This is an excellent statement. I agree with practically all of it. Please support the author at their kofi profile.
Blair Vidak.

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Many people assume NGOs are on the frontlines of justice—but the reality is more complicated.

The NGO industrial complex describes the ways non-profits and charities often uphold the very systems they claim to oppose. Far from being neutral helpers, NGOs can and do exploit the poor, co-opt radical movements, and maintain power imbalances under the guise of doing good.

Not all help is harmless. The NGO industrial complex shows us how charity, when tied to capitalism and the state, becomes another tool of control. Poor and criminalised people are reduced to funding cycles and case numbers, while their stories are used to build careers, not movements.

When non-profits serve funders more than communities, and when lived experience is tokenised instead of trusted, even justice work can become extractive. It’s time to name that—and do things differently.

This isn’t liberation—it’s management.