Bridging the data gap between Guatemalan nonprofits and information seekers
Bridging the data gap between Guatemalan nonprofits and information seekers
I started Pionero with the naive intention of devising a contextually relevant methodology and using it to find the best nonprofits in Guatemala and then sing their praises to anyone who was interested.
My motivation was borne from a passion and equally strong frustration with the nonprofit sector and more than a decade of working within a variety of NGOs in developing countries. I met many well-intentioned donors who made poor giving choices and supported the more visible nonprofits rather than taking time to research and identify those who have a greater impact with a smaller marketing budget.
Since starting Pionero in 2018 however, I realized that the problem isn’t necessarily that donors are sloppy when making giving decisions or even that better-resourced nonprofits were thrashing the little guys through slick marketing.
Although my initial judgment is true in some cases, I understood that even if one wanted to do their due diligence and research into Guatemalan registered nonprofits, it was simply impossible to do so as basic, impartial and centralised information on the nonprofit environment in Guatemala is not readily available.
After 2 years of Pionero in operation, we have become more than just an impartial intermediary, we are becoming the authority on the Guatemalan nonprofit environment itself.
How did this happen?
Demand for data! As we built our database of nonprofits, more organizations kept coming out of the woodwork and we were always looking for the elusive list of registered Guatemalan nonprofits but kept coming up short.
Although we were finding some demand for our consulting services, the demand for basic data was impossible to ignore from a huge variety of audiences including larger nonprofits, government agencies and universities.
In Guatemala, as in most developing countries, there aren’t websites such as Guidestar or Charity Navigator that use publicly available information and sorts, organizes it so information seekers can do their own research and make informed decisions.
Only recently have we managed to find the complete list of NGOs, Associations and Foundations in Guatemala thanks to using the Public Information Act. This information is available to the public but only if you request it and know the right people to talk to. Even when we received the data, it was still very limited with only the name and the date when organization was registered.
So What Now?
We are now sifting through a grand list of approximately 15,000 registered NGOs, Associations and Foundations which was the number sent to us from the Ministerio de Gobernacion.
Why the sifting? A large amount of the 15,000 are associations which represent closed groups of private interests such as mountaineering clubs, neighbourhood associations, tuc tuc associations etc. These types of nonprofits don’t meet our eligibility criteria for prospective partner nonprofits.
Our criteria for the initial filtering process:
What is the organization’s purpose?
- Primary function should be the elimination of social problems or the suffering caused by social problems
- Purpose should be to meet public needs (for common good)
- Limited political involvement and no advancement of private political interests
- Faith-based organizations should work for social good not for the sole advancement of their religion
Who benefits from the organization’s activities?
- Must be for public benefit, not organized or operated for the benefit of any private interest
- Profits must be used for charitable activities, net earnings may not benefit any private shareholder or individual
Once we have done this initial filter we will map the remaining “eligible” nonprofits on the interactive map on our new website which we shall have online in the next few months.
The map will have show all the eligible nonprofits and associations as well as our partner nonprofits highlighted with relevant links to the research we have carried out on the sector and individual nonprofits.
The potential of the new website with all our information accessible online in enormous!
Researchers, donors, individuals, volunteers and nonprofits themselves will have access to a rich source of information and we look forward to the collaborations that result from using our tool and data.
