While working on one of my assignment within PAFF 555 I discovered that some of the international organizations strictly refusing any funding from governmental institutions and /or corporations. For example, Amnesty International’s (AI) major financial source is individual donations from all over the world. AI in fully independent and does not accept any funding from governments or political parties and they accept only funding of the business that have been carefully vetted.
For non-profits in developing countries every source of funding is important. They do not have their own sources of revenue and cannot rely only on membership fees. These organizations parallel with fulfilling their mission they have other tasks to find money to keep the organization and stay independent. I know that it is possible to accept funding from different sources and still be independent. It just needs some strategy to match the organization particular project goal with the donor agency goal. For example social justice projects are interests of foreign governments and if you have the same goal you can easily get these resources from them and be independent. Or businesses usually are ready to give some money for charity and you have a list of poor families that needs basic food and clothing. In this case organization is independent, it is not even the recipient of the funding it is only linking the donor and direct beneficiary.
Should organizations be so strict about the sources of funding or they have to invest in developing skills and strategies to deal with any type of potential donors? I do not have a definite answer to this question. You?
Zhanna,
ReplyDeleteThere really doesn't seem to be any sort of right answer to your question. Being greedy and accepting funds from anyone and everyone seems like it is the best way to lucrative revenues. I'm sure each of these organizations, specifically AI has their own code, policy and procedures on funding. Perhaps they don't want to have their hands tied to how they can use these funds based on the donor's request.
So although I didn't really answer your question, I will fortify the fact that there is no definite answer.
Zhanna and Matt,
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Doesn't seem like there is a definite answer to the question, but it is a really important question to be asking and thinking through. I think this points directly to the importance of strong, regularly reviewed and integrated mission and vision statements. Boards, employees, and clients need to know what an organization stands for and what it is willing, and is not willing, to do to reach certain goals. At what cost (to mission, values, practices) should an org. accept funding? Who makes the decision?
Very thought provoking question, Zhanna.