What Are the Different Types of NGO Funding?

Grassroots NGOs are non-governmental charities. It refers to these non-profit organizations that serve the society. The word "grass roots" is literally translated from English grass roots. Some people think that it has two meanings: one refers to the forces opposite the government or policy makers; the other refers to the disadvantaged classes corresponding to the mainstream, elite culture or elite class. The reason why grass roots are called is because grass roots are stubborn and the second is broad.

Grassroots NGO

According to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as of the end of 2008, there were 414,000 registered social organizations nationwide, an increase of 7.0% over 2007. The business scope of these social organizations involves science and technology, education, culture, health, labor, civil affairs, sports, environmental protection, Legal services, social intermediary services, work injury services, rural professional economics and other areas of social life, but professionals point out that due to the high registration threshold, the actual number of grassroots NGOs in China is far more than that.

Wang Ming, the director of the Tsinghua University NGO Research Institute, said that there is a huge third sector in China that is much larger than the registration scale of civil affairs departments, most of which have been recognized and approved by the government and other authorities in various ways, or We are carrying out various forms of cooperation with party and government agencies at all levels.

There are three main sources of funding for grassroots organizations, namely government purchases of services, corporate and individual donations, and service income received through provision. Grassroots organizations have limited influence and have little opportunity to obtain government purchase services, and domestic foundations have yet to show signs of providing them with long-term stable funding, so most grassroots NGOs can only rely on overseas funds to survive.

For China's grassroots civil organizations, there are fewer opportunities to obtain overseas unpaid donations, mainly through the use of overseas funds through project cooperation. There are two ways of project cooperation, one is to apply for an existing project of an overseas organization and complete the project to obtain project funding; the other is to plan a project yourself and then apply for financial assistance to the overseas organization.

However, as the development of international NGOs in China has gradually transitioned from pure funding to project participation, it has become increasingly difficult for China's grassroots organizations to obtain overseas funding.

In addition, grassroots philanthropy is more spontaneous, and many have not carried out community registration or record management, have no perfect organizational contract, and have no effective restraint mechanism. They rely on caring charity, affection charity, lack of rational charity and legal charity. So many recent queries have been caused by financial opacity.

Grass-roots NGOs that can obtain funding from large foundations are still rare. Compared with the powerful advantages of public fundraising foundations, the difficulty in obtaining resources is a common problem of most grass-roots NGOs in China. In the past, public welfare organizations with an official background and civil grassroots organizations rarely contacted and cooperated with each other. They carried out activities in different fields, and "there is nothing to do with each other."

Although the Chinese Red Foundation's "5.12 post-disaster reconstruction project" public bidding has taken the first step, the door of public fundraising foundations to open up grassroots NGOs has not been fully opened, and large foundations still have serious concerns about funding grassroots NGOs. "Charity Times" reporters from China Charity Federation, China Red Cross Foundation and

On the one hand, powerful NGOs will deliberately use their own resource advantages to engage with all levels, and with the help of friends from private capital, political circles, business circles and the media, the project can be implemented smoothly and attract widespread attention, and then it will snowball. Attract more resources, money and connections are the key to the success of such NGOs;

On the other hand, grassroots NGOs are purely voluntary non-formal non-profit organizations. They may not have obtained legal registration yet, but based on their own understanding of human nature and fraternity, they do it when they think about it. In the course of time Continuous adjustments and enhancements will lead to the development of legally registered NGOs. Of course, grassroots NGOs will inevitably encounter great resistance and difficulties because of their own strength. It is also normal for project plans to stagnate and fail. The problem cannot be avoided, but since it is grassroots, it can represent public opinion on a larger level. Since it is grassroots, there is a will to spring and breeze, which will also be the internal reason for grassroots ngo to succeed.

Various indications indicate that grassroots NGOs may use various modifications to win new living space between government and enterprises before the legal status is not resolved. The attitude of the relevant competent authorities has also been loosened due to the special circumstances of the earthquake. The leaders of grassroots NGOs are mostly idealists. Xu Yongguang believes that even the registration problems that NGOs are least willing to face are not without space.

One is registration:

The management of Chinese non-governmental organizations adopts a dual management system. A non-governmental organization must first obtain the consent of the competent government business department before registering with the civil affairs department. It is difficult to find the "guarantee" of the competent government business department in civil organizations. The reason is simple: whoever accepts bears responsibility.

The second is lack of people:

Charitable organizations lack professional human resource reserves. They need to train professionals in this industry and attract good people to join the industry with good salary, so as to improve the efficiency of charity.

The third is the self-governance of NGOs:

A common problem with NGOs is their lack of independence. Most of the private foundations are "bag foundations" for enterprises, and most of them have not established a governance structure centered on the council. The board of directors of NGOs is similar to the board of directors of enterprises. "Officially run charities, the board of directors is set up, the government is the boss, and the executive is strong." Xu Yongguang, who has been in charge of both the government and private foundations, said.

The development of China's public welfare is inseparable from the development of grassroots organizations

No one can deny that grassroots NGOs play an important supplementary role in the development of China's public welfare undertakings, and that the original meaning of charity is folk, and bottom-up grassroots organizations have the inherent characteristics of being close to the masses. In fact, although many grassroots organizations have not achieved "legal legitimacy", they have won public recognition through solid work, gradually gained "social legitimacy", and gradually won "political legitimacy" and " "Administrative legitimacy" has become an important force that cannot be ignored in civil society, and its healthy development plays an important role in the development of China's public welfare.

In a certain sense, these questions or opened up a new life for grassroots NGOs in the crisis. The development of grass-roots organizations is inseparable from the transformation of various external environments such as Chinese society, economy, and political life. At present, local governments have faced a more open attitude toward a diverse social structure including civil society, and gradually released more. Public space, including civil society, including grassroots organizations, is allowed to participate in the process of providing public welfare services and formulating public policies.

With the exposure of these incidents, the social elites will focus on deeper social issues and strive to explore the governance of various social contradictions on the premise of meeting their own development. These will also be transformed into grassroots NGO expansion acceleration mechanisms. . Although the living conditions of grassroots NGOs are still not optimistic and capacity building needs to be strengthened, it is undeniable that their own development and changes and the improvement of external conditions have allowed us to see new development opportunities.

In China, we have not seen such a scenario. What do we see? Many people say that they are "nosy", they are "free and flustered", and they are "nothing to do". This is perhaps the most authentic portrayal of Chinese NGOs.

In 2008, we can see the shadows of many NGOs. At the most critical moment, they have left people with the best memories. After everything has calmed down, we are still the most influential people. But now, NGOs are facing a very difficult problem, because there is no system to guarantee that they can safeguard their rights, and there are no clear rules to regulate them. They can only stay on the edge, only Marching in frustration.

In the process of collecting donations for the disaster-stricken areas in winter, they were described as "want to be famous", so even when they donated clothing and other winter supplies for the elderly and children in the disaster-stricken areas, they did not get any support from organizations, nor did they To their own unit of support, so, in addition to helplessness, it is more of a sad, because no one recognizes them, no one understands and supports them.

In the process of milk powder problems, NGOs once again fell into a difficult situation. They demanded fair and reasonable compensation. It is understandable that they even set up their own websites. However, they did not expect that they were maintaining the difficulties Their own rights, the website is constantly under attack, and the posts they send are constantly being deleted. Unfortunately, no one will ask why, and why? Is it really difficult for NGOs to protect their rights?

The shortcomings of the system are evident here. We lack a system that allows them to exercise their rights and enable them to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. As a result, they have to give up, and I think no one wants to see such an ending happen.

It is imperative to speed up the construction of relevant laws and regulations and improve the gaps in the system. Because in 2008, there will be many NGOs and many people will join this rank. If we cannot protect their rights, they will Can only helplessly proceed, and in the end, will be forced to give up because of disappointment.

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