Cross-National NGO Research: The Rise and Demise Survey

• In Event: NGOs, Community Networks, and Policy Advocacy

Abstract

The global and cross-national study of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and charities usually relies on data reported to regulatory bodies or private umbrella organizations. While these sources can offer rich insights (for recent examples, see Bush and Hadden 2019, Brass 2016, Smith and Wiest 2012), the data gathered and measurements used often vary substantially across national contexts (Bloodgood 2019), and many of these databases exclude smaller NGOs (Appe and Telch 2019). In short, for scholars of NGOs, charities, and nonprofits, the biggest factor that shapes the data environment is what Anheier, Glasius, and Kaldor (2001) refer to as “methodological nationalism.”

Building on a new global database that tracks how NGO information is gathered (Bloodgood, Stroup, Wong 2021), we here introduce a new cross-national survey, the Rise and Demise of NGOs Survey. This survey, supported with a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), extends two earlier excellent efforts – the Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project (Salamon et al., 1999) and the survey research of the US-focused Transnational NGO Initiative (Hermann et al. 2010). The survey questions ask about organizational activities, structure, effectiveness, accountability, and partnerships. The survey also includes questions about government reporting and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we introduce the survey and present preliminary results from the first two pilot countries, Canada and the UK. This paper provides new comparative snapshots which capture the demographics of NGO communities and variations across countries concerning their size, age, issue focus, activities, and financing which suggest their potential for, and interest in, political influence.

Authors

• Sarah S. Stroup, Middlebury College

• Elizabeth Bloodgood, Concordia University

• Wendy H. Wong, University of British Columbia