Collaborating in crisis - the Australian third sector’s response to COVID-19

• In Event: Covid Impact on the Third Sector

Abstract

Many examinations of the role and function of the third sector, including at times of crisis, begin from an attempt to define or categorise civil society organisations within a particular context. The primary approach of the Australian Government, for example, focusses on establishing the charitable activities of CSOs in order for these organisations to achieve tax concessions that lower CSO costs as well as enable them to take tax-deductible charitable donations (ACNC 2023). Many scholars approach CSOs with a particular democratic role in mind, such as how they might contribute towards a particular democratic theory, like participatory or representative democracy (Fung 2003), or broad organisational categorisations for CSOs which primarily engage in either charitable service delivery or systemic advocacy (Minkoff 2002). Approaches like these have clear benefits, in terms of understanding how CSOs interact with the state and perform democratic functions; however, starting from a purpose external to CSOs can potentially overlook important aspects of CSO activity.

This paper addresses this issue by starting from the position of CSOs in action, in this instance Australian CSOs responding to the needs of people and communities during the height of the COVID-19 (Riboldi et al 2022). The dataset consists of transcripts of 70 Australian CSO leaders participating in a total of 41 interviews and 12 focus groups discussing and reflecting on their practice during the pandemic. From this dataset novel theoretical results are produced through methodological innovation, utilising grounded theory in a manner much less used in this context (Charmaz 2014). The innovation results in a typology of 10 distinct CSO activities - advocate systemically, build capacity, conduct research, coordinate network, deliver service, engage citizens, hold space, manage organisation, provide funding and work collaboratively - and an analysis which demonstrates the interconnectivity between different activities. By developing the typology directly from the context of how CSO leaders talk about their practice, the paper offers an alternate theoretical perspective from which to explore the role and function of CSOs.

Stories of Australian CSO activity during COVID-19 that emerge from the data indicate the importance of taking a broad view of how CSOs act to directly meet and advocate for the needs of people in crisis. The data suggests, perhaps unsurprisingly, that working collaboratively is an extremely common CSO activity, as is the combination of systemic advocacy with citizen engagement. Less expected results come through the importance of CSOs creating and holding spaces for other CSO activities to occur, as well as the practice of network coordination for delivering collaborative outcomes. The results suggest that Australian CSOs tend towards pluralism and collective action, and that Australian CSOs rely on funding from non-government sources for important activities like building capacity, conducting research and working collaboratively. Through further testing, the typology potentially offers a tool for CSOs practitioners and scholars to demonstrate to funders and policy-makers how the variety of activities they conduct generate impact in times of crisis and beyond.

References

ACNC. (2023). Australian Charities Report [9th Edition]. Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission.

Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd edition). Sage.

Fung, A. (2003). Associations and Democracy: Between Theories, Hopes, and Realities. Annual Review of Sociology, 29(1), 515–539.

Minkoff, D. C. (2002). The Emergence of Hybrid Organizational Forms: Combining Identity-Based Service Provision and Political Action. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 31(3), 377–401.

Riboldi, M., Fennis, L., & Stears, M. (2022). Nurturing Links Across Civil Society—The Australian For-Purpose Sector’s Response to COVID-19. Sydney Policy Lab, The University of Sydney.

Author

• Mark Riboldi, University of Technology Sydney, UTS Business School