NGOs, to what end?

Hard to stay current on foreign events, what with America's major news sources spending a full minute or two a day on foreign events, and that devoted essentially to wars and threats of wars, and the occasional celebrity adoption or promo. The Global Journal, otoh, discusses NGOs: A Long and Turbulent History in a recent edition. There are some 20,000 NGOs.

The Global Journal lists their Top 100 picks, by category -

Education:  Wikimedia, Barefoot College, Room to Read
Development:  BRAC, Acumen, Mercy Corps
Environment:  Ceres, RARE, Water for People
Peacebuilding:  Cure Violence, APOPO, Search for Common Ground
Children and Youth:  Akshaya Patra, Aflatoun, Save the Children
Shelter:  Common Ground, Habitat for Humanity, Architecture for Humanity
- as well as several other categories, including Human Rights, Health, and Law and Justice.

Religious and other cultural outreaches are also included among the 20,000 NGOs.

Where does the motivation for all this effort come from? Religious fervor probably provides it's own emotional and rational grounding, but the rest looks largely altruistic. And wildlife preservation hasn't been mentioned yet.

I could simply say, Bravo! - but what I really want to know is: NGOs, to what end? This is not as simple a question as it may sound. Of course the goal, on the face of it, is to improve quality of life. But what motivation is being satisfied? It will sound brutal, perhaps, but why altruism, rather than conquer and lay waste, as in ages past? Is it guilt? Is it moral evolution? Is it cultural reorganization (for example, readjusting of nationalistic powers, and urges, blocking traditional imperialism while permitting international altruism to emerge)? Is it even genuine altruism and group to group cooperation? If so, do these efforts represent a new world vision?

If it's genuine altruism, why are the underlying (American) financial support groups not expending a lot more organized efforts to raise the educational opportunities and quality of life among America's poor?

* The NGO Network (source of the image above) is one of a number of collaborative efforts among NGOs. Other examples of collaborative efforts include the GEF-NGO and the IMF external networking with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

This is a huge subject which I hope to look at from time to time. For now here is a study on NGO Networks: Building Capacity in a Changing World, prepared in cooperation with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).