The Meaning, Inspiration, and Challenge of Intermediary Organization in Japan
Shu-Hsin Lin *
Abstract
An intermediary organization is a kind of non-profit organization (NPO) that is established for supporting NPOs. Intermediary organizations emphasize their intermediate traits which let them stand between NPOs and resource providers (the donators or volunteers from government, entrepreneurs or members of the public). Intermediary organizations provide information, consultation, and assessment to help reduce trade cost and gain trust in order to further provide intermediate services which include arranging personnel, financial, material and information resources. Taiwan does not have intermediary organizations; hence, by introducing related theories and case studies of Japan we could further understand the background, content, and the relationship between intermediary organizations and the public sector. This paper then discusses the meaning of intermediary organizations to reflect on what it could bring to the development of NPOs in Taiwan.
Study shows that the existence of intermediary organizations has several inspiring meanings: first, such organizations establish another kind of public-private partnership; second, they offer an opportunity to approach an ideal partnership which is based on reciprocity; third, through a 3rd party perspective, intermediary organizations could make up the inadequacy of government. The existence of intermediary organizations is crucial, yet due to their late development and special traits, there are still some shortcomings including: first, the inadequacy of professionalism and specialty, which limit intermediary organizations to a supporting role in which they could only provide venue and equipment rental; second, the lack of finance independency would cause them to rely heavily on government grants and out-sourcing projects; third, privatization of intermediary organizations often channel their services to limited persons who own membership, which contradicts the original intention of setting up intermediacy organizations.
Keywords: partnership, Non-profit organization, intermediary organization, intermediate, privatization, Japan
* Professor, Department of Public Administration and Policy, National Taipei University.