Full text available at http://www.ajol.info/index.php/tjds/article/view/119652This article sketches the history of Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers’ (SNV’s) involvement in development aid in Tanzania and uses this as a window for viewing the general nature of external economic aid to the country. Based on oral and documentary sources, it establishes three broad phases in SNV’s changing approaches to development aid in Tanzania from the early 1960s to the mid 1980s, and identifies the crucial forces behind the transformations. Examining these changes against their global historical contexts, the article reveals notable linkages between the changes in SNV’s approaches and the general trends in development aid to Tanzania during the period in question, especially with regard to the modalities of donor involvement and the relative significance of internal and external conditions as causative forces for their change.