NGOs Funding Trust, Blockchain and RedChain Prof. Victor Alvarez, MBA ORCID iD: 0009-0001-7933-3830 Department Research in Economic , IEBS Business School, 08840 Barcelona, Spain Department of Humanitarian Economics and NGO Management ETU Institute, Birkirkara, Malta Abstract Persistent trust deficits between donor agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) continue to undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian and development assistance, particularly in low-income and institutionally fragile environments. Concerns regarding fund diversion, beneficiary duplication, limited transparency, and weak accountability mechanisms have intensified demand for innovative governance solutions. This paper explores the potential of blockchain technology to strengthen trust in NGO funding through two complementary models: (1) a permissioned blockchain framework for beneficiary verification and aid tracking, and (2) RedChain, a privacy-preserving blockchain infrastructure for humanitarian assistance developed by the Spanish Red Cross. The proposed NGO Trust framework utilizes a distributed ledger to maintain immutable and auditable records of beneficiary registration and fund allocation. By recording encrypted identity credentials and digitally signed transactions, the system reduces the risk of duplicate beneficiary claims, fraud, and reporting inconsistencies across participating organizations. A participation and penalty mechanism further enhances network integrity by incentivizing honest behavior among stakeholders. RedChain extends this approach by integrating blockchain-based transaction recording with zero-knowledge proof technologies, enabling transparent aid distribution while preserving beneficiary privacy. With nearly one million registered transactions, the platform demonstrates the operational viability of blockchain-enabled humanitarian governance at scale. By synthesizing these approaches, this paper proposes an integrated framework for transparent NGO funding, combining beneficiary integrity verification, transaction traceability, privacy protection, and donor accountability. The findings suggest that distributed ledger technologies can significantly improve trust relationships between donors, NGOs, and beneficiaries, while supporting more efficient, transparent, and equitable aid distribution systems. The study contributes to the emerging literature on digital governance, nonprofit economics, and technology-enabled development finance by identifying blockchain as a foundational infrastructure for next-generation humanitarian and social-impact ecosystems. Keywords Blockchain; NGO governance; Humanitarian aid; Trust; Transparency; Beneficiary duplication; Zero-knowledge proofs; RedChain; Donor accountability; Privacy-preserving technology; Smart contracts; Aid distribution JEL Classification G30 â Corporate Finance and Governance: General L31 â Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship O33 â Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes F35 â Foreign Aid H84 â Disaster Aid and Relief 1. Introduction Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) play a central role in delivering humanitarian assistance, poverty alleviation programs, disaster relief, education, health services, and sustainable development initiatives worldwide. According to the United Nations and international development agencies, NGOs have become increasingly important intermediaries between donors, governments, and beneficiaries, particularly in regions where state capacity is limited or institutional trust is weak. Despite their growing influence, concerns regarding transparency, accountability, and the efficient allocation of resources continue to challenge the nonprofit sector (Edwards & Hulme, 1996; Ebrahim, 2003; Najam, 1996). The economics of nonprofit organizations has long emphasized the importance of trust as a mechanism for overcoming information asymmetries between donors and service providers (Hansmann, 1980). Donors frequently lack direct information regarding how funds are allocated, whether intended beneficiaries actually receive assistance, and whether reported outcomes accurately reflect project performance. This information gap creates principal-agent problems in which monitoring costs are high and opportunities for misreporting, inefficiency, or fraud may arise (Pratt & Zeckhauser, 1985; Tirole, 2006). As charitable donations and development aid increasingly flow through complex international networks, maintaining donor confidence has become a critical governance challenge. A substantial body of research has documented accountability deficiencies within humanitarian and development organizations. Ebrahim (2005) argues that traditional accountability systems often emphasize upward reporting to donors while providing limited mechanisms for beneficiary participation and verification. Similarly, Gugerty and Prakash (2010) note that transparency initiatives frequently rely on self-reported information that is difficult to independently audit. In international aid programs, concerns have emerged regarding duplicate beneficiary registrations, diversion of funds, weak recordkeeping systems, and fragmented information sharing among organizations operating in the same geographic areas (World Bank, 2016; OECD, 2021). Digital technologies have increasingly been proposed as tools to address these governance challenges. The broader literature on e-governance and digital accountability suggests that information systems can reduce transaction costs, improve record accuracy, and strengthen institutional transparency (Heeks, 2002; Cordella & Tempini, 2015). Among emerging technologies, blockchain has attracted considerable attention due to its capacity to create immutable, distributed, and verifiable records without requiring centralized trust authorities (Nakamoto, 2008). Since the introduction of Bitcoin, blockchain applications have expanded far beyond digital currencies into supply chain management, public administration, healthcare, identity systems, and humanitarian operations (Tapscott & Tapscott, 2016; Casino, Dasaklis & Patsakis, 2019). Scholars have argued that distributed ledger technologies may improve transparency and accountability by creating tamper-resistant transaction histories accessible to multiple stakeholders (Swan, 2015; Treiblmaier, 2018). Within development economics, blockchain-based systems have been proposed to improve aid distribution, reduce corruption, facilitate identity verification, and enhance financial inclusion in underserved regions (Kshetri, 2017; Saberi et al., 2019). Recent humanitarian applications provide evidence of growing institutional interest in blockchain-enabled governance. The United Nations World Food Programme's Building Blocks initiative demonstrated the feasibility of blockchain-based refugee assistance by facilitating aid transfers while reducing administrative costs and improving transaction traceability. Similarly, studies by Juskalian (2018), Mikhaylov et al. (2020), and Wang et al. (2022) suggest that distributed ledger technologies may strengthen accountability mechanisms in humanitarian environments characterized by weak institutional infrastructure. Nevertheless, important challenges remain. Public transparency requirements often conflict with the need to protect sensitive beneficiary information. Humanitarian organizations must balance donor demands for accountability with ethical obligations regarding privacy, dignity, and data protection. The emergence of privacy-enhancing cryptographic techniques, particularly zero-knowledge proofs, offers a potential solution to this dilemma by enabling verification without revealing underlying personal information (Goldwasser, Micali & Rackoff, 1989; Ben-Sasson et al., 2014). These technologies have increasingly been incorporated into blockchain architectures seeking to combine transparency with confidentiality. This paper contributes to the growing literature on nonprofit governance and development finance by examining two complementary blockchain-based approaches to strengthening trust in NGO funding systems. The first is a permissioned blockchain framework designed to prevent beneficiary duplication and improve donor oversight through cryptographically verifiable registration and transaction records. The second is RedChain, a privacy-preserving humanitarian aid platform developed by the Spanish Red Cross that combines blockchain technology with zero-knowledge proofs to support transparent aid distribution while safeguarding beneficiary privacy. By integrating insights from these models, the study proposes a comprehensive framework for Transparent NGO Funding that addresses four persistent governance challenges: beneficiary verification, transaction traceability, privacy preservation, and donor accountability. The analysis contributes to the fields of nonprofit economics, digital governance, and development finance by demonstrating how blockchain technologies may reduce information asymmetries, lower monitoring costs, and strengthen trust among donors, NGOs, and beneficiaries. Ultimately, the paper argues that distributed ledger systems can serve as foundational infrastructure for a new generation of accountable, transparent, and privacy-respecting humanitarian ecosystems.
Traditional philanthropic organizations often suffer from lim ited transparency, where donors have minimal visibility into how their contributions are utilized after donation [1,14]. To addressthisissue, this paper presents NGO-Chain, a hybrid Web3 platform designed to im prove accountability and transparency in charitable fund management. The proposed system utilizes a milestone-based conditional escrow mech anism in which donated funds are locked within blockchain smart con tracts and released incrementally only after administrative verification of uploaded proof documents stored on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) [4,5]. The architecture combines React-based frontend interfaces, Spring Boot middleware, decentralized IPFS storage, and Ethereum/Polygon smart contracts to create a scalable hybrid infrastructure capable of supporting real-time public transaction monitoring [14,12]. In addition, the platform integrates donor reputation tracking and blockchain-backed transaction auditing to strengthen trust between donors and NGOs [6,7]. By com bining decentralized financial management with milestone verification workflows, NGO-Chain provides a secure and transparent framework for milestone-driven charitable donations while reducing dependency on cen tralized trust mechanisms.
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are designed to disperse control, yet recent evidence shows that effective governance is often concentrated in a small number of participants. This note studies one simple mechanism behind that pattern. Because decentralized governance is monitor-intensive, rising proposal flow may eventually outpace the capacity of broad-based participation. Using a DAO--quarter panel, I estimate a fixed-effects kink model with DAO and quarter fixed effects and find a statistically significant decline in the marginal responsiveness of active voters once proposal activity crosses an interior threshold. I then study realized voting concentration using kink specifications with data-driven cutoffs. Across specifications, decentralization gains do not persist indefinitely once governance workload becomes sufficiently high, and load-based measures show especially clear evidence of a transition toward more concentrated realized control. The results provide reduced-form evidence consistent with a ``too big to monitor'' mechanism in DAO governance: when proposal flow grows faster than broad participation can keep up, effective control may drift toward a smaller set of highly active participants.
Charity is the quintessential driving force of humanity. Charitable work, when done right, has the capacity to eradicate poverty, construct basic infrastructure for all and many more. How- ever, in the wrong hands, it can be more of a driving force of evil than good. Currently, there is a lack of openness and transparency, hindering people from understanding where their dona- tions are going and if they are truly creating a change for the better. Donors are often unaware of how their contributions are being utilised, leading to a significant trust deficit, which, over time, results in a decline in donor support and retention. Hence, these factors highlight the need for Web3-based blockchain technology intervention to restore donor trust. Even though the advent of the digital age has paved the way for many Web2 centralised online donation platforms, these upgrades often bring minimal improvements rather than fundamental shifts. Although existing Web2 technologies attempt to portray a transparent donation system by showing proof of transactions or receipts, we can never truly know if these are legitimate, as a single centralised organisation controls them. This unreliable mechanism pushes donors to trust a central intermediary, the charitable organisation itself, to report on the management of funds. Blockchain technology addresses this problem by storing immutable transaction data visible to anyone on the network, ensuring trust through cryptographic proof rather than reliance on a central authority. This trust-guaranteed technology lays the foundation for the solution using Web3 architecture. This project aims to build a decentralised Web3 platform for charity organisations and donors. The main goal is to create a transparent and secure ecosystem where donors can track fund usage at any time. A user-facing application allows donors to securely make donations via Stripe, while a unique Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is minted for each donation to serve as a digital receipt on the blockchain. Smart contracts handle milestone-based fund allocation and release. The platform also incorporates AI-powered proof verification using the Claude Vision API. When charities submit evidence documents for milestone completion, the AI analyses submis- sions for document authenticity, relevance to the stated milestone, and potential fraud indica- tors. This serves as a decision-support tool for human approvers rather than an autonomous judge. A Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline further enriches the verification process by retrieving historical project context and similar past proofs from a vector database, enabling more consistent and informed assessments across submissions. Donors can also verify where their donations are being used and whether the funds are being spent in relevance to the charity project that they have donated to. The technical implementation of the application is the primary focus of this project, and legal or regulatory frameworks related to monetary policies will not be addressed. The impact of this project lies in its ability to redefine accountability in the donation sector, through which donors will have complete visibility on where their donations flow.
This paper aims to explore the key elements of transformative leadership skills of women servants to accelerate and impact activities related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Content analysis and qualitative interviews with case research on applying the latest technology with distributed trust networks to provide traceability in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and sports event management in Hong Kong for primary and secondary school students were conducted in AprilâJuly 2024. The attributes of transformative leadership of women servants with innovative ways to track studentsâ sports competition are seldom studied for improving the quality services of sports and STEM service providers in the post-COVID-19 periods. According to the results, it is expected to have an ongoing study on innovative and sustainable ways of applying transformative leadership of women servant leadership with non-fungible tokens (NFT) and blockchain application in SDGs via strengthening the partnership of academia, researchers, business, and industry with SDGs and NFT community projects for sustainable development (SD).
In 2000, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation tackled an issue concerning the American education system: unsatisfactory high school graduation rates and college entry rates, especially in urban school districts (Ravitch, 2011). Between 2000 and 2008, this foundation donated more than $2 billion to 2600 schools across 45 US states. Bill and Melinda Gates's aim was clearly spelled out: they saw the Kâ121 education system as âobsoleteâ2 and in need of drastic reforms (Ravitch, 2011). The Gates Foundation's leaders observed that some schools in the United States could host up to 4000 or 5000 pupils, leading to the neglect of a portion of students who needed extra attention. Based on contemporary research and already-existing movements in civil society,3 they concluded that smaller schools were the key to studentsâ success. In a context of public budget cuts, not many school boards could refuse a multimillion-dollar philanthropic donation. Hence, the Gates Foundation started to distribute money all over the United States, tying its gifts to conditions that would promote an effectiveness-based conception of education. At first, schools were asked to restructure and split themselves into independent units of no more than 400 students. Later, performance-based pay for teachers and national-standards tests, serving as effectiveness yardsticks, became mandatory for funding. Although this system benefited some schools, it created more problems than it solved in the great majority of cases. For example, the fragmentation of large schools into small autonomous units increased conflict and competition for resources and deprived students of a significant range of activities that were only provided in larger institutions. Praised in the beginning, the Gates program was sharply criticized in 2005 when the first evaluations came out. In 2008, the foundation's directors recognized the bad start of their program and mostly put the blame on the lack of receptivity of the schools they helped or on teachersâ lack of competence. A few months later, the foundation decided to all but shut the program down. In a democracy, there are good reasons to believe that the making of collectively binding decisions about such public goods as school infrastructures, education programs, and teachersâ salary should be carried out by citizens or people who speak in their name. However, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's case shows a sense in which some people or organizations, by virtue of their private resources, have an additional and sometimes larger say on such questions. This raises the question whether the logics of democracy and philanthropy are compatible. The question is more pressing because philanthropic donations are generally tax subsidized, representing therefore a redirection of public money (Pevnick, 2013) toward aims likely to advance donorsâ personal interests. Political philosophers have debated the role that philanthropy should have in liberal democratic states. On the one hand, a good amount of work argues that philanthropy should not assume a role in distributive justice, as private and voluntary redistribution of basic goods is too unreliable (Beerbohm, 2016), might affect egalitarian values (Cordelli, 2012), reinforces power asymmetries (Lechterman, 2021), and constitutes a paternalistic type of assistance (Saunders-Hastings, 2022). On the other hand, philanthropy may help promote social innovations (Reich, 2018), foster a vibrant cultural life (Pevnick, 2013), serve as a means for intergenerational justice (Cordelli & Reich, 2016), uphold public institutional action (Ceva, 2021), or supplement the provision of goods unrequired by justice (Lechterman, 2021). All in all, philanthropic actions have been praised for allowing a variety of interests to be included in collective decision-making while being criticized for the unequal manner by which it includes them (Saunders-Hastings, 2022). While many political philosophers have thus discussed the normative question of why philanthropy might or might not be desirable in a democracy, few have paused to address the prior and more fundamental analytical question of what, if anything, makes philanthropy inherently specific in such a way that it may raise issues of compatibility with democracy. 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The rapid evolution of blockchain technology and its offshoots like decentralized finance (DeFi) is redefining the internet's utility, paving the way for an infrastructure not bound by centralized control. This paper addresses the critical juncture at which the United States stands in the face of this global shift towards a web3 paradigm. It highlights the countryâs current trajectory towards falling behind in the blockchain and web3 sector, primarily due to the migration of blockchain projects and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) abroad, prompted by regulatory ambiguities and the inconsistent application of U.S. securities laws. Nevertheless, it underscores the U.S.'s unique position to lead the web3 revolution, given its stable legal system, a high number of developers, and a growing need for data sovereignty. The paper examines congressional and executive efforts to embrace web3 growth and argues for the necessity of state-level legislative support to maintain the U.S. as a tech hub. It delves into the challenges DAOs face in legal entity formation, concluding that the unincorporated nonprofit association (UNA) offers the most viable solution to these challenges. It also discusses the limitations of existing UNA statutes and the hesitancy of DAOs to adopt this structure due to the lack of clarity and long-term certainty. In response, Part III of this series proposes the Model Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act (Model DUNAA), designed to integrate into existing business organization codes and to cater specifically to the needs of decentralized organizations. The paper outlines the benefits for states adopting the Model DUNAA, such as fostering innovation, attracting economic growth, and having a hand in shaping consistent legal frameworks. The Model DUNAA is constructed based on principles that ensure minimal deviation from existing laws, avoidance of conflicts of law, technological neutrality, suitability for decentralized organizational structures, and maximal flexibility to accommodate future legal and technological developments. This proposed legal framework aims to provide a stable, clear, and adaptable legal entity option for DAOs, which could solidify the U.S.âs position in the forefront of web3 innovation.
Sanjaya Kuruppu, D.M.R. Dissanayake, Charl de Villiers
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how blockchain and triple-entry accounting technologies may improve non-governmental organisation (NGO) accountability by amplifying the social and economic outcomes of aid. It also provides a critique of these technologies from an accountability perspective. Design/methodology/approach An in-depth case study of a large NGO, relying on semi-structured interviews, document analysis and non-participant observation, provides an understanding of current issues in existing NGO accountability and reporting systems. A novel case-conceptual critical analysis is then used to explore how blockchain and triple-entry accounting systems may potentially address some of the challenges identified with NGO accountability. Findings An empirical case study outlines the current processes which discharge accountability to a range of stakeholders, emphasising how âupwardâ accountability is privileged over other forms. This provides a foundation to illustrate how new technology can improve upward accountability to donors by enabling more efficient, accurate and auditable record-keeping and reporting, creating space for an NGO to focus on horizontal accountability to partner organisations and downward accountability to beneficiaries. Greater accountability exposes NGOs to diverse views from partner organisations and beneficiaries, potentially enhancing opportunities for learning and growth, i.e. greater impact. However, blockchain and triple-entry accounting can also create âover-accountingâ and further entrench the power of upward stakeholders, such as donors, if not implemented carefully. Research limitations/implications A novel case-conceptual critical analysis furnishes new insights into how existing NGO accountability systems can be improved with technology. Despite the growing excitement about the possibilities of blockchain and triple-entry accounting systems, this paper offers a critical reflection on the limitations of these technologies and suggests avenues for future research. Practical implications Examples of how blockchain and triple-entry accounting systems can be integrated into NGO systems are presented. This research also raises the importance of creating a strong nexus between humans and technology, which ensures that âsocialisingâ forms of accountability that empower vulnerable stakeholders, are embedded into international aid. Originality/value This research provides insight into present challenges with NGO accountability, using empirical evidence, furnishing potential solutions using novel blockchain and triple-entry accounting systems. Greater accountability to partner organisations and beneficiaries is important, as it potentially enables NGOs to learn how to be more impactful. Therefore, this paper introduces rich, contextually embedded perspectives on how NGO managers can exploit such technologies to enhance accountability and impact.
This paper presents a literature review on the role of the distributed ledger technology in promoting stakeholder trust for charitable organisations. The purpose of this review is to capture existing knowledge on the relationship between the following key variables: charity, trust and accountability, and distributed ledger technology â with emphasis on blockchain technology as a primary example of this technology. After shortlisting the discovered literature pool to 35 papers, the following three themes were identified. The first theme presents the various definitions of key concepts in crypto-philanthropy literature. The second theme captures existing views on why stakeholder trust is declining in charitable conduct. These views include: (1) organisational boundary shifts; (2) monitory complexity; and, (3) poor regulatory design. The third and final theme presents a hypothesis on how the distributed ledger technology can promote trust for charities. The technology is hypothesised to promote trust by drawing on the following three elements: (1) decentralisation; (2) provenance; and, (3) rule-enforcement. A number of shortcomings are then highlighted in the literature pool. The first shortcoming pertains to the inconsistent treatment of key concepts in crypto-philanthropy studies. The second shortcoming pertains to the lack of discussion on whether the distributed ledger technology may potentially decrease stakeholder trust if implemented irresponsibly by charities. In conclusion, a series of future research pathways are provided. These recommendations include: (1) clarifying key concepts; (2) suggesting âcrypto-philanthropyâ as a formal disciplinary title; (3) highlighting under-researched areas; and, (4) recommending strategies for building a new crypto-philanthropic theory. From an academic perspective, the findings contribute to literature by bridging the gap between crypto-economic, institutional governance and nonprofit accountability theories. The findings may also guide charity managers, regulators and policy-makers in understanding the capacities of the distributed ledger technology in legitimising charitable conduct.
Abstract The smart partnership framework introduced in this article is derived from extensive, on-site interviews with nonprofit and public contract managers conducted in several grounded research projects between 2011 and 2015 and from the research literature on contracting. The framework demonstrates the continuing explanatory power of resource dependence theory that disentangles the formidable influence of the public policy environment on organizational action. It is intended to provide a coherent guide for practice by enabling nonprofit managers in the social services field to navigate the current intense environmental uncertainty in which cross-sector contracting relationships between government agencies and nonprofit organizations are embedded. By providing an accessible way to understand an extraordinarily complex set of inter-organizational dynamics, the model offers a research-based definition and clear visualization of what it means to be a smart partner. It highlights the necessity of understanding the norms, expectations, structures, processes, and culture within which sector counterpart contract managers operate. Fundamental to the range of managerial strategies that the framework calls for is the need explicitly to attend to relationship building, to patterns of variation in relationships over time, and to their probable consequences. The integrative model consists of three inter-related organizational competencies and a number of secondary competencies. Competency 1: understand the dynamic nature of contracting relationships; secondary competencies: recognize predictable variations in relationships; comprehend the importance of multiple institutional logics. Competency 2: develop and sustain capacity for strategic adaptation; secondary competencies: build external and internal learning capacity; discern power shifts in inter-organizational relationships; maintain capability for strategic repositioning. Competency 3: participate proactively in shaping policy change; secondary competencies: attend to relationship development and nurturance; build trust and credibility.
IntroductionAs society has become more democratized and decentralized, citizens have been more willing to participate not only in issues in their community, but also in government work. They are also interested in the improvement of public service delivery to address social problems. Recently, the pattern of public service delivery has changed from a hierarchical system to a governance model, in which public service is provided through a complex form of network building with other nongovernmental entities. This is because government programs and regulatory activities directly affect citizens, and government is well supported by citizens only when it performs its activities and carries out its responsibilities well. Public service can be provided through various systems and devices with the private sector, especially when the nonprofit sector's interest in and criticism of public service is rapidly increasing. That is, collaboration with different participants is one of the critical factors that ought to be considered in planning and processes for government policy making that results in positive outcomes and also addresses social problems in the community.Currently, various nonprofit organizations are immersed in the context of governance and are considered a type of collaborator. This is because a nonprofit organization in the community commits to advancing its social responsibility by managing social business, and the forms of collaboration is through the provision of empowerment to community residents. Citizens in the community take over vital services for the greater benefit of their community. Nonprofit organizations in the community have an autonomous and democratic nature. Additionally, profits from their commercial activities are reinvested into the community, and these activities of nonprofit organizations can serve as strong policy tools for addressing community problems with voluntary cooperation from citizens.While the number of nonprofit organizations in the community has increased, there is no previous empirical study which examines why nonprofit organizations are established more in some local governments than others, although several studies have examined the impact of nonprofit organizations on community conditions. This nonprofit organization's diffusion is meaningful to study because: 1) it leads to competition with other public sector services or businesses, and as a result, service quality can been improved; 2) nonprofit organizations bring positive social impacts to the community and local government through the revitalization of communities and the support of disadvantaged groups; and 3) it improves the community through innovations in the form of service.Nonprofit organizations are more likely to appear when severe community conditions are present, such as high unemployment and poverty rates, because nonprofits are often one of the best alternative solutions for a community. Additionally, they might be varied based on financial conditions in local government because nonprofit organizations rely on governmental grants. This is because nonprofits have suffered from revenue shortages as grant money decreases when governments face economic crises. Alternatively, they are initiated by emulating behavior of other neighborhoods and communities as they learn how they work. Thus, this study attempts to examine why nonprofit organizations are more commonly established based upon the financial condition of county governments. The study not only includes variables such as socioeconomic attributes within a county but also considers emulating behavior from neighboring counties.Literature ReviewCollaboration with Nonprofit Organizations: The necessity for changes to the form of public services leads to changes in the way policy is delivered. The form and direction of public service delivery to citizens has stressed increased cooperation and partnerships among various actors such as the government, the private sector, nonprofit organizations, and even citizens themselves. âŚ
During the last two decades the structuring and functioning of the public sector has undergone major shifts from a centralized and consolidated public sector to a decentralized, structurally devolved and âautonomizingâ public sector, including the disconnection of policy design, implementation and evaluation (OECD 2002; Pollitt and Bouckaert 2011; Christensen and LĂŚgreid 2006). Systems of public administration have been disaggregated into a multitude of different kinds of (semi-)autonomous organizations, denoted as âagenciesâ or âquangosâ (Flinders and Smith 1999; Pollitt and Talbot 2004). This disaggregation through âagencificationâ is the result of a process of vertical and horizontal specialization, based on geography as well as different types of purposes, tasks, customer groups or processes (Christensen et al. 2007; Roness 2007). In this process of agencification and autonomization, the responsibilities and autonomy of public organizations are redefined (structural aspect). Moreover, the way in which they are controlled by government, including the mechanisms of accountability, is redesigned â mostly from ex ante to ex post , and from input-based to result-based rationales (functional aspect). These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This paper firstly introduces the NRCMS(New Rural Cooperative Medical System) and mainly analyses the problems of the financing system and compensation effect: the first problem is the instability of the reverse fundraising system which goes against stable fundraising system and sustainable development.The second problem,then,is the irrationality of the general allowance mode,such as capital decentralizing,the low single compensation and unsatisfactory effects.As a result,farmers are still likely to get poor again because of some serious diseases.This paper puts forward four measures to make the system more appealing,make the farmers more actively participate in social insurance and finally achieve sustainable development of the system.
Progressivism and Philanthropy Lenore T. Ealy (bio) and Steven D. Ealy (bio) Toward the end of the nineteenth century America faced unfamiliar circumstances that seemed to make its traditional social institutions obsolete and threatened the hope for social stability. Steady immigration swelled the ranks and diversity of the urban poor, and headlong industrialization radically changed the ways in which people worked and lived. The growing complexity of social and economic affairs contributed to a widespread belief that a new social and political order must be created. The response of many social critics and scholars, today known broadly as "Progressives," was to forge an approach to social and institutional change rooted in evolutionary philosophy, enamored with scientific objectivism, and often infused with German ideological statism. Traditional Anglo-American common sense and the rule of common law were increasingly suspect as the new "social sciences" emerged with hopes of rationalizing social control. In the decades that followed, most American institutions were organized or re-organized according to the Progressive prescription. The flow of social responsibility was away from more primary, local, and voluntary institutions to those more centralized, professionalized, and tax-supported. This transformation was financed in part by the fledgling philanthropic foundations of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Sage and others who subscribed to some version of the new corporate liberalism. The hierarchical, corporate organization of business entities created a work force with middle-class means and proletarian status, and many of the society's major responsibilities were newly assumed by remote national organizations or assigned to some level of government. By mid-century, in the wake of the New Deal, America's institutions and practices of mutual aid were widely displaced by specialized professionals. Those in need of assistance became clients or "cases." Today, at the turn of another century, new circumstances are rendering the Progressive prescriptions largely obsolete. American society is outgrowing the institutions the Progressives designed for it. The practical virtue and utility of classical liberal principles have triumphed over the ideologies of socialism and statism. Government administration has been shown to suffer from and to reinforce significant knowledge problems. The electronic revolution has suggested and enabled a more horizontal corporate organization in which more and more working people are self-managed. In short, the centralizing thrust of the 20th century seems to be giving way to a decentralizing tendency in the 21st. The purpose of this paper is to foster better understanding of the origins and rationale of the Progressive "old order" and of its continuing impact on American philanthropy. Drawing upon dozens of readings from Progressive-era journals and popular magazines, we seek to uncover the intellectual foundations of Progressivism and to identify its strengths and vulnerabilities. Part of our exploration is also intended to understand how we might best articulate a new rationale for philanthropic enterprises that are today working to return social responsibility to local communities and to support the emergence of new forms of mutual aid and voluntary action. A more robust understanding of the promise of decentralized voluntary action is needed to facilitate the reclamation of responsibility from the outdated, bureaucratic institutions born in the Progressive era. Philanthropists who are today glimpsing the opening of new paths for human action and who wish to encourage the present transformations must understand the challenges in proceeding. A better understanding of the "old order" as well as the entrenchment of contemporary institutions in Progressive assumptions can help promote more effective action in the present. Only when we understand the old assumptions and their compelling hold on the present can we begin fruitfully to challenge these assumptions with a new vision for the future. I. What's Wrong With Charity? A hallmark of the Progressive movement was its effort to reform politics and government administration, to reclaim them from the corrupt patronage system of the party bosses and to apply new, more professional means to accomplishing the ends of government. In the name of reform the Progressives viewed the legitimate ends of the national government as more expansive and substantive than in previous eras. Ever present in the minds of many reformers was the fear of popular revolution, and "the labor question" was of central importance. In the years...
States and municipalities have privatized services in an effort to improve their costâeffectiveness and quality. Competition provides the logical foundation for an expectation of cost savings and quality improvements, but competition does not exist in many local marketplacesâespecially in the social services, where governments contract primarily with nonprofit organizations. As government increases its use of contracting, it simultaneously reduces its own publicâmanagement capacity, imperiling its ability to be a smart buyer of contracted goods and services. This article examines two questions about the privatization of social services based on interviews conducted with public and nonprofit managers in New York state: Does social services contracting exist in a competitive environment? And do county governments have enough publicâmanagement capacity to contract effectively for social services? The findings suggest an absence of competition and publicâmanagement capacity, raising the question of why governments contract when these conditions are not met.
The so-called charitable choice policy of the Clinton and Bush administrations is another milestone in the transformation of a social services sector that was once decentralized, independent, often informal, and voluntary into a deliberate instrument of public policy. Issues associated with government purchase of care from private, voluntary agencies date back at least a century, although there were wide variations in such practices among states and localities. It was during the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies that intentional federal appropriation of private social service capacity and skill began in earnest. The result is that private social services are now predominantly financed by government and by fees and charges, and contracts with large, for-profit firms are growing in importance. These developments have had important benefits. Public policy is more likely than private charity to address wealth-based inequities in service provision and to ensure better financed, more efficiently administered, and more uniformly available social services to a wide spectrum of beneficiaries. But there is a cost, too, in terms of diminished social capital represented by spontaneous private response to need. Voluntary social service agencies may find that sustaining the distinctive normative climates that ensure their uniqueness and selectivity is increasingly difficult as their involvement with government and with commercialized environments continues to increase.
This article argues that (1) the clarity of a policy intention depends upon the appropriateness of the organizational form to implement it, and (2) the assumptions held by policymakers regarding organization form, in practice, often lead to offsetting or contradictory implementations. The study examines a major recent policy reorganization-Florida's transformation of eight autonomous human services agencies into a single department. Its avowed purposes were to integrate and decentralize services. Elmore's (1978) fourfold model is employed to assess those intentions. The findings indicated that implementation became troubled as policymakers adopted inappropriate organizational assumptions to support their intentions. The conclusions suggest that implementation had to accommodate opposing dimensions of organizational strategy and managerial structure.
The American social welfare field is best characterized as a highly decentralized sphere of activity in which autonomous organizations define and pursue their goals in a fairly independent fashion. The complex nature of modern social problems, however, requires concerted action by a variety of organizations if effective solutions are to be developed. This conflict between the structural nature of the welfare field and the demands of the problems to be addressed has meant that social welfare planners have had to be concerned with the conditions affecting the willingness of independent organizations to engage in cooperative activities with each other. The purposes of the present paper are twofold: (1) To identify some of the major variables that affect the interorganizational activities of social welfare organizations; and (2) to describe the actual interorganizational patterns of one such organization, a county board of public assistance.