A development agenda, the donor dollar and voluntary failure

Abstract

This paper examines the success and failure of a once pre-eminent New Zealand charity – the Council of Organisations for Relief Service Overseas (CORSO). Delivering aid for government was a factor in its success in its early years, as was its broad membership base. Voluntary failure occurred when CORSO lost government support. It also lost donor support when international charities established a competitive donor ‘market’. Its supporters’ unwillingness to ‘buy-in’ to its mission change to focus on local poverty was another factor in its collapse. This case study employs a framework which extends Salamon's (1987) Salamon, L. 1987. Of market failure, voluntary failure and third-party government: Towards a theory of government–nonprofit relations in the modern welfare state. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 16(1/2): 29–49. to consider the influence of competition on voluntary failure.