What makes an NGO effective?

Many NGOs set out to fight for equality, but what happens when those organisations don’t start on an equal footing themselves?

Paige Fletcher, a PhD student in the College of Business, Government and Law at Flinders University, has been researching ways to evaluate their effectiveness.

“I’ve always been a passionate feminist,” Paige Fletcher, a PhD student at Flinders University, tells us on a sunny afternoon after presenting her latest research at the College of Business, Government and Law’s HDR Spring Conference. “[and I have] a keen interest in politics and policy. I’ve been fascinated with what the best ways are to achieve feminist policy, and so for my Honours research, I examined the impact of three Australian feminist organisations on policy related to violence against women.”

It’s a complicated area to unpack – after all, some measures of effectiveness (like cultural change) may be almost unquantifiable – and NGOs often have different goals and methods of reporting on the success of their efforts. With her PhD research, Fletcher aimed to make sense of this in the context of eleven different feminist organisations – including Domestic Violence Victoria, Women’s Safety NSW, Embolden and Our Watch – looking at the relationships they have with governments, and how that impacts their advocacy.

"We are truly supported... the friendship from my cohort
makes the PhD journey less lonely."

“I think, going into my PhD, I was anticipating that the insider-outsider framework wouldn’t impact effectiveness that greatly, as the strong collaboration between NGOs in the sector would essentially make the insider-outsider framework redundant,” she says. “Instead, what I’m finding is that the insider-outsider positionings and the relationship with government has a big impact on an organisation’s effectiveness. Additionally, the insider-outsider framework as it currently stands does not adequately describe these NGOs’ relationship with governments – it’s far more complex than simply being an insider or an outsider.”

Despite her findings largely unravelling further what is a nuanced, complex topic, Fletcher did develop her own criteria for measuring NGO effectiveness. While she points out that an overall picture of effectiveness may not ever be possible, especially when organisations vary as significantly as they do, she took into consideration how she could learn from the limited effectiveness of other, existing multi-dimensional approaches when developing her own.

Applying her own criteria of effectiveness to the NGOs in her four jurisdictions of focus, Fletcher determined that Embolden had ‘high to moderate’ effectiveness across each criteria, with 2018 seeing the organisation securing government funding. Prior to this, they operated in a highly dynamic and adaptive way, with strong grassroots connections. In contrast, she determined Women’s Safety NSW had a lower level of organisational effectiveness due to less stable funding support from the state government, as well as a reliance on pro bono support from the likes of law firms and volunteers. They did, however, have a reasonable level of connection to those in the sector and were effective collaborators.

This research, and all of Fletcher’s studies, have taken place at Flinders University. As an undergraduate, she was inspired by the expertise and passion of her lecturers – and was encouraged by their support of her to pursue further studies with an Honours, and now PhD. “I'm very fortunate to have this expertise and passion in my supervisors. My primary supervisor, Associate Professor Cassandra Star, was my supervisor for my Honours thesis and thankfully I was able to continue to have her expertise and guidance for my PhD,” Fletcher says.

“She really cares for her students and goes above and beyond to ensure we get the most out of the PhD experience, and that we are truly supported. Additionally, the support and friendship from my cohort makes the PhD journey less lonely – and, dare I say it, fun.”