Isomorphism of Finnish NGOs’ Fundraising Methods in the 2010s

Abstract

NGOs’ position has become globally emphasized in the 21st century. They have an essential role in providing welfare services, implementing foreign aid, and empowering people of developing countries. At the same time, NGOs have grown significantly both in terms of revenue and personnel size. They have also adapted business-like practices and modes of thinking. In Finland, where NGOs have traditionally relied heavily on public funding, this professionalisation has been especially visible during the last decades. An important part of this trend is the development of private fundraising. This thesis empirically investigates the argued isomorphism of NGOs in Finland. The focus is on the change of fundraising methods of large NGOs in 2010 – 2018.

First, the literature review presents earlier development of charity and the most important current trends. Next, different discussions of charity and business are presented in a comparative manner. The literature review concludes with the theory of institutional isomorphism and why it is relevant in the context of NGO fundraising.

The empirical part consists of a sample part and a case study part. The sample of 10 NGOs with biggest fundraising revenues is analysed to detect the quantitative trends that are proposed in the hypotheses. The case study consists of three various case organizations, in order to find local explanations for those trends. The main sources of evidence are manager interviews and NGO documents. The cases are compared with each other using cross-case synthesis.

The trends discovered in this study include strong growth in fundraising revenue, monthly donations and staff, increased popularity of unallocated funds, and decline of memberships. Furthermore, the fundraising mixes of NGOs have become increasingly similar. Some of the suggested explanations for this isomorphic development are professionalisation of the sector, modernization of fundraising methods, emergence of business mindset, changed forms of activism and increased turnover of employees within the third sector. Furthermore, potential impacts of isomorphism on NGOs mission are discussed, with the help of theories of business and charity.

Because this work is an exploratory case study, the findings are not directly generalizable. Another limitation is caused by gaps in the documents used as source material. The main academic contribution of this thesis is the empirical examination of NGOs’ fundraising with the framework of institutional isomorphism. For NGO managers and employees, this thesis offers a big picture of the sector’s development, and an opportunity to compare their organization’s fundraising strategy to those of others. Finally, this thesis is also meant to take part in the ethical discussions of NGOs’ transparency and potential mission drift.