It is Who You Know: The Influence of Faith-Based Donor Networks on the Antitrafficking Work of Faith-Based Organizations

Abstract

Abstract Faith-based organizations (FBOs) are prevalent actors in antitrafficking work, in part due to the substantial resources existing within faith-based donor networks. FBOs are often funded by churches, other FBOs, and individual donors, which make up donor networks partly secluded from mainstream development funding. Drawing on research practices and concepts from institutional ethnography, I explore the specific composition of the donor networks of three antitrafficking FBOs in Thailand and Cambodia. I demonstrate how the character of donor networks shapes the antitrafficking work of the FBOs. The analysis shows that the three different donor networks contribute to distinctly different approaches to faith in antitrafficking. This article thus contributes to understanding the varied ways in which faith shapes the work of FBOs and sheds light on how the intertwinement of religious ideas and material resources influences the particular antitrafficking work of FBOs.