The concept of organized philanthropy dates back to the 19th century when individuals, often from wealthy families, started supporting charitable causes. These philanthropists played a crucial role in funding early NGOs and social reform movements. The aftermath of World War II saw the establishment of various international organizations, including the United Nations (UN). The UN and other intergovernmental agencies began providing financial support to NGOs, especially those involved in humanitarian and development work.
During the Cold War, Western countries and the Soviet Union used NGOs as instruments of soft power. International aid agencies and governments started providing substantial funding to NGOs working in developing countries, often as part of their ideological and geopolitical strategies. The latter half of the 20th century witnessed the emergence of private foundations as major contributors to NGO funding. Entities like the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and later the Gates Foundation played a significant role in supporting various causes globally.
Many governments began recognizing the value of NGOs in addressing social issues. Consequently, direct government funding for NGOs increased in various countries. This support was not only financial but also involved partnerships and collaborations on projects. In the late 20th century and into the 21st century, there was a growing trend of corporations engaging in social responsibility initiatives. This included funding NGOs working on issues related to the environment, human rights, and community development.
The increasing interconnectedness of the world led to the rise of international NGOs working on global issues. Funding for such NGOs often came from a combination of governments, foundations, and individual donations from around the world. The advent of the internet and social media platforms facilitated new forms of fundraising. NGOs began leveraging online crowdfunding platforms to source funds directly from individual donors, allowing for a more decentralized approach to funding.
The emergence of the NGOs world over has been brought by the deficiencies in government’s role in providing utmost resource and services to the people. In the Recent years globally specifically in developing countries there has been a rising involvement of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the development process (MUITHYA, 2021) This phenomenon is partly a consequence of dissatisfaction with government performance in the delivery of public services. As a result, (Wandera et al, 2017) stated that international NGOs as well as bilateral and multilateral donors increasingly seek to channel development funding through local NGOs. Consequently, the NGO sector has grown rapidly in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa has continuously battled a lack of funding, resources, unqualified teachers, outdated instruction methods, and inadequate infrastructure.
In Africa, NGO establishments were majorly attributed to the alleviation of poverty, fighting political insurgence, and supporting many more vulnerable groups justifying the fact that most if not all NGOs rely on money from a variety of sources, including individual donors, foundations, corporations, and governments and often what these can and cannot do is tied to where the money comes from.
However, their increase was attributed to the existence of several donors and other well-wishers from the developed countries including multi-national agencies. Evidence suggests that the strong growth and delivery of services by NGOs are attributed to the existence of controls to manage their resources (Wallace, et al, 2007). (Rafindadi et al, 2019) (“The Impact of Internal Control System on the Financial Accountability of Non-Governmental organisations in Nigeria: Evidence from the Structural Equation Modelling,” 2019). Several NGOs in developing countries including Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe have recently implemented new NGO monitoring or regulatory frameworks. NGOs have been seen to be organizations that are more charitable where they tend to operate with a philanthropic purpose shared among members and promoters. Most of the financial support or funding to such NGOs was done to ensure that services were provided to the beneficiaries (Muli et al, 2022)
The NGOs in Uganda have been operating since the 1970s with the intension of delivering services to the people. The NGOs in Northern Uganda whose major intention was to deliver the people from the Lords’ Resistance Army rebels continue to perform poor with characteristics of failure to deliver services effectively, poor work man ship, low levels of client recruitment and failure to attain the set goals and objectives (NGO Forum, 2013). This poor performance has been attributed to finding where some NGOs report that poor funding account for the low levels of NGOs performance in Northern Uganda, the African youth network and War child Canada whose major objectives are to recover the people previously affected with war are not an exception (Mohammed et al, 2017) The purpose of this research is to conduct an inquiry and establish whether and how donor funding in Northern Uganda affects performance of NGOS.
