Should an NGO’s Values
Also Apply to Its Purchasing Decisions?

Food for Thought: Do an NGO’s Values Also Apply to Its Purchasing Decisions?

NGOs stand for essential causes: solidarity, human dignity, social justice, environmental protection and the fight against inequality. Values that many of us share. But one question keeps coming back to me: do those same values also apply when an NGO chooses its suppliers?

I was recently struck by a situation in the nonprofit telemarketing sector. During a tender process, some proposals came in at prices up to three times lower than those offered by a service provider based in Belgium. The contract was ultimately awarded to a provider operating outside Belgium.

From an economic perspective, the decision is understandable. An NGO must manage its resources responsibly. Every euro saved can be invested in its mission. And no one can blame an organisation for seeking the best value for money. In Belgium, however, salaries, social security contributions, paid holidays, training and employee protection all come at a cost. And rightly so: they are the foundations of our social model.

The issue is obviously not about working with a foreign service provider. Solidarity does not stop at national borders, and working conditions elsewhere are not necessarily less dignified. The problem is not comparing prices. It is forgetting to compare what lies behind those prices.

There is also a question of transparency and respect. Responding to a tender requires time, effort, investment and, inevitably, a little hope. When an NGO places decisive importance on price, wouldn’t it be better to make that clear from the outset? It would prevent some suppliers from spending days preparing a proposal that has virtually no chance of being selected.

Ultimately, this debate goes far beyond call centres. It also concerns printers, communication agencies, IT service providers and all the other suppliers working with the nonprofit sector.

We hear a great deal about corporate social responsibility. Why don’t we talk more about the social responsibility of NGOs when it comes to their own purchasing policies? This is not about asking NGOs to systematically pay more. It is about encouraging them to give greater consideration to social criteria in their decisions, to verify their suppliers’ working conditions and to assess the real value of the services they purchase.

Because behind every commercial proposal, there are also people, livelihoods and jobs.

In the commercial world, relocating a call centre abroad may simply be a matter of economics. But an NGO is built on something even more valuable: trust.

And trust requires consistency.

So should solidarity guide only an NGO’s mission, or should it also influence how it spends its donors’ money? And beyond that question, another concern remains: if Belgian service providers are constantly forced to compete with countries where operating costs are incomparably lower, do call centres still have a future in Belgium?

Or are we gradually witnessing the disappearance of an entire industry, along with the jobs it supports?