Following the Money and the Law: Why Legal Form and Funding Models Matter for NGOs

Abstract Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are operating in a challenging environment as governments are shrinking civic space and there is increasing competition for funding. Scholars have begun to examine how NGOs are adapting to these external challenges, but IR scholars have not yet systematically studied variation in their legal status and funding models. This article draws on scholarship from the NGO, not-for-profit, and political science literature, as well as publicly available datasets of NGOs’ legal status and finances. It identifies differences in legal form and funding models across large, well-established international NGOs. NGOs are often registering with multiple legal types, which enables them to adapt to shrinking civic space and engage in partisan politics. In addition, NGOs have different funding models; some rely on member donations, while others rely on large grants from philanthropic donors and/or the government. These funding models lead to different accountability dilemmas: member capture and donor capture. If IR scholars were to examine in detail the legal forms and funding models of NGOs, it would enrich our existing theories of resource competition, accountability, population ecology and shrinking civic space. It would also open new, exciting research agendas into the relationship between issue-based advocacy and partisan politics.