Framing Chinese civil actors: earthquake relief and unintended consequences for media coverage

In 2008, the participation of NGOs in disaster relief during and after a severe earthquake attracted public attention and extensive media coverage. This study analyzes how mainstream Chinese news media framed NGOs in 2008. The findings suggest that after the earthquake, not only did the amount of media coverage about Chinese NGOs increase but also the patterns of coverage changed. Furthermore, the Chinese party media and market-oriented media demonstrated different coverage patterns. The party media tended to frame the contributions of NGOs as dependent on governmental leadership and downplayed their role in disaster relief to one of support. The market-oriented media increasingly covered NGOs from multiple angles and depicted them as service providers, decision makers, and resource mobilizers.     

A critical cross‐cultural perspective for developing nonprofit international management capacity

Issues of the effectiveness of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are becoming critical among a claim that cultural sensitivity to people's needs and the appropriateness of interventions is a competitive advantage of the sector. Here, the cross‐cultural management agenda is set out, particularly in terms of the transferability or appropriateness of management knowledge and development interventions. Research propositions are presented that, if supported through future empirical findings, suggest cultural hybridization is a process that can be managed through greater stakeholder involvement, leading to greater appropriateness as well as effectiveness of international NGOs.     

Promoting Philanthropy? News Publicity and Voluntary Organizations in Canada

This paper reports exploratory data from a broader study that examines media representations of the voluntary sector in Canada. It specifically identifies the resources and organizational attributes of Canadian voluntary groups that appear to be important for receiving mainstream news coverage. The data identifies four sets of characteristics of more than 500 voluntary organizations: demographic variables, association type, noneconomic resources, and economic expenditures. These characteristics are examined in terms of their relationship to news coverage. The data suggest that area of activity is significantly related to the amount of media attention that organizations receive. However, the amount of media attention that an organization receives is most strongly influenced by its yearly budget. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to both current debates about advocacy in the voluntary sector and important contextual developments that are transforming the communication environment in which charities and nonprofit organizations in Canada operate. We also draw comparisons to news coverage of the voluntary sector in other liberal democratic countries.     

Capacity in the NGO Sector: Results from a National Survey in Cambodia

Capacity has become a prominent theme in the literature on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the last few decades, due in part to the increasingly global role these organizations play in development. We analyze data obtained from a national sample of local and international NGOs operating in Cambodia, documenting capacity differences between these two groups as well as highlighting overall levels of capacity in the sector. The analysis covers a number of different organizational dimensions that have been associated with capacity, including structural characteristics and concrete management practices. Results suggest that international NGOs generally have greater capacity, but overall levels of capacity are relatively low for a variety of measures. We conclude with an exploratory cluster analysis that identifies four distinctive groups of NGOs based on capacity, providing additional insights into diversity within the sector. These findings will be useful for comparative NGO research and for capacity-building programs, in addition to helping establish an agenda for future research to monitor progress.     

Framing contests in global NGO networks: How controversies enable and challenge collaboration and action

In multistakeholder sustainability initiatives, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) need not only to negotiate with actors from other sectors, but also with other NGOs. Taking a framing perspective, this study examines how NGOs engage in framing contests because of their collaborative attitude toward the private sector. Through an analysis of Oxfam's participation in the Shrimp Aquaculture Dialogues, the paper examines the interplay between NGOs that propose and oppose certification as a viable strategy for ensuring sustainability in the farmed shrimp sector. The results show that controversies among NGO groups related prognostic framing (i.e., regarding the proposed solution to a problem) are characterized by specific ontological and normative attributes. The paper offers NGOs strategies for dealing with such controversies and shows that, depending on the nature of the controversy, engaging in framing contests might enlarge or constrain the roles that an NGO is able to play in a multistakeholder setting, particularly, when it comes to preserving its independence while securing interdependence with others.     

NGOs and the Democratization of Ecuadorian Water Governance: Insights from the Multi-Stakeholder Platform <Emphasis Type="Italic">el Foro de los Recursos Hídricos</Emphasis>

NGOs have taken up an increasing number of roles and responsibilities in Latin American societies. Based on a study of the multi-stakeholder platform, the Water Resources Forum in Ecuador, this paper shows how through the creation of a broad network of NGOs, academics, grassroots water users organizations and governmental actors; this platform has been able to contribute to the democratization of water governance. This paper analyses the international and national socio-political context in which this platform developed and traces the history and strategies that marked its development. Based on this, it argues that NGOs can play an important role in the development of more democratic and inclusive public policy making in water governance, but that the capacity of NGOs to bring about change greatly depends on the socio-political context and on the networks they are able to forge with grassroots organizations, state agencies, funders and other third sector actors.     

South Africa: Anti-Apartheid NGOs in Transition

Under apartheid, there were an ever-increasing number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) concerned about challenging the South African state and furthering a nonracial democratic society. In the 1990s, with the transition to an African National Congress-led democratic government, these organizations underwent profound changes. This article describes the key dynamics of this process, outlines the challenges currently confronting the new NGO sector, and concludes that the prospects for progressive NGO work in dealing with the poor and marginalized are constrained by the prevailing neoliberal economic climate.     

Promoting Civil Society in Contemporary Poland: Gendered Results of Institutional Changes

This paper is a contribution to the ongoing discussion concerning factors determining the development of civil society in a post-state socialist context. It examines the financial mechanisms designed to promote civic engagement in Poland, including EU grants and the so-called ‘percentage law’ that allows citizens to support NGOs of their choice with 1 % of their taxes. A detailed analysis of these mechanisms demonstrates that they are advantageous for some types of non-governmental organizations and not for others. Instead of enhancing the situation of the whole sector, they tend to support NGOs that already have substantial resources and hold a strong position vis-à-vis the state. Moreover, organizations and groups fighting for issues considered to be controversial—such as women’s NGOs advocating for the right to abortion or criticizing authorities for their lack of concern when it comes to violence against women—have limited chances to gain financial support from both the state and those sources that are independent from the state. This shows how seemingly gender-neutral institutional arrangements may bring gendered results. The following analysis is based on available statistics (several reports provided by the Klon-Jawor Association, Social Diagnosis Reports from 2007 and 2011) and qualitative data (semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis of the Polish media).     

Information,Community, and Action on Sina-Weibo: How Chinese Philanthropic NGOs Use Social Media

This study explored Chinese NGOs’ behavior on domestic social media platforms. By observing 155 rural education NGOs on one of China’s most popular social media sites, Sina-Weibo for 6 months, we found that despite Internet censorship and the unique government-NGO relationship in China, the Chinese NGOs are active on Weibo. Like their Western counterparts, the Chinese NGOs use social media to share information, build community, and mobilize resources. Because the Chinese NGOs face some unique legitimacy problems, aside from using social media to attract followers, they also use social media’s powerful broadcasting function to improve organizational legitimacy. To fit into the Weibo community, the organizations use a large amount of slang and emoji, and publish a significant number of posts which cover popular topics, but are not related to their work.     

Very Public Scandals: Nongovernmental Organizations in Trouble

This paper analyzes, from a cross-national perspective, publicized incidents of alleged wrongdoing on the part of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Data were derived from daily, weekly, or monthly newspapers and special nonprofit newsletters accessible through websites. Analysis of media reports of scandals involving NGOs was conducted to identify issues and trends in governance and management problems associated with this sector. The paper focuses on NGOs involved in the financing or delivery of health and human services. After highlighting some of the precedent-setting cases of NGO improprieties in the United States during the 1990s, prominent global cases of wrongdoing during the period 1998–2000 are reviewed. The underlying problems that allowed these cases to occur and their implications regarding NGO credibility and public trust are identified, and strategic options for enhancing accountability presented.     

Discourse Failures and the NGO Sector: How Campaigning Can Undermine Advocacy

Within academic research, more and more scholars reveal the ambivalence of NGOs—the sometimes constructive, sometimes destructive role they play in solving societal problems. In this paper, we present a discourse analysis that illustrates how NGOs’ campaigning may undermine their reputation and advocacy function. We conclude that such discourse failures are frequently not merely an accidental by-product, but rather a not-intended consequence of deliberate NGOs’ campaigns. By applying ideas from political economy, we make particular note of probable discourse failures when campaigns attempt to deal with complex issues in an environment rife with wide-spread prejudices and where the NGO’s work is transparent. We present collectively institutionalized commitments for NGOs and commitment services enforced by political organizations as instruments that are suitable for increasing public accountability of the NGO sector. In conclusion, we argue that further research can benefit from systematically analyzing the interdependencies between discourses and institutions.     

At the Mercy of the State: Health Philanthropy in China

Public health and healthcare issues in China have historically attracted individuals and organizations to engage the health sector. The growth of health philanthropy in post-Mao China raises questions regarding the role of the state in the development of China’s health philanthropy. Through a historical overview of health philanthropy in China as well as an examination of the functions and effectiveness of health-related philanthropic actors in the contemporary era, this study has identified the state as a major factor in the development of China’s health philanthropy. Indeed, even though the post-Mao reform dynamics have expanded space for health-related charity organizations, the state continues to have commanding height in health philanthropy in terms of status, funding, services, and influence. The state dominance in turn negatively affects the registration, financing, and capacity building of private foundations and NGOs in this area. Whether the state will dominate health philanthropy in the future to a large extent hinges upon how much extra space it is willing to concede in order to accommodate the dynamics in China’s philanthropic sector.

     

Irish Pro-Migrant Nongovernmental Organizations and the Politics of Immigration

In this article social movement theory is used to assess the strategic repertoire of a relatively new sector of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) advocating for migrants rights in Ireland. Pro-migrant NGOs are majority community-led and face a challenging political and societal context for mobilization including a restrictive immigration regime, political and media discourse that racializes migrants, weak public support for the expansion of migrants’ rights, and high rates of discrimination and social exclusion experienced by migrant communities. A competitive funding environment also inhibits pro-migrant NGOs capacity to work with emerging migrant-led organizations that simultaneously compete for state and foundation funds. Pro-migrant NGOs in Ireland have responded with a three levelled strategy, namely alliance building with sympathetic public officials and service and information provision to state bodies, campaigns contesting negative media and societal framing of migrants, and networking with transnational NGO coalitions working on immigration issues.

Family involvement in small,local nongovernmental organizations

The involvement of family members in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has been largely overlooked in the literature on the nonprofit and voluntary sector. This study draws on the family business literature to explore the main features of family involvement and the implications for organizational survival and effectiveness. It shows that the family is an important research variable. Exploring the NGO sector in India, the article demonstrates that family involvement can significantly influence the management of human and material resources, governance, and decision making. Although there are several advantages to family involvement, a large overlap of family and organization can threaten credibility and legitimacy. Family‐based NGOs must stress their value orientation to counter negative perceptions.     

Global activism and new media: A study of transnational NGOs’ online public relations

This study examines how transnational nongovernmental organizations make use of new media tools in their public relation activities and what factors influence their online public relations. A survey of communication representatives at 75 transnational NGOs based in the United States found that promoting the organization's image and fund-raising were the two most important functions of new media for the NGOs. Organizational capacity and main objective of the organization were significant predictors of NGOs’ new media use in their public relations. However, organizational efficiency and revenue did not significantly predict NGOs’ use of new media.     

NGOs and Their Vulnerabilities During the Time of Transition: The Case of Poland

This paper focuses on the development of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Poland, as a case study of the sector's development in the Central and Eastern European countries of transition. It is argued that, in this situation, the development and growth of the NGO sector though shaped, as in the West, by a set of legislative, political, economic, cultural, and historical forces, nevertheless is circumscribed by the specific conditions of political transformation. The nature of and the power with which legislative, fiscal, or organizational forces condition the development of the sector varies according to the scale at which they operate (local, national, or international). Moreover, it is argued that the position of NGOs is significantly regulated by the state's political ideology, and the formative and evolving character of the latter translates into instability in states' actions vis-à-vis the nonprofit sector.     

Religious Freedoms versus Gender Equality: Faith-Based Organizations, Muslim Minorities, and Islamic Headscarves in the New Europe

The intersections of gender and civil society in the formersocialist countries of Eastern Europe have been examined primarilythrough the lens of Western Aid to support feminist nongovernmentalorganizations (NGOs). What has received less scholarly attentionis the growing number of NGOs advocating for a return to moreconservative gender roles and more restricted public roles forwomen. Many of these organizations are so-called "faith-based"organizations (FBOs), and are bound to particular religiousdenominations. In this article, I will examine the presenceof Islamic FBOs in Bulgaria and how they mobilize a liberal"rights" discourse to justify practices that could be locallyinterpreted as being oppressive to women. Their insistence onguaranteeing women's "right to choose" certain religious practicesputs feminists and women's NGOs in an increasingly difficultposition.     

The Role of NGOs in Strengthening the Foundations of South African Democracy

This paper assesses the contribution of South African nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to the process of democratic consolidation. By drawing on a 1998 survey conducted among 270 NGOs, on several expert interviews, and on an analysis of the structures and programmes of the umbrella body of South African NGOs (Sangoco), the author presents a multi-faceted picture of the activities of the South African NGO sector. The focus is on the NGOs' role as (1) schools of democracy, (2) in bridging societal cleavages, and (3) in providing channels of interest representation for the most marginalized sections of the population. The paper concludes that the contribution of South African NGOs to the process of democratic consolidation is significant, but highly dependent on an enabling external environment.     

Third Sector Social Policy Research in Australia: New Actors,New Politics

Human service NGOs have become central actors in contemporary welfare states. The broadening of the role of NGOs in Australia as both providers of the human services that are an integral part of the welfare state and as lobbyists or advocates and agents of social change has been widely acknowledged; however, this paper focuses on a recent deepening of the role of human service NGOs in the Australian welfare state by exploring an additional dimension of their growth. Based on a recent study, it is evident that there has been increasing involvement by human service NGOs in the production of social policy knowledge through ‘policy research’ activities. The research mapped policy research activities, policy research infrastructure and policy research resources in human service NGOs, and also captured NGO policy researchers’ perceptions of the rationales and motivations driving NGOs in this direction. It was clear that this shift is based on strong beliefs that researchers located within human service agencies are best placed to produce the kind of knowledge that should form the basis of social policies responding to human need. Other drivers identified by policy researchers suggest, however, that the inclusion of third sector organizations in policy processes cannot simply be understood as the ‘opening up’ or ‘democratization’ of social policy processes to include Third Sector participants. The motivations for human service NGOs moving into social policy knowledge production in Australia are thus complex and diverse. Drawing on the findings of our study, Researching the Researchers, this paper reflects on the implications of this reconfiguration of welfare state politics. Who produces the knowledge that influences, moulds, and even determines the allocation of resources for the delivery of human services, and how this knowledge is produced have been ongoing concerns in social policy scholarship. We suggest, that in the case of human service NGOs in Australia, entry into the field of social policy research can be understood as a reconfiguring of the democratic system of policy determination. It may also be one in which the NGOs become ‘experts’ on citizens’ needs through research practices that are fundamentally less, rather than more inclusive, of the subjects of social policy. The implications of a possible shift in power to influence and in some cases determine who gets what in the welfare state is of deep concern in relation to future models of social protection and ultimately the redistributive and democratic processes of nation states. This paper seeks to question the often-unquestioned ascendancy of the third sector in welfare and asks whether this shift is in keeping with the democratic process and whether it is the best way to determine and satisfy human need.     

The Structure and Resources of NGOs in Estonia

The paper examines the present state of voluntary associations in Estonia—their resources and fields of activity. First, the paper discusses two possible functions of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the postsocialist social change: the opening up of participation channels complementary to those of representative democracy and the support to the state in fulfilling social welfare functions. A view stressing the latter function of the voluntary sector has hitherto dominated Estonian domestic political discussion. The actual capacity of Estonian NGOs is assessed on the basis of previous research and the results of a mail survey (779 responding organizations). The resources of the respondents are smaller than expected. Resources differ greatly between urban and rural associations, and between NGOs representing different fields of activity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the empirical findings and of the need for further research.