NGO sectors across the world provide services that the government sectors often fail to provide, and the NGO sector of South Africa is no exception. The Non-profit sector in SA played a pivotal role in addressing societal challenges, advocating for meaningful causes, and providing crucial services to communities in need prior to democracy. Post 1994 many Non-Profits argued they can provide better, more efficient, and cost-effective services than government departments, because of their proximity with communities that are beneficiaries of their services
These Non-Profits often rely heavily on donations, grants, and fundraising efforts to sustain their operations. While these avenues can be fruitful, they are also unpredictable and subject to economic fluctuations
But why is there this deep-rooted expectation that the government must fund non-profits?
One of the primary reasons non-profits seek government funding is to ensure the continuity of their programs. Many non-profits run initiatives that require sustained funding over extended periods to achieve meaningful impact. Government support offers the assurance of ongoing financial backing, safeguarding the longevity of these programs and maximizing their effectiveness.
The funding of Nonprofits by DSD was recently highlighted again with the Gauteng Department of Social Development (DSD) implementing a new Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) funding model. Their validity of their reasoning is debatable, and not the purpose of this article.
Did we dig this hole for ourselves?
DSD historically is already rendering some of these services in certain areas and in other areas have TPA’s with NPO’s to render these services – but DSD is saying they can now render these services themselves. This is their right -there is no obligation on DSD to fund external parties if they can render the services themselves
If our argument is that the model, scope and impact of DSD services is not up to our standards or level of impact
Does our past TPA’s with DSD does not undermine this argument – did we render services that our beneficiaries required or only those that DSD funded. [At substantial lower cost to them!]
Do we have historical robust monitoring and evaluation systems to illustrate our impact over time that reflects a higher level than that of DSD
If we question the impact and relevance of DSD services as directly rendered by them to beneficiaries in various sectors and communities – why have, we not spoken up before. What happened to our role as advocates for our clients. Why are most of us only speaking up when our sustainability is threatened.
hat have we done in the past few years to diversify our funding resources in order both to decrease dependency on DSD or scale up our services to our clients.
In the past few years, we have collaborated with various Non-Governmental Organizations, focusing on a range of organizational functions, including fundraising, developing Monitoring and Evaluation systems, Human Resource Management, Governance, strategic planning, and more. When asking for Business plans, we receive separate business plans according to DSD categories - Quite often the organisations do not have organisational business plan for their NPO. The same applies when requesting budgets – we receive several separate, project-based budgets according to the requirements and formats of DSD- no organisational budget. When one starts talking about strategic development and needs based services, you are informed that DSD does not fund this or that – and that is quite often the end of the discussion.
Do we as non profits need to go back to our roots, take up our role as advocates and re-establish our independence from Government
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