This Leverhulme-funded project examines the history of NGOs in Britain since 1945. It will offer an overview of the NGO sector in late 20th century Britain. It will also address questions regarding the specific dynamics of NGO influence within three key sectors (international aid and development, environmentalism and homelessness), thereby enabling evaluation of the main characteristics and role of the sector, as well as its socio-political influence. The project seeks to understand better the power of NGOs, not simply in terms of influencing legislative change, but also as forces impacting upon the way society perceives itself, conceptualises its problems, and selects the solutions with which to address them. We also need to appreciate and analyse the great themes that are played out within the stories of NGOs: professionalisation; secularisation; identity politics and the equality agenda; democracy; the role of government; and citizenship.

This website will help disseminate our research, provide general information about NGOs in Britain since 1945, and also provide access to our Database of Archives of Non-Governmental Organisations (DANGO).

The datasets for the volume A History of NGOs in Britain: Charities, Civil Society and the Voluntary Sector since 1945 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) are available here.