-raising. (St. David’s Relief)
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Working largely in service provision
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Education
Medical clinic or supplies
Small business
Clean water
Teach English
Christian ministry
Provide food
Orphanage
Agriculture
Visiting medical teams
Disaster relief
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U.S. Context: Other Challenges • Highly competitive nonprofit environment • No co-funding or leadership from leading
INGOs, foundation, or USAID (contrast the Netherlands)
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Theorizing the challenges of NGOs Brown and Kalegaonkar, 2002 (drawing on Salamon) • Amateurism • Material scarcity • Fragmentation • Restricted focus • Paternalism
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The research puzzle
How could leaders of GINGOs develop the necessary capacity for their organizations without giving way to the “red tape” that many of them criticize?
•How are support organizations helping GINGOs build their capacity, or how could they?
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ResearchMethod 16 semi-structured interviews with:
National-level NGO National-level nonprofit support organizations support organizations (5) (2)
State-level NGO support State-level nonprofit organizations (5) support organizations
(4)
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Findings
Support Organizations Not Serving GINGOs • Only one had a substantial membership of
GINGOs • “It's kind of a place I think where international
NGOs fall through the cracks because they're not being served by some of the other backbone organizations around the nation” (Global Washington).
• NGO-focused support organizations don’t target GINGOs; state-level nonprofits most likely to have GINGO members, but few and sporadic
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Exception: ThePosner Center for International Development
• Roughly 60 development NGOs, anchored in a co-working space in Denver, Colorado.
• Member organizations range in budget from less than $25,000 annually to $25 million.
• About ½ of their members are GINGOs.
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What do Support Organizations offer?
1. Training programs • Especially common among state-level support
orgs; some national orgs focused mainly on advocacy and “conveneing”
• Mgmt skills especially represented: strategic planning, board development, monitoring and evaluation, marketing
• NGO-oriented support orgs: using GIS, impact evaluation. Little specific to development sectors. 17
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What do Support Organizations offer?
1. Training programs • Peer- (or near-peer) advisors—micro-
mentorship or consultation available between members (Forefront, BoardSource)
• Respondents: most successful programs cohort based or peer-based (Forefront, Independent Sector)
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What do Support Organizations offer?
2. Network and peer building programs • Named as goals by virtually all organizations • Structure for informal learning • Thematic networks or working groups:
monitoring and evaluation, water, gender and development
• Differences between “amateurs” and “professionals”
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What do Support Organizations offer?
3. Information and Resources • Handbooks, funding announcements, job
boards • Libraries (online and print) • Legal services and other technical advice
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Assessing Potential of Support Organizations Amateurism: Organizational management: + Technical international development/sector specific skills: --
Material scarcity: ✓
More access to learning and informational resources about fund development—realistic plans for their organization type.
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Assessing Potential of Support Organizations Fragmentation: ✓
Dispersed, but connect through peer learning and especially online forums
Restricted Focus:-- GINGOs not motivated to change Paternalism: -- Challenge even in professionalized communities 22
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Assessing Potential of Support Organizations Paternalism: -- Challenge even in professionalized communities. Support organizations will not be able to segment their services to leverage local knowledge for GINGO programming.
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What is to be done?
• Roles for state nonprofit and NGO organizations
• Technical development skills: online and peer learning
• Avoiding paternalism: stronger hand needed in aid-receiving countries. Big players should recognize GINGOs—they are neither gadflies nor butterflies.
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