Towards a framework to achieve sustainability in non-profit organisations empowering youths and providing child social-care services in Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract

Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) worldwide are facing several challenges which affect their sustainability and often result in the reduction of youth empowerment programmes and child social-care services they provide. These sustainability challenges are not only financial yet NPO sustainability is viewed mostly from a financial lens. Finances are vital for NPO sustainability, but several factors influence NPO sustainability. In this respect, 6 NPOs in Johannesburg, South Africa, were used as case studies namely, Golang Education Outreach; Region 9 Development Centre; Khusanani Youth Development Foundation (youth empowerment NPOs); and Thandanani House of Refuge, Synagogue Children of Hope and Miracle Mission Children’s Home (Child social-care NPOs). This was done to delve on various aspects that influence NPO sustainability since the study revealed that these challenges are multi-dimensional. The main objective was to identify factors for the design of a framework that may guide sustainability in selected NPOs contributing to youth empowerment programmes and child social-care services in Johannesburg, South Africa. This was achieved by identifying several sustainability challenges in the literature and an empirical investigation conducted by means of 33 semi-structured interviews. The study found that sustainability challenges that NPOs face include the lack of implementation of sustainability plans and general failure to value the importance of sustainability. The NPOs experience competition for funding with other enterprises. In addition, there is lack of knowledge, skills, and capacity within the NPOs towards sustainability. Likewise, NPOs disclosed that there is a general lack of skilled board members and their involvement in aspects that enhance organisational sustainability is very limited. The lack of involvement in organisational sustainability negatively affected some of the NPO programmes and services. To add, there is limited NPO-NPO collaboration because some NPOs are reluctant to share their resources with other NPOs offering similar services. Likewise, there is limited NPO and Department of Social Development (DSD) collaboration which is needed to broaden potential resource allocation to NPOs. Other challenges presented are in the application process for funding and the general absence of proper institutional procedures to assist NPOs without excessive bureaucratic red tape. In addition, there was evidence of limited knowledge of policy and legislation related to youth

empowerment and child social care as well as some gaps in NPO-related legislation. To add, multiple features of youth empowerment and different perspectives on youth empowerment were presented as challenges facing NPOs. There are furthermore gaps in service provisioning and insufficient support for caregivers at Child and Youth Care Centres (CYCCs). From the challenges faced, an integrated framework was developed. The framework has 5 stages namely, the NPO sustainability formulation stage, the sustainability process stage, the NPO sustainability strategy implementation stage, the results stage and the review and continuous review and refining stage. Five theories formed the basis of this study which are social entrepreneurship theory, Resource Dependency Theory (RDT), institutional theory, governance theory and participatory theory. The five theories were integrated into every stage of the framework. The social entrepreneurship theory was integrated on the aspect whereby NPOs need to acquire and generate income on their own. RDT was integrated the aspect of depending on the external resources and the environment for survival. To add, the institutional theory was integrated in the aspects of adhering to the rules and regulations by the NPO. Governance theory was utilised to identify separate roles that are played by the management and the board of directors to achieve accountability among stakeholders. Finally, the participatory theory was integrated on the aspect of involving various stakeholders which are organisations, groups, and individuals who must be involved in decision-making processes in matters that affect them. Based on this exposition, the study established that NPO sustainability requires various strategies. These strategies were included in the designed integrated framework that serves as main contribution of the study. The study concluded that NPO leadership and staff need to adopt various multi-dimensional strategies to achieve sustainability in order to continue to successfully provide youth programmes and child social-care services.