Andy Carvin wrote: > Hi Stephen, > > It would be hypocritical of me to criticize any nonprofit simply for > receiving corporate funding, as corporate funding has been key to > DDN's survival. At various points in time, DDN has received funds from > AOL, AT&T, Verizon and SBC, among others. (Our last funders before > shutting down at EDC were AOL, the Casey Foundation and Benton > Foundation, for those who didn't know that. Our other funders, both > for-profit and nonprofit, had whittled away in recent years.) DDN > would never have been born, nor would it have survived, without > corporate support. Having said that, we always felt it was important > to be transparent and independent; our funders were always clearly > identified on our website, and we also made sure that we could take > positions on issues that were in opposition to some of our funders. > Also, when DDN was founded, we accepted funds from donors in equal > amounts so that none would have undue influence. Nothing we > accomplished over the last six years would have been possible without > private sector support.
That's true, and has worked out very well with DDN up until now (and hopefully into the future). > Did LULAC receive this money specifically to advocate for these > companies? Did they have one policy position before receiving funding > and shift that position afterward? Do they try to obscure the sources > of their funding or are they transparent about it? I'm not asking > these questions to challenge your facts or anything - I just don't > know the answers and would be interested in your perspective. > > All of this raises broader questions about the role of money in > digital divide policy advocacy, of course. Is one organization's > funding "better" than another's because it came from philanthropic > sources rather than corporate sources? How do organizations sincerely > committed to bridging the digital divide survive in lean times without > accepting corporate money? Should this even be a goal? Or do these > partnerships lead to better engagement with the private sector? I don't know much about this, but what I do know is that with questions like these, there should be some transparency on the agreements for funding. Of course, sometimes it's a gentle squeeze of the hand during a handshake, which can't be tracked down. I suppose that to buy something, one has to sell something - and NGOs are not immune to being asked what they sold to buy something else. NGOs that are attempting to balance policy have to keep touch with the roots, I think. Microsoft has a way with such agreements, and it's probably the reason I'm most leery about Telecentre.org. They're running Telecentre.org with Drupal, so that's a good sign... but how much do I really know about the reasons for Microsoft funding? Tom Adelstein and I first 'met' when Bruce Perens wanted to keep a Microsoft agreement with a Univeristy out of the limelight so that a conference could happen without that shadow - but that shadow was an agreement keeping other Open Source conferences from happening with the University. Odd how that happens. I'm not a black helicopter sort of person, but all these announcements of private funding after secret meetings sort of makes for less transparent NGOs. The question, therefore, will always be who these NGOs serve. UNDP was under fire on this very list last year for the very same. Most things like these can't be proven, but for better or worse, sometimes they need to be said. I have no problems with the private sector funding endeavours, but in the case of NGOs, transparency should be at the least encouraged, at best expected. It can never be enforced by anything but loud questions. In this specific case, it is up to LULAC to explain what Stephen observes... -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago [EMAIL PROTECTED] Looking for contracts/work! http://www.knowprose.com/node/9786 New!: http://www.OpenDepth.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
