Network of Lawyers Reforming NGO Laws
A project of the World Bank, the European Union, and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, this series of law workshops held in Jordan produced the Aman Declaration and the Arab Initiative for Freedom of Associations.
COMMERCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
International Center for Not-For-Profit Law
The ICNL’s mission states: “The International Center for Not-For-Profit Law is an international not-for-profit organization that promotes an enabling legal environment for civil society, freedom of association, and public participation around the world.” They work in the areas of: Legal Framework for Civil Society, Civil Society Sustainability, Good Governance & Accountability, Public-Private Partnerships, Self-Regulation, Public Participation & Advocacy, Educational Initiatives, and The ICNL Knowledge Center. Their
online library is free but requires registration.
NESsT's Legal Advocacy Working Group
The Legal Advocacy Working (LAW) Group is the result of NESsT's increasing interest in securing enabling environments for NGO income generation. The LAW Group has published a series of country social enterprise legal briefs, including Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Chile, Colombia, and soon Croatia.
Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress
The Arias Foundation was created by former Costa Rican president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias. The Foundation’s Law and Civil Society Program began in 1993, when it produced case studies of the legal environment for NGOs in each Central American country. Next, the foundation began to advocate for a positive enabling environment for NGOs through public awareness campaigns. They are currently working to implement draft laws written by the country working groups in five Central American countries.
Columbia Law School Public Interest Law Initiative
PILI’s mission is to “advance human rights principles by stimulating the development of a public interest law infrastructure,” with a particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe. The organization has published numerous country reports in the region assessing the public interest legal climate in the country. Their NGO Advocacy Training program trains lawyers affiliated with NGOs in workshops designed to help them hone their public interest advocacy skills.
INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
Social Edge's Policy Portal
The Skoll Foundation's Social Edge is a resource website with various discussion groups, including the Policy Portal, administered by Aron Goldman. The Policy Portal applies a new focus to familiar dialogue about the legal environment for social enterprise: “While technical considerations dominate the debate, this forum…instead consider[s] the fundamental mismatch of nonprofit sector policy and regulation on the one hand, and the diverse and sophisticated set of organizations addressing social change on the other.”
Johns Hopkins University Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project
An excellent resource for country level briefs on the general state of the NGO enabling environment in various countries. Some of the briefs focus on legal and regulatory issues, in particular Rodrigo Villar’s “Defining the Nonprofit Sector: Colombia.”
John Clark. The Relationship between the State and the Voluntary Sector. The Global Development Research Center, 1993.
This policy brief outlines the ways that government policy influences the operations of NGOs, the ways that NGOs influence official government policy, qualities of and barriers to a healthy state-NGO relationship, how to foster an enabling environment for NGOs, and the major policy issues involved in fostering this environment.
Lester M. Salamon and Susan L. Q. Flaherty. Nonprofit Law: Ten Issues in Search of Resolution. Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project Working Paper, 1996.
This brief addresses some of the common legal and taxation challenges facing NGOs worldwide as they seek to implement social enterprises. The authors outline the ten most pressing issues demanding resolution in each country’s individual path toward fair and effective NGO sector legislation.