Challenges and Struggles Faced by Nonprofits in the Border Region

To better understand the impediments that nonprofit organizations along the U.S.-Mexico border region are facing in their quest for corporate or maquiladora support, nonprofit organizations that claimed to not have received any type of support (financial, in-kind, volunteer, or matching grants) during the 2004 calendar year were asked to specify the reason(s) why.

Among NGOs that made an attempt to request funding from corporations or maquiladoras, the three most common responses as to why they had been unsuccessful in securing corporate support were: 1) they lacked a sponsor or advocate inside the company who could support their cause (25%); 2) they were not able to meet funding/support criteria for companies to which they had applied (17%); and 3) They lacked tax-deductibility status (12%).

Another group of NGOs did not even attempt to pursue corporate or maquiladora support. Among the top three responses given as to why they had not even pursued corporate support were: 1) Organization is unaware of existing opportunities for funding (38%); 2) Lack of access to contacts who may assist in pursuing funding opportunities (38%); and 3) Difficulty in meeting corporate requirements for grant applications (21%).

Whether they had attempted to request support or not, two factors came up in both cases as obstacles to requesting and/or securing funding/support: 1) lack of access to the contacts or advocates who could assist them in securing or pursuing funding opportunities; and 2) difficulty in meeting corporate requirements.

These results yield an interesting commonality with those obtained from the maquiladora survey. If we recall, the earlier section on “Factors Influencing Maquiladora Giving” stated that approximately 43% of the maquiladora respondents indicated that the decision to not provide support was related to the request itself: the maquiladora could not confirm the credibility of the requestor, the request did not match the maquiladora’s priorities for contributions, or no formal request was submitted. All three reasons given by maquiladora managers allude to the nonprofits’ inability to meet the corporate funder’s basic requirements or criteria for charitable giving. While many interpretations can be given to these results, one thing is clear: Mexican civil society organizations along the border believe that corporate/maquiladora funders lack the willingness to support and understand what these nonprofits can deliver. Further, the fact that most of them stated that they lack the necessary contacts or advocate who can assist them in pursuing funding/support shows that there is still much work to be done in educating the civil society sector on more effective ways to outreach to corporations and maquiladoras. On the other hand, it also confirms the general belief that U.S.-based corporations and maquiladoras need to become more aware of the importance of building philanthropic partnerships with civil society organizations, since they are increasingly playing a more important role in promoting development of Mexican society. Here, U.S. and Mexican community foundations located on the border, United Way as well as Rotary and other service organizations have a potential role to play.