What’s Ending Isn’t Civil Society — It’s a Particular Model

Two pieces I came across this week, exploring “the decline or end of the NGO era”.

But what if what’s ending isn’t civil society as much as it’s a particular structure and model of NGOs and CSOs that grew after the Cold War? Professionalised, donor-driven, and closely tied to state and multilateral agendas?

That architecture is now being challenged by shrinking funding, political backlash, and a growing legitimacy crisis.

I don’t think what’s emerging is a vacuum. We’re seeing the early signs of something different: locally grounded, trust-based, relational forms of civic action. These aren’t always visible or institutional, but they are very much alive.

Some of the echoes we have been hearing: From platforms to places. From frameworks to fields. From intervention to infrastructure

What if we stopped evaluating civil society through the lens of scale, visibility, or donor alignment? Because legitimacy doesn’t come from financial audits or global partnerships alone and can also be anchored in public trust, embeddedness, and relevance to context.

Philanthropy has a role here, too. Instead of replicating institutional control, can it learn to support civic imagination, field-building, and shared infrastructure (especially in the global South)?

Not NGO 2.0 (or 3.0 or 4.0) but recognising and strengthening the next civic architecture as one that isn’t defined by organisational dominance, but by connection, coherence, and care.

Originally written for LinkedIn on 5 August 2025. View original →