Assessing the Community Economic Impact of Nongovernmental Development Organizations

Abstract

Nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs) ultimately measure their success by the impact they have on their beneficiaries, their families, and the communities in which they live. One potentially important piece to the NGDO impact puzzle, yet to be addressed in the literature, is the so-called community economic impact, defined here as the direct and induced impact of the NGDO on local economic activity. This article demonstrates how a community economic impact might be estimated using a program of Project Hope—an international health care NGDO—in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Integral to estimating a community economic impact is the calculation of the relevant regional income multiplier. This article also demonstrates how a regional income multiplier might be estimated for Santo Domingo using the minimum requirements approach developed by Ullman and Dacey. It is hoped that this article will encourage and help other researchers incorporate community economic impact into future analyses of NGDO programs.