NPOs and Politicans

I was intrigued to read the “Weathering the Storm” article since it looked at the relationships or difficulties that NPOs have with political organizations. (I am in the Master’s of International Studies program, so I enjoyed relating this article to what I knew about politics in the International field). The article also mentions some problems that NPOs face but it focused more on the problems that non-conventional organizations face, for instance drug problems especially sharing syringes.

One of the first problems they face is lack of state support, especially since they are organizations that reach an un-conventional group of people, usually far removed from the suits and egos of the Congressman. Most political campaigns and politicians always align themselves with a NPO, personally I don’t think this is because they are extremely magnanimous in nature but they feel that if they align themselves with a respectable NPO that their ratings will go up. But usually they align themselves with NPOs that reach and support a broad range of people and defiantly a group that is non-controversial. That explains why organizations that reach out to more difficult areas have a hard time receiving funding because politicians and Congressman are afraid to take a risk and align with these organizations. Just the other day I was listening to Delilah, don’t hold it against me = ), and even she had an NPO that she was apart of in Africa.

The US is very fortunate to have a working lobbying system that does support NPO, maybe not to the best of their ability but defiantly in comparison to other countries. China does not even have this function for the government to support NPOs, it is a growing movement and they are trying to learn from the US and how our NPOs function. The younger generation, especially on college campuses are really following the US role to get involved with NPOs. So maybe it is difficult for un-conventional NPOs to get funding but it is defiantly much more available that in most countries.


Prioritization of social welfare spending was also another political concern. If NPOs can align themselves with a politician they can have the chance to increase their funding but I also think they take the chance of risking their reputation since the funding of the NPO is determined by the success of the politician and this might ebb and flow. And only certain organizations that are well known might get funding from Congress as opposed to less know or organizations that don’t reach the mainstream of people. How many Southern Republicans are aligned with the NRA… it reaches their main population and look at the massive funding of the NRA. They both benefit from support of each other, but unfortunately then prioritization of welfare spending does take place.