Concentrating or Sprinkling? Federal Funding for Indigenous, Women’s, and Environmental NGOs in Canada, 1972-2014

Abstract

Governments have a long history of funding nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and their programs. While there is much work describing this funding, there has been little research systematically examining how the political and economic context shapes the level and type of funding NGOs receive. This article examines the factors that predict levels of government funding for NGOs over time, focusing on spending for interest groups in three areas, Indigenous, women, and the environment. We use data collected from the Canadian Public Accounts, which lists all grants to groups by the federal government from 1972 until 2014. We use these data to assess how federal funding has changed over this period, how funding across issue areas is related, and the role of political and economic factors in shaping rising and declining funding over time. We find that the factors that predict funding vary across issue areas. Our analysis also shows government’s tendency to sprinkle funding across a larger number of groups or concentrate it in a smaller number of organizations is strongly related to the party in power and the issue area.

Does Talk Lead to Action? An Examination of the Relationship between Debate and Funding for NGOs in Canada

“…While it may be surprising that Conservative governments fund women's groups more than Liberal governments, this finding is consistent with recent research (Corrigall‐Brown and Ho ). We argue that, while funding for women's groups may be higher overall under Conservative governments, it is also different in nature.…”

“…There has been some work examining how the political context shapes funding for NGOs (e.g., Castles ; Corrigall‐Brown and Ho ; Huber and Stephens ; Iversen and Stephens ). In fact, some of the work in the agenda‐setting literature focuses on the role of political factors in shaping which issues receive the most budgetary attention.…”

Do Subnational Governments Fund Organizations in Neoliberal Times? The Role of Critical Events in Provincial Funding of Women’s Organizations

“…Some scholars, however, worry that state funding leads to the co-optation of organizations and social movement by the institutions that fund them (Clément, 2009; Corrigall-Brown, 2016; Corrigall-Brown, & Ho, 2013; Piven & Cloward, 1977). There is concern that government funding leads groups to align to the institutions that fund them relegating them as politically mute.…”

“…There is concern that government funding leads groups to align to the institutions that fund them relegating them as politically mute. In the United States, for instance, funding has been shown to manipulate an organization’s agenda, strategy, targets, and priorities (Corrigall-Brown, 2016; Corrigall-Brown & Ho, 2013; Dowie, 1996). The influence of government funding can transform the orientation of organizations from radical to complacent (Roelofs, 2003) and an additional concern is that it fosters resource dependency.…”

“…The influence of government funding can transform the orientation of organizations from radical to complacent (Roelofs, 2003) and an additional concern is that it fosters resource dependency. This can make organizations less likely to engage in overtly political activity and more likely to bureaucratize their structure (Corrigall-Brown, 2016; Corrigall-Brown & Ho, 2013) and, in the absence of adequate provincial support, federal cutbacks can devastate nonprofit organizations (Clancy, 2015). Yet the co-optation of organization or movement politics, though frequently observed in the United States, is less of a concern in other countries and has not been observed in the Canadian context (Ramos & Rodgers, 2015).…”