Martha Lackritz-Peltier: Technology, International Development & Cross-Border Giving

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, Rhod talks to Martha Lackritz-Peltier, General Counsel of nonprofit technology specialist TechSoup, about using tech to overcome some of the barriers to cross-border giving and the localization of international development. Including:What is the UN’s Grand Bargain? Why is this important?Why has it not been delivered on so far?Where does the reluctance of INGOs to cede control to local CSOs come from?Lack of trust/fear of fraud & mismanagement? Unwillingness to relinquish power? Force of habit?Not knowing how to do it?How does NGO Source aim to address this problem?Are the biggest challenges in gathering and providing data on NGO equivalency technical, political or cultural?How do funders and grantees use this data?What steps need to be taken to protect NGO data and make sure it is not mis-used?What responsibilities do platforms bear for the choice of which organisations do and don’t make it onto their lists? What are the key barriers to making a platform like NGO Source work at scale? (i.e. political/regulatory issues, buy-in from funders, buy-in from recipient orgs, technological challenges?)Are governments (in the US and elsewhere) actually keen to encourage and facilitate cross-border giving (given that it often results in reduced tax take in their own countries for benefits produced elsewhere)? #What is the most compelling argument for why governments should support cross-border giving?What barriers do international financial regulations (AML, CTF, sanctions etc) present to cross-border giving?Is there a danger that through supra-national bodies like FATCA, the US ends up imposing its own views and values on the rest of the world when it comes to philanthropy and civil society?What should we make of the promises of various new and emerging technologies (e.g. AI, blockchain etc) to “revolutionise” international development and cross-border giving?Is there a danger that technological solutions risk leaving behind smaller CSOs and grassroots organisations? Related LinksTechSoup's websiteNGOSource on TwitterMartha's article on "Due Diligence in an Increasingly Remote World"Philanthropisms podcast with Sadaf Shallwani from Firelight FoundationPhilanthropisms podcast on "The Platformisation of Philanthropy"Philanthropisms podcast on "Cryptophilanthropy: Boom or Bust?"