Thank you for your post! Nice to see fellow humanitarian/development workers taking the initiative to run their own research activities on local charities/projects (we are trying to do something similar but related to coordination).
Your research seems to add to the notion that nothing that orgs will often prioritize trendy topics “usually” favored by funders over actual field needs.
For local NGOs at least, sadly I’m not sure how much choice they have but to follow the current funding streams (right now climate is huge plus a few others).
The idea of starting an NGo to do something because you genuinely thought it might be the most important thing is usually a high income country perspective.
Hey Nick, I agree with you on the choice aspect of it, you usually need to go where the funding (or the funding priority) is, if you are a smaller NGO. Now, the starting point for NGOs, from my point of view, is often because the founders thought it might help to solve the problem in that specific community (which might be the most important thing to them). Even if it’s not aligned with current funding trends, I think the initial motivation is often rooted in addressing local/community needs (later shifting towards funding priorities mainly for sustainability—would be fun to run a small research on this).
Thank you for your post! Nice to see fellow humanitarian/development workers taking the initiative to run their own research activities on local charities/projects (we are trying to do something similar but related to coordination).
Your research seems to add to the notion that nothing that orgs will often prioritize trendy topics “usually” favored by funders over actual field needs.
For local NGOs at least, sadly I’m not sure how much choice they have but to follow the current funding streams (right now climate is huge plus a few others).
The idea of starting an NGo to do something because you genuinely thought it might be the most important thing is usually a high income country perspective.
Hey Nick, I agree with you on the choice aspect of it, you usually need to go where the funding (or the funding priority) is, if you are a smaller NGO. Now, the starting point for NGOs, from my point of view, is often because the founders thought it might help to solve the problem in that specific community (which might be the most important thing to them). Even if it’s not aligned with current funding trends, I think the initial motivation is often rooted in addressing local/community needs (later shifting towards funding priorities mainly for sustainability—would be fun to run a small research on this).