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

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

   

 

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

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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