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Abstract
This research comparatively examines grassroots international NGOs (GINGOs), a growing subset of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) working in private development aid. GINGOs are small-scale, on-going development initiatives through voluntary third sector organizations. How do GINGOs’ founders and volunteers understand their role in private development aid? The article uses an interpretive framework to examine three in-depth comparative case studies of GINGOs based in the US and working in South Sudan, Nepal and Haiti. Its contribution is that it provides rich data to build further theory about the experiences, or multiple realities, in private development aid. It is found that GINGOs’ founders and volunteers attach new meanings to private development aid to distinguish themselves from larger professionalized INGOs and emphasize personal connections.
Notes
1. We are using Schnable’s term GINGO. There is lively discussion among scholars about what to call these organizations (see Kinsbergen and Schulpen Citation2013; Appe Citation2017b; Swidler and Watkins Citation2017).
2. We use the following definition of private development aid: “the direct allocation of donations from donors in the Global North to recipient communities abroad, most often through voluntary, nongovernmental organizations” (Appe 2017).
3. Develtere (Citation2012) would call these “new” players part of a fourth pillar in aid, after bilateral (first pillar), international institutions (second pillar) and larger, development NGOs (third pillar). For other taxonomies specific to NGOs, see Clark (Citation1991) and Vakil (Citation1997).
4. This is based on August 2016 data provided directly to the authors by the National Center for Charitable Statistics of public charitable organizations registered with 501c3 status in the US. We recognize (like Schnable Citation2015, p. 318) that this is not a perfect count of GINGOs as codes categorize some organizations based on the policy domain of their project(s) (e.g. youth, agriculture, etc.). NTEE codes more generally have been called at times “misleading” (see Fyall et al. Citation2018).
5. To date, we have interviews with over 40 GINGOs from our database and through snowball selection for our larger study about the motivations of giving to international causes.
6. We use pseudonyms in lieu of the names of the people and organizations.
7. Civic space includes freedoms of the fundamental rights to associate, assemble peacefully and freely express views and opinions (https://monitor.civicus.org/).
8. We acknowledge that while Haiti is noted as obstructed by CIVICUS, that it has a degree of flexibility observed earlier in the text due to the lack of government capacity to enforce.
9. We do not suggest that people working in larger, professional NGOs do not have personal motivations and objectives. For a larger discussion see Fechter (Citation2012).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Susan Appe
Susan Appe is Assistant Professor at Rockefeller College at the University at Albany, SUNY. Her research focuses on government‒nonprofit relations and the dimensions and evolution of the nonprofit sector. She examines how government policy influences and shapes civil society and nonprofit organizations; how and why nonprofit organizations form national-level networks and their implications; and the relationship between civil society, foreign aid and development.
Fabian Telch
Fabian Telch is a PhD candidate of the program in Community and Public Affairs at the College of Community and Public Affairs at Binghamton University, State University of New York. His current research centers on national development planning in developed and developing countries, implementation, and governance of public, nongovernmental and civil society organizations.