NGOS WITH NON-WESTERN CULTURE CAN INCREASE CONTRIBUTIONS TO HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS AS A WHOLE

Abstract

To address the need for fundraising among humanitarian organizations, the authors of this paper have constructed a mathematical model and conducted empirical testing based on financial information from humanitarian organizations, referring to interviews with two NGOs that support refugees and internally displaced people. Previous literature often separates NGOs with Western culture and NGOs with non-Western culture. Our results demonstrate there are at least two types of contributors, each of which perceives NGOs with Western culture and NGOs with non-Western culture as having different degrees of appeal. Because contributors view these NGOs as fundamentally different, NGOs with Western culture do not experience a loss in contributions even when NGOs with non-Western culture gain additional contributions. As NGOs with non-Western culture gain positive recognition among contributors, these NGOs can increase overall contributions to humanitarian organizations. This increase exceeds findings from previous studies examining different environments for potential contributors.