Advanced networked technologies have the potential to support deep strategic and operational transformation within voluntary organizations as they seek to respond to shifts in the social, economic, and political spheres in which they operate. Evidence form our study of U.K. voluntary organizations demonstrates relatively low uptake of the core networking technologies and applications essential to support such transformation. Friends of the Earth and The Samaritans are exceptions to this trend. Case studies of these organizations demonstrate that they are using advanced networked technologies to reconfigure key information flows and relationships, in support of enhanced campaigning and more effective user services. The extent to which these organizations are able to exploit the transformational potential that the technologies present is tempered by historically institutionalized relationships and values by which they are characterized.

This paper looks at the impact of the Guatemalan Peace Accords of 1996 on the work of International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs). In particular, the paper focuses on changes in INGO organizational structure, programming priorities, and relationships with the Government of Guatemala and local counterparts between 1993 and 2000. It is shown that the peacetime atmosphere has vastly improved INGO capacity to work in Guatemala, and that continued success depends on INGO adaptation to the new opening, governmental commitment to the Peace Accords, and increased INGO willingness to cooperate on large-scale, integrated projects.

This paper presents an analysis of the role of Swedish voluntary organizations within the field of child protection as well as processes of institutionalization within such organizations. The empirical focus is on the two most important voluntary organizations within the field today, namely Rädda Barnen (Save the Children) and BRIS (Children’s Right in Society). And their importance within the child protection discourse, as well as their role as producers of welfare, is discussed. In the latter respect two different processes of professionalization—professionalization of volunteers and avant-garde professionalism—are identified. It is demonstrated that the relationship between the state and voluntary organizations is a key issue when understanding the nature of the organizations and their role in the organizational landscape.

This paper analyzes the grantmaking to South African civil society of six major U.S. foundations between 1988 and 1996. It answers four related questions: (1) How did these foundations understand civil society, and did they think there was a link between it and democracy? (2) How significant was their support for civil society from 1988 to 1996? (3) How did South Africa’s democratization affect their grantmaking patterns? (4) Did the foundations favor professionalized NGOs over grassroots and decentralized organizations, and if so, was this the right approach? The empirical analysis of the South African case contributes to the general debate about the link between civil society and democracy, and the role of funders in supporting both.

This paper presents a comparative analysis of giving ethos and behavior in the United States and the United Kingdom, in particular the relationship of giving to civic life. Obvious disparities between the two countries exist when overall levels of giving are considered. In the United States, individual giving as a percentage of gross national or domestic product has consistently hovered around 2% of Gross Domestic Product. By contrast, charitable giving in the United Kingdom has yet to reach 1% of GDP. The paper identifies the differences in giving ethos and behavior in the two countries in relation to the complexity of the differences between the political structures, social attitudes, and the role of charitable giving in the two countries. In particular, the paper postulates a set of models—generosity and altruism—for explaining the differences.