Includes bibliography. / The donor - recipient relationship has been the focus of numerous research projects. However, the conditions imposed by donors when giving funding to a recipient in relation to programmatic focus and the resultant ability of an organisation to remain autonomous have not been really addressed. This research therefore sought to address this very issue with regards to the conditions placed on donor funds and their effect on NGO autonomy. The research takes Gunder Frank’s dependency theory as its theoretical framework which suggests that the third world was actively underdeveloped and conditioned to be recipients rather than producers. The same logic was then applied to the NGO sector where these organisations are trapped in the receiving cycle with little, to no individual ability to fundraise to become self-sustaining. The research was qualitative in nature where the researcher administered a web based survey to NGOs in three countries in East Africa namely; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. However, a qualitative aspect was also incorporated in the research as respondents were offered the opportunity within the survey tool to offer their individual opinion in a narrative form. Probability sampling was employed meaning that each organisation on the respective lists had an equal chance of being selected to participate in the survey, which ran from, December 2012 to June 2013. A total of 517 organisations were preselected to participate in the survey. The researcher received 74 complete responses which was a 14.31%rate thus deemed good for an electronic survey.