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84 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

Table 6.3 Major source support of NGOs according to date established
Major source of financial support
Various
Domestic sources
Government non-gov Foreign (no single
sources sources sources Self support dependency) Total
Date established Up to 1984 Count 4 9 12 10 7 42
Row % 9.5% 21.4% 28.6% 23.8% 16.7% 100.0%
1985–1994 Count 24 19 36 12 16 107
Row % 22.4% 17.8% 33.6% 11.2% 15.0% 100.0%
1995–2004 Count 26 39 14 26 18 123
Row % 21.1% 31.7% 11.4% 21.1% 14.6% 100.0%
Total Count 54 67 62 48 41 272
Row % 19.9% 24.6% 22.8% 17.6% 15.1% 100.0%
Source: Sample survey 2004/2005.

non-governmental sources of support. The that the biggest change refers to the decline
flow of foreign funds is particularly salient of almost five percentage points in the pro-
for those organizations established between portion of organizations that, ten years ago,
1985 and 1994. Age, however, does not seem depended mainly upon foreign sources for
to affect the propensity to diversify fund financial support. We also observe that the
sources. The proportion of those that manage proportion of NGOs that either rely mainly
to diversify their supporters, thus avoiding on self-support or diversify their sources of
single dependency, is more or less the same support, grew slightly in comparison to ten
among older and newer NGOs. We also years ago (2.7 and 2.5 respectively). The two
observe that the proportion of NGOs that tables also show that the proportion of NGOs
count on government sources as their major depending on domestic funds from both gov-
supporters has remained about the same for ernment and non-governmental sources
those organizations established within the remained almost unchanged.
last two decades. Further research will be necessary to
In order to check if NGOs have experienced investigate what are the possible implications
change in their patterns of financial depend- of the observed changes in funding patterns.
ency, we enquired what their major sources of It is premature to anticipate changes in the
support were ten years ago. Table 6.4 summa- performance of the NGO sector as a result of
rizes the answers we obtained. Comparing a lesser proportion of organizations depend-
the information in this table with the data ent upon foreign funds. Nor can we foresee
for the total of NGOs in Table 6.3, we observe that the larger number of NGOs relying on
self-support and/or on diversified financial
sources will bring new patterns of interaction
Table 6.4 Major sources of financial
support of NGOs ten years ago with authority structures, which is a shift
Frequency Percent away from the traditional political mecha-
Government sources 43 19.4 nisms, such as patron–client networks. The
Domestic non-governmental generalized beliefs about the growing capac-
sources 57 25.7 ity of civil society organizations to be inde-
Foreign sources 61 27.5 pendent and to share public responsibilities
Self support 33 14.9
Various sources (no single will have to be demonstrated.
dependency) 28 12.6 Still focusing on the issue of institutional-
Total 222 100.0 ization, I enquire if NGOs reveal a tendency
Source: Sample survey 2004/2005. toward a more professionalized structure as