Encouraging Active Citizen Voices on International Policy? The Record of U.S. Faith-based NGOs

Abstract

How do faith-based NGOs educate and mobilize their US constituencies, beyond appealing for donations? I examine ten diverse faith-based NGOs’ presentation of advocacy on their websites, along with budget and staffing data, finding great variation in the extent of advocacy and its prominence and urgency in agencies’ websites. Some of the most extensive mobilization is done by small Christian sects with historic commitment to social justice, non-Christian minority faiths in the US, and independent NGOs that specialize in advocacy. The religious voice on these matters is modest, with faith-based NGOs giving priority to securing financial support for material aid.

Keywords:

• NGO
• non-governmental organizations
• international development
• advocacy
• faith-based
• mobilization

Additional information

Funding

Research was supported by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion in International Affairs.

Notes on contributors

Paul Nelson

Paul Nelson is Associate Professor of International Development in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, USA. Before joining the university he worked as policy analyst for several non-governmental organizations in international development. He is author of The World Bank and Non-Governmental Organizations: The Limits of Apolitical Development (St. Martin’s, 1995); and coauthor with Ellen Dorsey of New Rights Advocacy: Changing Strategies of Development and Human Rights NGOs (Georgetown, 2008). He holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.