The ingredients of the glue are social and environmental conscience, capacity to conceptualise and innovate and the ability to act at the grassroots.

Organisations in the civil society largely have to fend for themselves, operationally and financially. Many survive on the inputs (of money, talent and labour) provided by their members. Some supplement their internal income with project grants from private, government or international donors. Others try to raise funds by selling cards or organising events that have little to do with their aims or objectives.

With growing privatisation of the economy, the role of the independent sector is rapidly expanding. Conventional sources of support are no longer enough to sustain the level of activity needed. Innovative methods for financing civil society action are therefore needed. One interesting possibility lies in the new and growing partnerships between "ethical investors" and NGOs.

In any meaningful and sustainable partnership, each partner has the right to expect returns for the investments made. Traditionally, the dividend or interest has almost invariably been in the form of money. But it need not be. In fact, a major part could well be in the form of "social or ecological dividends".

Good examples of such dividends are the creation of social and ecological assets in the community. Social assets include sustainable livelihoods, food security, houses, drinking water facilities and other constituents of human well being. Ecological assets include regenerated forests, soils and water systems, improved environmental quality, energy and resource efficiency, biodiversity conservation and maintenance of life support systems.

At a second level, the capital investment could be realised in the form of institutional capacity and financial resilience for organisations or enterprises that create social and ecological assets. Institutional capacity and the ability to maintain continuity of operations even under fluctuating economic conditions are assets that give an organisation the ability to produce on-going results into the future as, for instance, the regeneration of forests year after year. It goes without saying that these assets will in turn generate further dividends of significant value to society, as for instance the CO2 sequestered by the forests regenerated.

Given the nature of the market and the low purchasing power of the clients – the poor and the nature – the financial equity (net worth) of the enterprise can only go up slowly over time. However, the total equity (including also the social and ecological assets created) can go up much faster than even through private sector mechanisms.

The beauty of the one time investments under the partnership approach is that they lead to continuous creation of assets by not only reinvesting the returns but also by creating assets that repetitively generate further assets. Thus, investors (which can include government and private "donors") can expect continuing returns – trees planted every year, for example – instead of paying for and getting a one time activity.

In due course, a market for such financial instruments may well come into being, enabling one investor to sell equity to another. A system of credit ratings, currently unaccepted in the NGO sector may well evolve to provide quality control and incentives for better performance in this sector.

And, of course, an independent mechanism must be established to monitor and audit the assets created, and to put value on the social and ecological dividends declared.