The World Bank identifies two broad categories of non-profit groups: Operational NGOs, which focus on achieving small-scale change directly through projects; and Advocacy NGOs, which aim to have a broader impact by advocating for change to bring about societal shifts. However, NGOs will occasionally do both of these things.

Benefacts, a former non-profit which was founded to provide transparency around Ireland’s nonprofit sector, reported in 2021 that there were more than 34,000 NGOs in Ireland at the time, employing over 160,000 people and which received €6.2 billion in State funding.

Anyone or any group of people can form a non-profit or NGO without formal approval or government involvement; likewise, they can work in or advocate for any area they believe is in the public interest.

The only regulation around the formation of a non-profit is if the group wishes to act as a charity and gain tax-exempt status, in which case it has to meet specific requirements to register in Ireland.

In Ireland, NGOs or non-profits are not exactly the same as charities: while many NGOs and non-profits are also charities, not all of them are. The key difference is that charities have to meet certain requirements that allow them to be classed as such, while NGOs and non-profits do not.

Community groups and volunteer organisations can be NGOs or non-profits - such as residents’ groups that come together to object to large developments in their area - which do not operate for the purposes of providing a service to society or the wider public.

However, the term charities is used for groups that work to benefit the wider public or a section of the public.

NGOs and non-profits in Ireland can apply to Revenue for a charitable tax exemption, which means they don’t have to pay income tax on interest, annuities, dividends and shares, rents on property, or profits from trade.

In order to do this, they must be registered with the Charities Regulator and meet a number of conditions, which include ensuring that profits can only be used for charitable purposes.

However, certain groups are not allowed to apply for charitable status. They include political parties, sports clubs, trade unions or bodies that promote a political cause, unless such promotion relates directly to the advancement of the body's charitable purpose.

As charities and social enterprises, NGOs provide services to citizens or society which governments are unable or unwilling to facilitate, and also advocate for them.

This can include helping vulnerable members of society, supplying medical aid in times of conflict or health emergencies, or protecting the environment.

For example, some NGOs working in the homeless sector may do soup runs in urban centres, whereas others in the same sector provide housing, accommodation or day services.

NGOs work in a wide-range of sectors including healthcare, social care, disability, education, housing, poverty relief, the arts, and international development.

Although they are independent of the government, they will often work in tandem with the State to provide certain services, such as co-ordinating offers of private accommodation for refugees or the provision of free legal advice to citizens, or by informing policy through the provision of their views on proposed legislation.

Most NGOs involve some form of advocacy, which is to say that their work can include efforts to inform decisions in the political, economic or social spheres and the lobbying of politicians or other State bodies.

The range of issues in a given society at any particular time - and the different, sometimes conflicting methods that one might take towards addressing them - means that the approach of NGOs can be incredibly wide-ranging.

To create awareness of issues in the sector in which they operate, NGOs lobby politicians and businesses, carry out studies and research, and issue press releases or provide spokespersons to the media.

There are various laws which regulate the activities of non-profit organisations and their work, especially when they have charitable status.

If such a group wishes to operate as a charity, it must register with the Charities Regulator, which regulates the sector, maintains a database of active charities, and has the authority to investigate the affairs of any charitable organisation in Ireland.

The Charities Act says that a “charitable purpose” must involve any of: the prevention or relief of poverty or economic hardship; the advancement of education; the advancement of religion; or any other purpose that is of benefit to the community. The law also has a specific definition of a purpose that is considered “of benefit to the community”, listing 12 examples of this.

Non-profit organisations must also be transparent about their lobbying activities under the Regulation of Lobbying Act.

If such a group contacts a politician or certain other members of government (such as county council CEOs or ministers’ special advisers) about certain issues, then they must register with the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO).

Lobbying includes making contact with those people about the development or modification of any public policy or public programme, the preparation or amendment to any laws, and the award of grants, loans, contracts, or the use of public funds.

Groups must also say exactly who they lobbied, when they lobbied them and what they lobbied about. Details of this are then listed on the Lobbying Register, which is freely available to the public to view.

The charity sector has seen a general decline in trust and confidence in recent years, according to research carried out in Ireland and in the UK by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and by the Charity Commission for England and Wales.

According to a survey carried out on behalf of the Irish Charities Regulator last year, the reasons for this include “lack of transparency regarding how funding is used, perceptions of high salaries of executive staff and negative media coverage”.

(Headlines around governance and salaries at Rehab and misuse of funds at Console, a now defunct suicide charity, lingered for years.) 

The same research also noted that the charity sector maintains strong public support and that trust and confidence are important to those who decide to support a charity for the first time.

Nevertheless, financial issues at certain charities or allegations of misconduct by their founders or those working for them have undermined the credibility of several organisations.

Added to this has been an uptick in misinformation about NGOs and unfounded questions about them, which stem from rumours and talking points among certain groups on social media.

Most misinformation tends to mention NGOs in a broad sense, and always tends to refer to them as “NGOs”.

The most common narratives link NGOs to government funding or certain politicians, and suggest that nonprofits are doing the Government’s bidding for them within civil society.

Such claims seek to advance the perception that NGOs generally support Government policies - such as the criticism levelled at groups that advocate on behalf of minorities which supported the Irish Government’s Hate Speech legislation.

This claim overlooks the fact that many NGOs advocate for changes in Government policy, and that advocacy groups regularly criticise the Government in their own reports and through the media.

Another narrative claims that the NGO sector has ballooned in recent years, with a suggestion that the sector is freeloading off citizens and that individual NGOs are scam enterprises which have no interest in solving the problems they were set up to help fix.

Often, these claims point to the activities of foreign billionaires who it’s claimed are attempting to influence domestic policies in other countries by funding the nonprofit sector through their philanthropy - including George Soros, a Jewish American billionaire who is frequently targeted with conspiracy theories which are often antisemitic.

Critics of NGOs and those who spread misinformation about them tend to defend their views by claiming that there are too many of them in society, and that they are unfairly spending billions in citizen’s own money (which they have been given in the form of Government grants and other forms of funding).

Occasionally, misinformation targets individual NGOs or nonprofits when it suits certain narratives, like anti-immigrant movements targeting groups who work to help refugees or failing charities being held up as examples of why the sector as a whole is corrupt.

The size and diversity of the NGO sector and the sweeping statements that are made about it - whether positive or negative - mean that claims about it can be difficult to factcheck. Although an NGO’s headline work may be worthy or a necessary force for good in society, this does not mean it is automatically immune to poor practices or mistakes. 

Proper governance and oversight, including by politicians and the media, are therefore necessary to ensure that the sector is performing properly and that NGOs are deserving of public money and charitable status - as past scandals involving NGOs have shown. However, statements which suggest that all NGOs are somehow involved in nefarious activities as a result of previous controversies or misinformed commentary should not be relied on as factual narratives.