The Growth of Private Voluntary Organizations 1968-2004

Abstract

The increase in the number of private voluntary organizations (PVOs) registered with the United States Agency for International Development was analyzed for the period 1968-2004. The factors that were used to explain the growth pattern of PVOs included: partisanship of the President and of Congress, public funding of PVOs, and the passage of Public Law 97-113. Four hypotheses were used to evaluate growth in private voluntary organizations for the study period. The population size for this research was 31 to reflect cases for the years 1968-2004. Data for each year were collected from the Voluntary Agency Reports produced by USAID annually, creating 31 data points. The entire private voluntary organization population was evaluated in aggregate by year. The central finding was that the partisanship of the President, but not Congress, had a strong impact on PVO growth. In addition, the both of the public policy measures considered exercised moderate influences in the predicted direction.