Richard Bennett

I wonder whether the fact that this trend looks like a growth in single issues isn’t because that’s the way we, as voluntary or campaigning organisations, make it look.

There are lots of people out there who are engaged in multiple ‘single issues’. (See Flexibility, Honesty, Collaboration). That’s because (a) they’re trying to behave like responsible, passionate, angry, caring global citizens, and that involves many issues; and (b) we serve them up with single-issue channels for expressing...

There’s a bit of both out there, I believe, Veronique. There are some (and a growing number) for whom ethical shopping is integral to their political life – is part of the same way of living as signing a petition about human rights in Tibet or campaigning for trade justice. I think of these people as striving to be good ‘global citizens.’ See Flexibility, Honesty, Collaboration for more on what their efforts mean for the voluntary sector.

Amongst these are people for whom it’s a real...

The one part of the voluntary sector directly affected by this driver is the international development (NGO) sector. The causes, nature and location of poverty and exclusion will shift significantly, as will the spectrum of global power balances. The result is a need to become increasingly smart about why, whether and where to have partnerships with others. See my comment piece on NGO futures

When Michael Edwards opened BOND’s first NGO Futures conference in 1996, he challenged chief executives with this: You can become increasingly competitive in an increasingly competitive market for development delivery – where you will have scale but not impact. Or you can reappraise what your values mean today and operate in a networked, alliance-building, flexible, influencing world – where you will have impact but not scale. The one choice you don’t have is not to choose.

The great and...