The non-profit sector with all its constituent organisations engages in social work and activities pivotal to the upliftment and betterment of the people and communities which they assist (Borzaga & Defourney, 2001). They are guided by social missions that aim to improve, lessen or eradicate a vast array of social ailments including, but not limited to, poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, child abuse, hunger, environmental degradation, domestic violence, juvenile delinquency and oppression (Dees, 1998). NPOs play an important role in providing services, skills and goods to communities and social groups that are unable to access these resources from
25 conventional business enterprises (Dees, 1998)due to a number of factors, the primary of which is the financial constraints encountered by poverty stricken communities and individuals in that the cost of access to such resources are beyond their means.
In addition, the non-profit sector assists already over-burdened state and government agencies with their social upliftment initiatives and goals (Kingma, 1997). This is especially relevant to developing and aid-dependent countries which desperately require assistance in the alleviation of poverty, such as countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America (Pillay, 2004) as large proportions of the population in such nations are poverty stricken, suffering from ill health due to insufficient and overburdened health agencies and in dire need of basic amenities and services such as water, sanitation and electricity. Therefore, the non-profit sector fills a crucial gap in terms of providing for sections of the population that do not have access to the services and resources provided by the private and public sectors.
This is supported by Smits’ assertions that even though the non-profit sector itself lacks coherence, it has an undoubted and significant economic impact and immense political clout in South Africa (Smit cited in Leuvennink, 2010). This is due to the fact that by the year 2010 there were about sixty one thousand NPOs registered with The Department of Social Development in South Africa, with a combined income of fourteen to eighteen billion rand and employing about a million people together with another five million volunteers (Bown cited in Leuvennink, 2010, p. 33). In addition, NPOs promote social upliftment and poverty reduction by capacitating the affected communities and individuals with the necessary skills to eventually support themselves which enables them to play an active role in their liberation from social challenges (Ryan, 1999).
As Simelane (cited in Friedman, Hudson, & Mackay, 2005, p. 11) says: “Success (in a NPO) would be measured by the achievement of self-reliance by the beneficiaries…”.
2.5.2 Agents of Social Change
Non-government agencies being separate institutions from the public sector also exert a significant political influence in their eagerness to oppose laws, policies and regulations they perceive as being discriminatory in nature (Lewis, 2003b; Pillay, 2004), thus they operate as agents of social change(Palmer & Birch, 2003; Ryan, 1999) and watchdogs of public policy and practice (De Wet, 2010) This is the raison d’être of human rights non-profit agencies or agencies
26 whose prime motive is defending the human rights of their communities or that of greater society such as The Advocates for Human Rights and the Citizens Commission of Human Rights International, two non-profit agencies in America. However, NPOs of all varieties (not only human rights agencies) are more active in lobbying against discriminatory laws or agents than their government and commercial counterparts. In South Africa, voluntary associations have made a significant impact in debates regarding public policy at local, provincial and national levels (Pillay, 2004)and should thus be recognised as active agents of social change.
This could be because NPOs are motivated by a social mission and any state policy which may negatively impact such a social mission is a significant impetus for them to mobilize in the defence and protection of such a social mission. Commercial enterprises are motivated by profits, and lobbying against discriminatory policies may not lead to any profit accumulation on their parts. Therefore, since they have nothing to gain, they are less likely to engage in lobbying and protesting against human rights violations, unless they are especially passionate or dedicated to supporting or opposing a particular social issue or cause. The exception is commercial enterprises with a strong social investment such as social enterprises or enterprises that lobby for a particular social cause in the hope of attracting more clients or customers by attempting to appear socially invested (Habib, Maharaj, & Nyar, 2008).
Similarly, lobbying and protesting against discriminatory laws, regulations and policies is even less common amongst state agencies as they are fearful of ‘biting the hand that feeds them’ or upsetting the very people they work for. This is also common amongst non-profits that are afraid of upsetting government agencies on whom they may depend on directly for funding or whom they partner with to acquire international funding for their organisations (De Wet, 2010).
However despite this, NPOs are generally well positioned (being not of the public and private sectors), and highly committed to particular social causes, to be worthy and effective agents in political change through their willingness to oppose discriminatory laws and challenge public policies on behalf of apprehensive communities and societies.
2.5.3 Provision of High-Quality Social Services
While government and private agencies do provide particular social services, non-profit agencies are more adept at providing social services of a higher quality because they have more expertise
27 in, and experience with, the delivery of such services and established strategies for developing and implementing more effective and efficient programs (Rose-Ackerman, 1997; Ryan, 1999).
This is because the provision of social services is the prime motive of non-profits and as such they spend all of their time and energy on developing ways in which they can most effectively provide such services and fulfill their respective social missions. Thus, NPOs tend to top the list when it comes to assessing the sector that is most effective in providing social services to the public. As Ryan (1999, pp. 134-135) states: “They (non-profits) feel that they care more: they are willing to spend more time, have more patience and interact more humanely with clients”.
This delivery of high-quality social services is also due to the fact that the work done by NPOs is commonly facilitated by people that are passionate about the social mission of the organisation and thus motivated to bring about social change in alignment with such a mission. This pertains to both those who work on a regular basis in non-profit agencies, as well as to the people that volunteer their time, energy and expertise to further the mission of the non-profit.
For volunteers, it is passion and commitment to a particular social cause that facilitates their interaction with a NPO as they will not be compensated monetarily for their contributions. In some cases, non-profits foster such passion and commitment because they provide an outlet for the expression of the ideological beliefs of those that work, contribute or volunteer in such organisations (Rose-Ackerman, 1997). People working in private and public enterprises are motivated by profits and therefore, even if such organisations were to engage in social work, they would consider the financial benefits and losses of doing so, which would ultimately influence the quality of the social work they would engage in. With non-profits, their sole motive is dedication to a social cause irrelevant of the money they may or may not make, thus they are perceived as providing higher quality social services than private and public sector organisations who may be motivated by profits alone.
2.5.4 Nodes for Community Involvement and Engagement
NPOs contribute to their societies by providing nodes for community involvement in, and engagement with, a particular social cause requiring the awareness or assistance of the community. This basically means that they provide a space which can be physical (such as offices) or virtual (such as chat rooms or websites on the internet) in which people can come together to address a particular social or community issue or problem. These nodes can be small
28 and locally based such as weekly meetings at a local community center to feed hungry community members, or even large and internationally based such as NPOs from around the world that collaborate to address global issues such as global warming. Thus, these organisations are very important in improving local and global affairs by facilitating the involvement of citizens in raising awareness of community and global issues and in encouraging their participation in the understanding and betterment of these issues and problems (Hannum et al., 2011; Ryan, 1999). As such they have a greater capacity to mobilize entire communities, societies or even countries to further their social missions, than the private and public sectors alone. NPOs have developed a myriad of strategies for attracting volunteers and community members as much of the work that allows them to sustain themselves and survive requires the continuous and committed assistance of such volunteers and community members.
2.6 Differences and similarities between non-profit, government and commercial