Return of the Amateurs? Comparing Grassroots and Professional Approaches to International Relief

ABSTRACT International aid is increasingly the domain of professionals, particularly among large international nongovernmental organisations (INGOs), while amateur assistance is largely dismissed (or disparaged) by practitioners and academics. However, strong countervailing trends exist, especially in the United States, with 10,000 grassroots INGOs (GINGOs) established since the 1990s. We explore the positioning of amateur organisations in a professionalising field. We ask: To what extent do GINGOs conform with or challenge professional practices in international aid? We investigate this question through a comparative content analysis of the websites of 60 GINGOs active in Haiti and 8 large, professional INGOs. Our research affirms the differences between professional and amateur organisations in areas of public presentation and financial transparency, but also reveals unexpected areas of convergence, especially among a subset of professionally-presenting GINGOs. In addition, we find that despite stated INGO commitments to beneficiary empowerment, amateurs were comparatively more consistently rights-based in their communications.