{"id":1125,"date":"2020-08-22T09:05:41","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T07:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2022-01-04T16:28:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T15:28:08","slug":"canada-needs-a-new-way-to-fund-international-development-ngos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/canada-needs-a-new-way-to-fund-international-development-ngos\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada needs a new way to fund international development NGOs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long before the COVID-induced recession\u00a0slashed<\/a>\u00a0Canadians\u2019 contributions to charities and the\u00a0WE scandal<\/a>\u00a0threatened to\u00a0undermine<\/a>\u00a0Canadians\u2019 confidence in NGOs, there were deep-seated\u00a0problems<\/a>\u00a0in the way that Canadian\u00a0registered charities<\/a>\u00a0got funded. Canadian international development NGOs do well if they do child sponsorship or work in humanitarian emergencies, but otherwise they\u00a0struggle\u00a0<\/a>to raise money from individual Canadians for long-term development work. It is time for a rethink.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s international development NGOs tap into one or more of five major sources of funding: 1)\u00a0from government; 2) from child sponsorship; 3) from donations for humanitarian emergencies; 4)\u00a0from the faithful, in cases of NGOs based in a particular religion; and 5) from the wealthy and powerful. All five sources are problematic to some degree.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, the then Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) began\u00a0funding<\/a>\u00a0Canada\u2019s growing international development NGO sector. Two decades later, scholars were wondering if development NGOs hadn\u2019t become\u00a0too dependent<\/a>\u00a0on CIDA. Another three decades later, the\u00a0problem<\/a>\u00a0persists. In 2017, of the 56 members of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC), 16 took no federal funding, but 25 relied on the government for a third or more of their funding, 16 for over half, and four for over 85%.<\/p>\n

Government funding encourages NGOs to work in areas\u00a0government chooses<\/a>, in ways government chooses; it can thus turn NGOs from autonomous agents of civil society into non-profit\u00a0subcontractors<\/a>\u00a0for government. There is\u00a0evidence<\/a>\u00a0that Canadian development NGOs\u2019 dependence on government funding can lead to self-censorship.<\/p>\n

For their part, ministers and officials in CIDA\/GAC (Global Affairs Canada) often resent what they see as NGOs\u2019 sense of entitlement, leading to\u00a0testy exchanges<\/a>\u00a0between the two sides. In extreme cases, the loss of CIDA\/GAC funding can cause an NGO\u2019s demise. RIP\u00a0North-South Institute<\/a>,\u00a0FOCAL<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0CHF<\/a>. NGOs suffering big cuts or delays in GAC funding often go through massive\u00a0layoffs and downsizing<\/a>\u00a0to survive.<\/p>\n

Such cautionary tales stick in the memories of NGO managers and encourage risk-averse behaviour. For instance, CUSO has relied on government for an average of 45% of its revenue since 1999 and has reported no spending on \u201cpolitical activities\u201d (i.e., advocacy) during that period.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the government-dependence spectrum, child sponsorship alone brings in around 40% of the total revenue for\u00a0World Vision Canada<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Plan Canada<\/a>, providing more income than most other CCIC members raise from all sources combined. World Vision also relies very little on government support \u2013 less than 10% every year since 2001. Other NGOs working on children and development without child sponsorships (such as\u00a0Save the Children Canada<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0UNICEF Canada<\/a>) raise only a fraction of what World Vision and Plan Canada do.<\/p>\n

But child sponsorship is\u00a0controversial<\/a>. The communications strategies often employ problematic stereotypes of people in the South as passive victims, incapable of helping themselves or their own children without outside help. The\u00a0sponsorships<\/a>\u00a0themselves can provoke tensions within recipient communities and create relations of dependence.<\/p>\n

At least Save the Children, UNICEF and others have work to do in\u00a0humanitarian emergencies<\/a>, the third main fundraising model. But that too comes with problems. Due to their emotional impact, some emergencies (such as the 2010\u00a0Haitian earthquake<\/a>) get oversubscribed, while others (like\u00a0Afghanistan under the Taliban<\/a>) get neglected. Slow-onset emergencies like droughts attract less money than fast-onset ones like earthquakes. Crises in countries unpopular with many Canadians (which, since 9\/11, often means Muslim-majority countries) tend to attract less money. Put those two together and ask, does anyone remember the\u00a0Pakistan drought<\/a>\u00a0of 2009?<\/p>\n

Funding from the faithful is the fourth strategy, used by NGOs affiliated with a particular religion or denomination. Here, demography is destiny. Declining memberships and ageing flocks mean stagnating revenues from the faithful for NGOs affiliated with the mainline Protestant churches like the Anglican\u00a0PWRDF<\/a>\u00a0and the Catholic\u00a0Development and Peace<\/a>, while those affiliated with Canada\u2019s burgeoning evangelical Christian communities, like World Vision Canada, do well and even grow.\u00a0Islamic Relief Canada<\/a>\u00a0has seen its revenues rise fiftyfold between 2010 and 2018, to over twice the size of Development and Peace, driven by donations from the public. Should good work depend so heavily on demographic trends? Can NGOs faced with demographic declines in their core Canadian audience rebrand and reorient themselves, as\u00a0SeedChange<\/a>\u00a0(formerly the Unitarian Service Committee) has done?<\/p>\n

The fifth model is corporate sponsorship and its close cousins, donations from high net worth individuals and the new\u00a0philanthrocapitalism<\/a>. As with government funding, funding from corporations and rich individuals is a Faustian bargain: Can you talk frankly about social justice and structural inequalities to the rich, who likely think they got their money honestly and fairly?\u00a0WE Charity<\/a>\u00a0has pioneered fundraising from the rich and the corporations. No surprise, then, that WE has also been accused of promoting a\u00a0sanitized vision<\/a>\u00a0of international development that glosses over issues of power and privilege in favour of feel-good volunteering and tourism.<\/p>\n

Corporate sponsors may also come with skeletons in the closet \u2013 or in the supply chain. One\u00a0WE employee<\/a>\u00a0left the organization because of ethical concerns about the corporate company that WE chose to keep.\u00a0Others<\/a>\u00a0have made similar allegations in the past, and the problem is\u00a0not confined to WE<\/a>. And, of course, corporate sponsors are at least as\u00a0fickle<\/a>\u00a0as government funders; the slightest whiff of scandal can make them quickly\u00a0close their pocketbooks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given these deep-seated problems, Canada needs new mechanisms for funding its development NGOs. For NGOs are an essential part of a vibrant and pluralist polity and a crucial check on government and corporate power. They can be valuable agents of social change and development. A new funding model for Canada\u2019s development NGOs should depend less on emotion (child sponsorships) and saturation media coverage of emergencies, be more predictable (smaller roles for fickle corporations and governments) and allow NGOs to maintain their autonomy and their creative approach to partnerships.<\/p>\n

Canada should explore using a competitive, arm\u2019s-length mechanism based on expert review for public funding, modeled on the\u00a0Canada Council for the Arts<\/a>\u00a0or the scientific\u00a0research councils<\/a>. Since most development NGOs are registered charities, part of the solution may be to provide better incentives under the\u00a0Income Tax Act<\/a>\u00a0to encourage more or larger donations, especially from the non-rich. Could we use the Act to encourage certain types of donations (such as unconditional grants to core operations, contributions to an NGO\u2019s endowment) over those targeted to a particular project or program? The quasi-endowment of the recently created\u00a0Equality Fund<\/a>, based on a public-private-philanthropic partnership, is another\u00a0model<\/a>\u00a0worth exploring. Creativity is required, as current funding models are all problematic to a degree. More of the same will not do.<\/p>\n

Lauchlan T. Munro : McLeod Group blog : 10-08-2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long before the COVID-induced recession\u00a0slashed\u00a0Canadians\u2019 contributions to charities and the\u00a0WE scandal\u00a0threatened to\u00a0undermine\u00a0Canadians\u2019 confidence in NGOs, there were deep-seated\u00a0problems\u00a0in the way that Canadian\u00a0registered charities\u00a0got funded. Canadian international development NGOs do well if they do child sponsorship or work in humanitarian emergencies, but otherwise they\u00a0struggle\u00a0to raise money from individual Canadians for long-term development work. It is time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development-actors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1150,"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions\/1150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rise-global.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}