Mexico City     This was another rough year for nonprofits in many countries around the world. 

Ever since the Organizers’ Forum visited Egypt, after the revolution, and we visited with the outstanding Center for Trade Union and Worker Services that is the central nonprofit supporting the development of an independent labor movement in that country, I have received regular emailed updates and status reports from them, and it’s often a trail of tears.  Their leader was jailed for some time, and they continue to push back against constant government harassment and false accusations.

Reports from Russia indicate that the closures of nonprofits there continues unabated.  Even very straight-laced, mainline outfits like the Carnegie Institute for Peace, active for decades in Russia, where the Organizers’ Forum also visited some years ago, has pulled up stakes.  Environmental and other groups continued to be hammered.  Some activists with whom we visited have relocated to operate from other countries for fear of jailing and losing their children. 

Under the Modi BJP government in India numerous nonprofits have been targeted, once again largely on fabricated financial issues and often about foreign money.  Greenpeace which had been very effective in advocating around the environmental crises and air pollution issues has been starved of funding and support.  Even the Ford Foundation has found itself under glare of governmental criticism, which must have been shocking to them, but is undoubtedly chilling as they look at the profile of their grant making in the country. 

In China, nonprofit organizations have been required to have a governmental partner in order to operate, rendering any notion of independence moot.  There is the possibility of change though since a draft law has been published in the fall which would offer some definition and protection for charities and promises to allow them to begin to register directly rather than coupled with a governmental partner. 

Observers are watching the results of the election in Myanmar closely.  Under military rule, nonprofits and others were closely watched for any potential criticism of the military and financial support.  Maybe there’s hope here as well.

I have to wonder in the rage for randomized trials of effectiveness and measurement of all manner of metrics for nonprofit performance how much credit nonprofits are getting in some of these countries just for surviving against state power.  Too often politics falls off the list of deliverables, yet political threats and tensions have made many nonprofits and their work around the world essential.  Others make compromises to be able to operate in countries with reactionary or repressive regimes, leaving nonprofits involved in social change and advocacy to sink or swim on their own.  There is no simple formula for change around the world or one size fits all way to measure the obstacles that must be overcome, and they are legion.