Given Diminishing Foreign Funding Are South African NGOs Effectively Using Social Media to Leverage the Potential Resource Pool Offered by Individual Donors? – A Cursory Literature Review

Introduction

The promise of the new democracy and the international response to HIV/AIDS in the mid-1990’s led to a sea change in the way South African NGOs could source and access funding. Whilst the available resources were larger the fundraising became increasingly project focuses (as opposed to programmatic) and donor driven (Krige, 2012). Since 1994 KZN in particular has received the second largest commitments from donor funding (Ewing and Guliwe, 2008).

This has led to many NGOs becoming captive to certain large foreign funders (Ewing and Guliwe, pp. 271; Wescott, 2009, pp.35). Like any industry captive suppliers are extremely vulnerable to any shift in their main client’s strategy.

“The World around NPOs is a fast changing one… and the conditions globally at the end of the first decade of the 21^st century are far from favourable for agencies working in the development sector” (Trilogue, 2011, pp.89 & 91).

What is required is a new discourse in fundraising strategy and the identification of new income streams which allow NGOs to deliver on their visions and missions in an innovative, programmatic and unrestricted manner.  This environmental shift is taking place concurrently to the appearance of new technological and media opportunities for NGOs to strategically engage their communities through “dialogic and community building practices” (Lovejoy and Saxton, 2012) that were not available with traditional websites and communication strategies. This literature review will examine the changing funding landscape, appraise the state (and/or potential) of individual giving in South Africa, and finally examine the issues that arise when and where social media meets this need.

Shifting Sources of Funding

The International Stage

The South African NGO sector now finds itself in a straits brought about the confluence of the international financial climate and the country’s emergence as a leading democratic and economic force on the continent (Ewing and Guliwe, pp.275). Donor’s are shifting focus to other countries as South Africa “graduates from being a donor-funded recipient” (Ewing and Guliwe, 275, Trialogue, pp.88), and even those that remain in South Africa were not immune to the global economic recession (Ewing and Guliwe, pp.275).

While the argument for the retraction of donor-funding to South Africa asserts that South Africa is able to mitigate this withdrawal through macro-economic repositioning this is unlikely to happen given the ideological, political and socio-economic landscape (Ewing and Guliwe, pp.276). It is an imperative that local resources be mobilised (Ewing and Guliwe, pp.271).

Sources of South African NPO Funding

Local Corporate and Trusts,  and Foreign Donors lead the funding source log in 2003 and 2011 (first and second place, respectively), however, both Corporate and Foreign Donor sources show a significant drop between the two periods (there is no 2003 data for Trusts) (Trialogue, pp.33). Government comes in as the fourth leading source of funding across the two periods, also showing a marked drop (Trialogue, pp.33). Coming in at the lowest contributions are Self-Generated and Private Individual funding sources. Interestingly enough these two are the only two which show an improvement over the period (Trialogue, pp.33). Over the 2010 2011 period 16% of NGOs reported that self-generated income contributed the most to increased income. For the 10% that experienced decreased income for the period this was due to diminished trust, corporate and foreign donors.

Salaries are the 2^nd biggest expense for NGOs representing an average of 33% of the budget; this is often an expense least likely to be funded by corporate. Further, 30% of the corporate participating in this study do not fund NPO operating costs as a matter of policy (Trialogue, pp.40).

The State of Individual Giving in South Africa

In national research conducted across 3000 randomly sampled respondents controlled against national demographic norms Everatt and Solanki (2003, pp.51) discovered a sample mean for money given to a charity/cause/organisation of R27 in the month preceding the study. This was accompanied by a sample mean for money given directly to the poor of R6.60, and a sample mean for time given to a charity/cause/organisation of 1.9hrs. While as fragmented a group as this nationally drawn random sample represents this reveals an astonishing total investment of R100800 and 5700 man hours in the month preceeding the study. While this study is not exhaustive it gives a sense of the potential individual donor resource that could be harnessed in a more strategic way by NGOs.

Pros and Cons of Private Giving for the Development Sector

The debates around this point can be distilled into a recognition of a need for coordination of private funding to the non-profit sector that protects it from fragmentation of effort and resources, but that also doesn’t result in paralysing government regulations (Ewing and Guliwe, pp.272, Wescott, pp.36).

To unpack this the benefits of pursuing individual donors can be seen in that as opposed to corporate of foreign donors, individuals are less concerned with “earmarking” their specific donations (Trilogue, pp.89). So while “designation” as mentioned above may be a draw card it is not as rigorously audited per specific individual amount as it would be in the case of a corporate or foreign donor. This means that funds generated here can be used to cover core operating costs, or as unrestricted funding which places the organisation in a position to “experiment”. In the face of decades worth of “traditional” methods still not having succeeded in eradicating social ills and injustice the need for innovation and risk-taking is significant (Wescott, pp.21). Being able to leverage unrestricted funds through a successful Individual Giving strategy will not only contribute towards and NGO’s sustainability and autonomy of mission and vision, but will also give it the much needed freedom to strategise outside of the box, and to potentially make mistakes towards developing increased efficiencies whilst not risking its financial sustainability through earning the ire of a disgruntled project-specific foreign donor.

Determinants of Personal Donations

In determining the factors and characteristics of an NGO that influence individual giving Nunnenkamp and Ohler (2011) identified the following characteristics as having positive corollaries with individuals’ decisions to donate: a large fundraising expenditure,; being in receipt of significant funding from donor foundations; and being able to generate significant self-generated funds; and when donations could be designated towards a specific activity. The latter point might explain the surprising finding that an NGO’s increased level of specialisation, either in sector or geographical focus did not have a positive correlation to the amount of donations received. The authors make the assumption that the belief that the individual can designate funds doesn’t require them to fund an organisation that deals solely or explicitly with the specific issue of greatest import to the individual donor. Whilst the following correlations did not meet statistical significance they are still interesting: the availability of an online donation option was negatively associated to the amount of donations received, whilst the option of being able to donate periodically was positively associated with donations received. Another interesting mention in this study revolves around competing NGOs (whether that competition is explicit in a corporate sense, or merely referring to the efforts to secure resources from a common and finite basket is immaterial), that is, that diversion of funds away from an organisation due to another NGO’s fundraising efforts are typically cancelled out by the “awaking” of awareness this activity performs in society. This research is severely limited in that it was conducted with US subjects and organisations. While there is no evidence to suggest a similarity or difference between this and the South African context it provides an interesting point of departure for this thesis.

 

What Strategies are Used to Leverage Individual Giving

The Internet

In the last 15 years the internet as become a new channel through which NGOs have sought to communicate their messaged and leverage funds (Treiblmaier and Pollach, 2006, pp.808). Despite this NGOs typically have limited skill in maintain online content, or justifying expenditures in this regard and despite the potential offered by this channel its current efficacy is questioned as many standing donors of an organisation may never actually visit its website (Treiblmaier and Pollach, pp.809).

What does become clear (Treiblmaier and Pollach, Shier and Handy (2012), Hou, Du and Tian (2009)) is that simply having a web presence is not enough and that consideration has to be given to concepts that belong in the realm of classical marketing and cognisance must be given to brand equity and individual self-concept.

Building Trust in a Virtual Space

Research into the efficacy of “Donation” buttons on NGO websites revealed that trust plays an important role in determining action once the base levels of marketing communication have played their part (Gibbons, 2010; Lassila, 2010, pp.30). What this study discovered was the strongest levels of trust were induced when the donate-button design incorporated photographic evidence of both the need that was targeted and the response delivered by the organisation, and that this medium was well suited to conveying relevant information and promoting certainty amongst potential givers (Gibbons, 2010).

Social Media – Leveraging an Ubiquitous Presence

The most well known social media platforms are Twitter and Facebook, and like the myriad applications which have become household names in recent years these virtual communities are built to be integrated across the user’s life and digital experience (Lassila, pp.18). The fine line here is to engage in these community members as a community member and not be perceived as a disconnected externally intruding marketer (Lassila, pp.18). If this is successfully navigated then salience, the base level of many classical marketing frameworks including Keller’s Customer Based Brand Equity Pyramid model (2000), can be achieved. The weakness for most NGOs lies in the fact , mentioned above by Treiblmaier and Pollach; that if NGOs don’t have the ability to maintain websites, which are far more static than social media applications, they will struggle to remain relevant on these platforms unless they make a concerted and strategic effort. This need to be more engaging may negate the benefits of social media for NGOs that Lovejoy and Saxton (2012) identify, namely: they are more intuitive and purpose designed for interaction than traditional webhosting. Part of this effort, as mentioned above, is to understand the individual’s self-image concept, and to appreciate that social media platforms are used by individuals to “enhance their self-presentation” (Lassila, pp.28), and that through allowing the individual’s donation behaviour to become a part of their repertoire of self-presentation enhancers NGOs can further leverage and induce individual giving.

From Traditional to Networked NGOs – the Challenges.

Immersing itself into the realms of social media can be difficult for traditional organisations which emphasise controlling communication in order to protect the organisation from harm (Kantner and Fine, 2010, pp.49). The fears that paralyse a traditional organisation from leaping into this interactive social media  realm include: social media norms appear unprofessional; the transparency it nurtures can expose organisational weaknesses/vulnerability, it could provide a platform for public criticism, it could damage the brand, or its use presents the risk of a staff member inadvertently writing something damaging about the organisation or stakeholders (Kantner and Fine, pp.50).

Conclusion

 

The research drawn on above clearly depicts the changing funding climate that South African NGOs are experiencing, as well as where and how NGOs changing sustainability needs are converging with social media strategies on a general and global level. What is clear is that less resources are going to be available for South African NGOs from foreign donors, and that a potential strategy to mitigate this is the deployment of social media strategies. Conspicuous by its absence in this literature review is a detailed examination of to what extent, and with what level of success, South African NGOs are using social media to leverage individual giving; which, as shown above, is not and has not been a traditional primary fundraising focus.

References

Everatt, D. And Solanki, G. (2008) A nation of givers? Results from a national survey of social giving. In Habib, A. and Maharaj, B. (Eds.) Giving and Solidarity: Resource Flows for Poverty Alleviation and Development in South Africa. Cape Town, HSRC Press.

Ewing, D. And Guliwe, G. (2008) Foreign Donor Funding Since 1994. In Habib, A. and Maharaj, B. (Eds.) Giving and Solidarity: Resource Flows for Poverty Alleviation and Development in South Africa. Cape Town, HSRC Press.

Gibbons, S. (2010) The Effects of Non-Profit Agency Website Donation Button Design on Aid Agency Trust and Donation Compliance. Department of Applied Psychology, University of Canterbury. (Masters Thesis)

Kantner, B. and Fine, A. (2010) Creating a Social Culture. In: Kantner, B. and Fine, A. The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. pp. 41-58.

Keller, K., (2000) The Brand Report Card. Harvard Business Review, February, p.2000. Cited in: Kuhn, K., and Alpert, F. (?) Applying Keller’s Brand Equity Model in a B2B Context: Limitations and an Empirical Test.Griffith University. Publication details unknown. [available online] http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/10072/2338/1/26187_1.pdf

Krige, K. (2011) Individual Giving: The Holy Grail of Fundraising.

Available at: http://www.ngopulse.org/article/individual-giving-holy-grail-fundraising

Hou, J., Du, L. and Tian, Z. (2009) The effects of nonprofit brand equity on individual giving intention: mediating by the self-concept of individual donor. International Journal of Nonprofit Volunteer Sector Marketing, (14), pp.215–229 (Abstract Available Only).

Lassila, H. (2010) Humanitarian Non-Profit Organizations Marketing Effects on Donor Behavior in Social Media. Department of Marketing and Management, Alto University. (Masters Thesis)

Lovejoy, K. and Saxton, G. (2012) Information, Community, and Action: How

Nonprofit Organizations Use Social Media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, (17), pp.337-353.

Nunnekamp, P. And Ohler, H. (2011) Donations to US based NGOs in International Development Cooperation: How (Un-) Informed Are Private Donors? Discussion Paper Number 117 – February 2011. Center for European Governance and Economic Development Research.

Shier, M. L. and Handy, F. (2012) Understanding online donor behavior: the role of donor characteristics, perceptions of the internet, website and program, and influence from social networks. International Journal of Nonprofit Volunteer Sector Marketing, (17), pp.219–230. (Abstract Available Only).

Treiblmaier, H. And Pollach, I. (2006) A Framework for Measuring People’s Intentions to Donate Online. Proceedings of the 2006 Tenth Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems.

Trialogue, 2011. The CSI Handbook (14^th ed.) Cape Town, Trialogue

Wescott, H. (2009) Individual Philanthropy in Post-Apartheid South Africa – A Study of Attitudes and Approaches. Department of Sustainable Development, Planning and Management, University of Stellenbosch. (Masters Thesis)

Applying Porter’s Five Forces Model to the NGO Sector

Porter’s Five Forces are designed for traditional for-profit commerce and industry scenarios. With slight tweaking they are equally applicable to the non-profit sector; an examination of these will highlight the implicit vulnerabilities of organisations working in this sector. Where Porter’s model looks at the way the forces can affect profit, the NGO adaptation of his model is more concerned with how the forces impact an organisation’s ability to perform its mission effectively and efficiently.

Porter’s Five Forces are:

1. The power of large customers
2. The power of large suppliers
3. The level of rivalry among organizations in an industry
4. The potential for entry into the industry
5. The threat of substitute products

 

The significance of each of these will be individually engaged in a general discussion of the NGO sector. Implicit in this discussion will be the task and general environmentof South African NGOs. This discussion will close with the presentation of an NGO adaptation of Porter’s Five Forces model.

The Power of Large Suppliers and the Power of Large Customers.

For the NGO sector the activities are mainly service, and not product, based. Further, these services are social in character and based on specific skills rather than material resources. This diminishes the impact of supplier power in comparison to a production based for-profit company, as intended by Porter’s original model.

 However, the donor community and corporate funders can be seen as both the supplier and customer in the NGO model. They provide the resources, in the form of funds, for the NGO to carry out its mission, and in return they can lay shared claim to the positive social impact which is achieved through the NGO’s activity. The donor organisations need this to fulfil their own mandate; and corporate funders are able to include this in their CSI portfolio and report it in their triple bottom line.

In this regard the power of large funders, be they donor organisations or corporate funders becomes a force in the NGO adaptation of the model.  How this plays out in real-world situations is largely dependent on the strength of the NGO’s leadership. For lack of a better analogy it can become a carrot and stick scenario. A large funder is defined as one with influence in the donor community and the potential to contribute significantly to the NGO’s resource base. Funding is granted in one of two large catergories; project or operational. Project funding is typically directed towards a specific project with defined objectives and measures of success; while operational funding is directed towards the organisation’s operating costs. The later includes infrastructural, administrative and staff/organisational development, as well, as the name suggests, general operating costs.

The power of large funders can impact an NGO across both these areas. Through the lure of significant project funding it can draw an NGO away from its core vision and mission into activities which introduce scope-creep into every level of operation. Through the lure of significant operational funding conditionalities can be imposed upon which the funding, and any future funding, can be made contingent. It is not the presence of conditions but rather the nature of the conditions which can impact an NGO’s autonomy in determining its organisational structure and future strategy. It is important to state here that the impacts of this force are not necessarily negative. An organisation cannot exist as a static entity and project funding can provide the opportunity to evolve the organisation in a new direction to better meet the changing social development market. Scope-creep and evolution are two sides of the same coin; the strategy of the organisation determines which side is called. Similarly structural-adjustment-policy-style (Stiglitz, 2002) operational funding could be piggy-backed upon to bolster autonomous strategic directions and activities. Ultimately, to reiterate an earlier point, the threat posed by this force can be mitigated by strong leadership with a clear strategic vision – if someone else is holding the reins a gift-horse should be looked in the mouth.

What the power of large funders highlights is the tacitly accepted unequal power balance between NGOs and donors; remember this is social development and not charity (the distinction between these is a paper in itself). The donor organisations have a mandate to fulfil, in fact the sole reason most of them exist is to award grants towards social development activities. They are not service providers nor are they capable of carrying out the actual delivery of social development activities at the community level; they need NGO service providing partners. Similarly, corporate funders need CSI portfolios for their BBBEE scorecards and their triple bottom line reporting; NGOs provide a service they need at lower cost than they can do it in-house. The power balance exists not because the funders hold the money, but because money is incredibly tangible, measurable and traceable. The impact, for example, of the training of a community based crèche teacher on the life of a young child is not readily tangible, measureable or traceable over the course of that child’s life. NGOs and the theories of change that underpin their work believe they are making a positive difference; they are selling that change; but what they battle to do is demonstrate or measure that change as clearly as funders can demonstrate and measure their investment. What we have is a strange economy, where cash is traded for an intangible sense of positive social impact supported by rudimentary indicators (including: numbers reached and anecdotal evidence). In some case this economy exchanges cash for no more the “warm-fuzzies”.

“One cannot refute that CSI reports carry “warm-fuzzy” value and that pictures of impoverished yet smiling African children in annual reports and media have become a form of currency and are interpreted to be an indicator of development.”

(Roberts, 2011)

This recognition presents an opportunity for NGOs to leverage competitive advantage through being able to demonstrate the impact of their work to funders in a manner that is more tangible, measurable and traceable than other NGOs working in their field. Achieving this, will also lay the foundation for NGOs to educate their funders and partner organisations as to what are reasonable processes, outcomes and measurable impacts of social development activities in relation to a given sum of donor funds; effectively benchmarking.

(A note at this juncture: Not all funders need to be educated, nor do they all assume tacit domincance.)

 

 

The Level of Rivalry Among Organisations in an Industry

Local NGOs, to my understanding, have always had a tacit agreement to not work in, or encroach on each other’s area of operation. However, the social development NGO sector, broadly, is at a crossroads. South Africa is not the darling child of the international donor community that it was during apartheid or through its transition and establishment as a true democracy. International donors who were in some ways the staple providers for a range of activities have shifted their country focus, or shifted their activity focus, or both. There is a smaller pool of International Donor Funding than in times past, further to this, the remaining pool of International Donors was not impervious to the financial recession of 2009. There are fewer funding sources available to the sector. Because the funds are scarce donors are placing (and rightly so) an increasing emphasis on measurement and demonstration of the impact of their investment, this is discussed above. While the increasing scarcity of resources and changing mood of the environment does not necessarily translate to the cut-throat vistas painted by corporate rivalry, it does create a competitive environment. In terms of the well being of the broader social development sector this is not a bad thing at all. If any sector should be focussed on efficiency and effectiveness of delivery it should be the social development sector; and where slack can be cut out or better managed competitive advantage can be gained; and greater positive impacts achieved.

 

Potential for Entry into the Industry

Barriers of entry into the non-profit sector are extremely low.

 

The Threat of Substitute Products

Within the NGO sector the threat of substitute products must be seen to take the form of competing funding requirements between different development focuses; for example between HIV/AIDS programmes, ECD programmes, Nutrition programmes, Psychosocial programmes etc. For the model adaptation this shall be renamed the threat of competing needs. With positive social impact being the end goal of all investments and activities there is strong debate around which areas should be key focus areas, and if more than one area is identified which area should be seen as the core set of service needs upon which the others can be attached. Again, the ability to demonstrate tangible, measurable and traceable impacts will leverage competitive advantage here. (If all NGOs were able to measure impact fully and perfectly some serious discussions would need to take place, and priorities agreed upon by the entire sector. In this event individual NGOs could not serve themselves before the bigger picture.)

It must be highlighted here that NGO’s are ultimately working towards making themselves obsolete. Fully functional government service delivery would be the ultimate substitute product. NGOs actively advocate for this as part of their operations. Perhaps this substitute, then, should rather be seen as a goal than a threat.

What Porter’s Five Forces model does not make provision for, but which is central to an NGO’s mission are beneficiaries. For individuals outside the development sector it might be assumed that all intended beneficiaries are able to, and gladly and willing engage in development initiatives. This is not the case. Individuals and communities set their own development agendas, and rightly so. Communities experiencing severe malnutrition may not be able to fully participate in and benefit from programmes that deliver ECD support. Similarly, communities faced with chronic poverty may be too pre-occupied with subsistence livelihood strategies to take advantage of a workshop or some other activity that engages a need higher up along Maslow’s Hierarchy. They may abandon your project as soon as an Expanded Public Works Project, or some similar stipend paying project enters the community. People know what they need. Therefore, the fifth force for the NGO adaptation of Porter’s Five Force model should be, the ability and willingness of beneficiaries to participate.

 In summary of this sector overview the adaptation of Porter’s Five Force Model will be presented.

Porter’s Five Force Model – Adapted for NGOs

1. The level of rivalry among organizations in an industry
2. The potential for entry into the industry
3. The power of large funders
4. The threat of competing needs
5. The ability and willingness of beneficiaries to participate