In the latest white paper on voluntarism, Meld. St. 10 (2018-2019) "Voluntarism – strong, independent, diverse," it is highlighted as a goal to facilitate a strong and independent voluntary sector. The state shall support the sector through financial support, transparent grant management, and a holistic, coordinated, and predictable voluntarism policy. At the same time, it is emphasized that this should not come at the expense of its independence and autonomy by making it dependent on public financing or too closely tied to sectoral political goals. Nevertheless, over the last few decades, it has been observed that the public sector increasingly seeks to implement public policy through voluntary organizations using instruments such as state grants.
This raises fundamental questions about the relationship between the voluntary sector and the state. How are state governance needs expressed in grants to voluntarism? How does this affect which organizations have access to grants and how grants are distributed? Where is the balance between realizing state goals and meeting the voluntary sector's need for autonomy? The project seeks to shed light on these questions by examining state grant regimes in various policy areas. A grant regime encompasses all financial grants, associated entry, distribution, and control rules, the institutional framework, and inherent perceptions of utility. It forms a consistent whole of objectives, justifications, and practical routines for supporting voluntary and non-profit organizations (Lorentzen, 2010). Policy areas, on the other hand, are defined by networks of actors and organizations that interact regularly and in a way that binds them together. In this way, an institutional field characterized by specific actors, problems, goals, and so forth, is formed, where grants themselves can also help constitute the field.
The research questions in the project are as follows:
- What is the scope of state grants to the voluntary sector and various organizational categories, and what significance do they have as part of the voluntary sector's economy?
- What characterizes grant regimes for the voluntary sector, and to what extent and how do they vary between different policy areas?
- What are the implications of features of state grant regimes for the relationship between voluntary organizations and the state?
The project is based on data on state grants to voluntary organizations made available by the authorities through the portal tilskudd.no. Based on these data, we will be able to identify different sets of grant regimes and the associated organizations and public actors and see how they vary between and, in some cases, even constitute policy areas. The analysis will focus on describing and comparing features of distribution, access, and control, the institutional framework, and the perceptions and justifications embedded in the grants.
Publications
Stoltenberg, Daniel & Sivesind, Karl Henrik (2024) Public funding regimes for the voluntary sector. State-level grants from a policy fields perspective. Centre for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector. Report 2025:4. Read full-text in our archive..
