Shaping Nonprofit Data Environments and Saving Civil Society Space

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Discussion

Abstract

Anita Gallagher, Giving Tuesday Mexico
Ingrid Srinath, Ashoka University, India
Mario Aquino Alves, FGV Sao Paulo School of Business Administration, Brazil
Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, West Africa Civil Society Institute, Ghana
David Kane, NGOExplorer, UK
Jesse Bourns, Ajah, Canada

New regulations in countries around the world produce new registration and reporting requirements for nonprofit organizations (NPOs) when they are established, acquire funding, or want to fund other organizations - to name just a few circumstances. Requirements for reporting information to government also create opportunities for the national nonprofit sector to access new information to better know itself. Existing research on the legal and political/economic environment for civil society (CIVICUS 2017; International Center for Not-for-Profit Law; Christensen and Weingast 2013; Carothers 2006; Dupuy, Ron & Prakash 2014; Bloodgood, Tremblay-Boire & Prakash 2014; Bloodgood & Tremblay-Boire 2012; Van der Borrgh and Terwindt 2012) presents a picture of civil society under threat from increasing legal obligations and reporting requirements. Alternatively, information on new data resources in the hands of nonprofit organizations might be a powerful tool to help civil society organizations to learn more about themselves, make better decisions for their stakeholders, and hold governments accountable (via open government commitments) and to collaborate with governments to obtain mutual interests in public goods provision, participation, and representation.

The participants on this roundtable, representing practitioners and data experts from each continent, examine the tradeoffs that NPOs face between the availability and benefits of data that might be used to improve their programming and funding prospects and the risks of increased data reporting requirements imposing new costs and accountability requirements (Cordery 2013; Burger and Owens 2010; Christensen and Weinstein 2013; Phillips 2013; Dupuy et al. 2016). We examine how NPOs, particularly in areas with less access to information, might take advantage of new resources, including Open Government policies and the Global Registry of Nonprofit Data Sources (GRNDS, grnds.org), which tracks all of the information that is collected and released by governments around the world, in order to understand their nonprofit sectors and what additional information or tools might be useful to them.

Drawing on the expertise of practitioners and academics from all regions of the world, we hope to discover new ways this data resource might be used and generate new knowledge about what nonprofit sectors need, regarding their data environments, to counter threats of closing space and thrive in the current economic and legal contexts. This question is as interesting to government regulators as it is to NPO managers, as they seek to design better infrastructure to collaborate with their nonprofit sectors while building trust and accountability (Lee 2010; Salamon and Toepler 2015; Quinn et al 2013).

Sub Unit

• Governance, Management, Adaptation and Sustainability of Organizations

Chair

• Elizabeth Bloodgood, Concordia University

Presenters

• Anita Gallagher, InnovaSocial / #GivingTuesday Mexico

• Ingrid Srinath, Centre For Social Impact And Philanthropy - Ashoka University

• Mario Aquino Alves, EAESP, Fundação Getulio Vargas

• Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, West Africa Civil Society Institute

• David Kane

Session Organizers

• Elizabeth Bloodgood, Concordia University

• Jesse Bourns, Ajah