Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Starting and Managing NGO
Starting and Managing NGO
No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained in
this book.
The author assumes no responsibility for losses of any kind resulting from the direct
or indirect use of the information contained herein.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE 3
DEDICATION 4
COMPLIANCE IN NGOs 16
SOURCES OF FINANCE 20
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 23
PROJECT MANAGEMENT 24
MANAGEMENT OF EQUIPMENT 34
RECORDS MANAGEMENT 38
MANAGEMENT OF MEETINGS 40
PREFACE
I wrote this book as an answer to how Non-government organizations which are also
called non-profit organizations should be managed to ensure that they realize their
objectives and create their own sustainability.
This book comes in as a guide for those who want to start NGOs and those who
currently manage NGOs so that they can maintain good image of their NGOs in the
face of the worldwide outcry that NGOs are underperforming, corrupt and are
unproductive.
This book shows what it takes to build a true self-sustaining NGO and how to obtain
funds from donors, how to build excellent relationship with donors and other partners
without relying on them.
This book will show you as a reader how you can be able to establish and manage:
• NGO that understands very well the problem or challenge it is dealing with
• NGO that understands very well the target group and other key stakeholders
that it has to deal with
• NGO that has short, medium and long term plans, well implementation and
control of such plans.
• NGO that is able to run on its own through enterprising projects without
compromising its primary objective of serving a targeted community.
• NGO that when it has to look for outside financial and non-financial
assistance, it can make requests that are not easily refused, plus your NGO
can manage such relationship with its stakeholders.
• NGO that has excellent general and strategic management systems.
John
September 5, 2012
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DEDICATION
• To my father, Mr Gabriel Myungire. I admire him, for his love to me and making
me discover my potential. Dad, I wish you many more years of happiness.
• To all underprivileged people, may you find ways to solve your challenges, and
that those who are entrusted to help you, do fulfil their promises to you.
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Since it is not practical to say no to such projects, the targeted people will try to find
their way out of such projects to earn their living and perhaps collect resources to do
what they really need. For example, your NGO introduces entrepreneurship
education programme to young women. Requiring the women to attend classes to
learn concepts while what they really want is capital to establish their own business
or support their families.
What happens is that they will be coming to classes only because there are some
incentives you provided such as allowances and prizes, but in reality the project will
not help the target group.
The feeling of ownership is important because there is a need for the people to
believe that they are going to benefit not only in the short run but also in the long run.
3. Realistic ambitions
An example of NGO that provides loans to disadvantaged group can explain this
point well. The loans can be repaid only if it is provided to the right people; such
people understand the objectives of the loans and have means to repay the loans.
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The means to pay the loans include the fact that such people have income
generating projects and the knowledge of how to run such projects.
Administration of the lending is very important, there should be training for the
borrowers before they get loans, and analysis is done on to know credit worthiness
of the borrowers.
Not forgetting that fraud, corruption and favouritism can take place during lending
process which in the long run will kill the project.
5. Accounting:
Common mistakes when working in NGO is that people don’t take accounting
seriously. Accounting is assumed to merely for donor’s purposes. However,
accounting if taken seriously will help the organization in improving its accountability.
It will help to know where the resources are moving, and help the organization
improves its operations for instance management reports may help the management
come up with alternative ways to reduce costs of operation.
7. Operations management
The areas that will need to be observed carefully on operations management include
the following: Membership enrolment and their activities within the organization,
human resources affairs, Projects planning, implementation and controlling, records
management, information and financial matters.
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The people who are in charge of keeping NGO alive and functional need to have the
following characteristics:
1. Commitment
Committed to see that the objectives of the NGO are met, by ensuring that they are
available for NGO’s activities without unreasonable excuses. These people are
committed enough to make the interest of the NGO and those that the NGO targets
first before their personal interests.
2. Entrepreneurial skills
Innovative, creative and ready to take risks type a guy is appropriate for making a
person a successful NGO manager.
3. Management Skills
Management skills required to run NGO include financial management skills, human
resources management skills, project management skills, strategic management
skills, marketing and procurement management skills.
NGO manager is not necessarily the one with specialized knowledge in all of these
areas of management, but should be familiar with relevant management functions
4. Financial capacity
The primary aim of the NGOs is not to make profit, and in most cases it takes time to
generate income from external sources, therefore the founders/managers of the
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NGO need to be financially well prepared to finance management costs and core
projects before the NGO start to receive money from other sources.
5. Vision
The founders /managers should set long term rewarding goals for the NGO. They
are supposed to create a picture of the organization in the near and far future, to
motivate themselves and those around them.
7. Passion
To establish and manage NGO takes time and need commitment. Success or
achievement of objectives of the NGO may take a long time. To go through all the
hardship of managing the NGO and serving the targeted audience, require people
with passion of doing what they have to do in the established NGO.
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Normally NGOs are started to provide relief of life for a certain group of people, be it
orphans, unemployed youth, people living with HIV, widows etc. Therefore the first
step in starting NGO is to think of a group your NGO will specifically direct its major
efforts.
In selecting the group, you also have to decide geographical location of the group
because in many cases laws governing registration of NGOs require founders to
state in what geographical level the NGO will operate eg district, regional or national
level.
After choosing a target group, say orphans, you need to define exactly what specific
challenge the target is facing that your NGO wants to solve. This is important so that
you can create an efficient NGO that really delivers value to its target group.
In our example, the orphans have many challenges; therefore you need to specify
what challenge you want to overcome.
Example of challenges they face are daily food, shelter, school fees, school items
like uniform and textbooks, they also have challenge of not getting the care that
other children with parents get.
You need to understand the origin of the problem or challenges that your target
group face, examine previous efforts done by other organisations or individuals to
curb the challenges.
It is also helpful to get an insight into challenges faced by individuals or other NGOs
that made efforts to address the same challenge that you want to address.
Analysing the problem or challenge this way, will help your new NGO to fill the gap
that exist in addressing the challenge, learning from the past mistake, and be
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prepared for the challenges that are encountered when addressing problem or
challenges of that particular type.
The analysis will make it possible for your new NGO to design solutions or projects
that are more efficient.
For example, for challenges faced by orphans such as uniform and school materials
such textbooks and stationeries, your NGO will create a project title BACK TO
SCHOOL with activities such as fundraising to obtain money to buy the books and
uniforms, or even asking stationery stores to offer books for the orphans.
You need to think of solutions for your target group before you start your NGO
because formulating the solutions give you an idea of what type of NGO in terms of
management structure, sources of funds and activities.
5. Justification
How do you justify the existence of your NGO and its plans?
You can understand justification of your .NGO’s activities by considering the existing
laws, regulations and policies in the country. Consider also various independent
reports about the problem/challenge you want to solve. Are the solutions and your
NGO’s activities in line with such laws, regulations, policies and independent
reports?
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You can also consider your own mission in life, future plans of other members of the
NGO if they are ready to discuss.
Assess if these individuals missions and plans are in line with the activities that the
new NGO you want to form.
You need to assess such missions and plans because your new NGO needs
commitment of the founders, so that it can grow and be a sustainable one.
By scope of your NGO, it means the level of work that your NGO is going to be
engaged with.
Let’s consider again the case of NGO that wants to solve challenges faced by
orphans. The following questions will help to identify the scope of the NGO:
Are we going to establish foundation that will collect money, and let
individuals submit requests for school fees?
Are we going to work with already established foundations to distribute funds
to orphans that we have identified?
7. Formulate bylaws (constitution) to govern the NGO
So, don’t fall into a trap of just copying and pasting other people’s constitution. You
can however use other organization’s constitution as template.
You should also note the first constitution your organization created for registration
purpose is not necessarily the final one.
Some organizations may opt to include their official logo in the constitution.
operate a children’s home should mention this fact expressly in its objectives.
For this fact, it is important to consider your short and long term objectives
and express them in writing in the constitution so that to conform with certain
legislation.
Scope of the organization clause: This is the part where you state
geographical boundaries of your organization operations; it can be district,
regional or national level.
Activities clause: In this clause, you list down specific and general activities
that your organization will be doing in order to reach its mission and realize its
dream. For example to conduct research, to conduct seminars and
workshops, to do fundraising, to advice, etc.
Management structure clause: This is a very important clause that will have
its sub clauses. The purpose is to explain duties of managing the activities
and resources of the organization so that vision and mission can be achieved.
In this part, powers and limitations of power in the organization are clearly
stated. The choice of management structure depends on many things
including type of activities, scope of the organization, skills of the people to
hold such positions, finance capacity and strategic plans of the organization. It
is also important to take note of legal and donors requirements when
prescribing the management structure. For example some donors would
prefer to deal with an organization, whose management is independent of
found members, and there is clear of limits of power and in some cases there
is a board of directors.
Some legislation like Children Homes’ act in Tanzania requires organizations to have
specific persons with skills in social welfare, therefore when designing a
management structure, a social welfare officer or another title should be taken into
consideration if the organization is aiming at operating a children’s home.
Membership clauses: These clauses are important as they set rules, powers
and limits of powers of the members. Typical clauses mention such
information as qualifications of a person to be registered as a member, rights
and duties of members, termination of membership, types of membership,
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When it is time to register your NGO, you should understand type of documents
required by registrar of NGOs. For example in Tanzania (Consider NGO Act 2002,
sect12), the following documents must be available:
Curriculum vitae of office bearer(s )for the proposed NGO this means even
one person can apply for registration , provided that it is mentioned that the
NGO has more than one founder member-names and signatures of such
founder members to be shown in the constitution.
Two (2) Passport photos of office bearers
Constitution of the proposed NGO
Minutes of meeting of members to resolve the establishment of the proposed
NGO
NGO registration forms duly filled
Proof that payment for registration fees has been made- receipt for the
amount paid.
Information about address and physical address of the head office.
After the registrar of NGOs is satisfied with the proposed with your documents, the
NGO will be registered and you will obtain certificate of registration.
When you submitted documents for registration, you must have left certified copies
of constitution for yourself, because the registrar will not return copy of constitution
that you submitted on registration. (Copies of your NGO’s constitution should be
certified by an attorney)
It is therefore wise to keep at least two copies of constitution with your organization.
Together with the certificate of registration they form basis of legal existence of your
new NGO.
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COMPLIANCE IN NGOs
OVER 350 NGOS MAY LOSE INTERNATIONAL AID: MUMBAI: The functioning of 352 non-government
organisations (NGOs) based in Maharashtra have been hit after the Union ministry of home affairs cancelled a
crucial registration needed for overseas funding. Around 100 of these NGOs are based in Mumbai.
The ministry last month cancelled the registration of over 4,000 organisations over violations in the Foreign
Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). As the registration is mandatory for getting overseas funds, its cancellation
would mean that the NGOs will not be able to receive funds from abroad for the next three years………
2. Effective communication
3. Be innovative
Treat your target group as customers just like businesses treat their customers.
Learn what they really want, and find better ways to satisfy them.
Create an environment whereby your staff can come up with new ways of solving
challenges.
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Some members of your target group can also help to suggest ways to improve how
your NGO performs. For example you may suggest changes in service delivery
schedules, or quantities of items your NGO supplies to them because the targeted
themselves know better about the problem than you do.
To be able to serve well your target group, your NGO needs to have competent and
adequate number of people to do the job.
The aim of this book is to help outline some of possible best management practices
that your NGO may follow to ensure that it maintains strong management system.
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SOURCES OF FINANCE
Main challenge in operating NGO is how to obtain finances to run and make the
NGO grow.
Founders of NGO should clearly analyse possibilities of raising finances even before
the start their NGOs.
They should understand that there are internal sources of finance and external
sources of finance.
You must rely mostly on internal sources of finance rather than external sources.
Important thing to note here is that the profit from such projects should not be
distributed to members of the NGO inform of dividends.
Instead the profits your NGO obtains will be used in furthering the objectives
of the NGO.
Note here that if your NGO decides to establish profit making projects
(business) it should follow all procedures of establishing businesses in your
country.
The procedures that your NGO should follow if it wants to do investment in
business include but not limited to acquiring business licence, registering for
Tax identification number and filing tax returns.
v. NGO’s fundraising initiatives: From time to time, your NGO can conduct
fundraising activities to raise income.
Fundraising initiatives should specify:-
Purpose of the income generating eg to buy text books for new academic year
for orphans
Targeted audience: Private companies and government agencies or people
from certain geographical location.
Type of fundraising events: For example a night meal, public walk, trade
shows, etc
Location of the fundraising events: Where will the fundraising events take
place – public halls, NGO’s office etc.
A good example would be you personally can have a friend who is wealthy
and could provide some resources for your NGO.
There are also opportunities to obtain donations and gifts from companies and
government departments.
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ii. Grants:
Unfortunately, grants seem to be the main source of finance for many NGOs.
However there is no guarantee that your NGO will be awarded the grants it is
applying for.
A number of criteria must be fulfilled by your NGO to deserve award of such grants.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
1. Why Bookkeeping and Financial Reporting a must in NGOs
There is a need to have knowledge of flows of resources of your NGO
NGOs are also required by laws to prepare financial reports.
Bookkeeping and financial reporting is also needed to comply with donors’
conditions for grants.
2. The components of a Bookkeeping system
Proper bookkeeping system should be designed and implemented to ensure
that:
Information about flows of resources for individual projects separately and
correctly captured and accounted for.
Information about all administration costs such as cost for meetings, office
stationeries, electricity, rent, marketing costs, and transportation
Information about all flows for investments
Information about all funds received, each type of funds well analysed, for
example members’ contribution, members fees, gifts, donations, grants,
loans, profit as income from profit making projects etc.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
A project is group of activities which are directed to achieving a common goal. This
means that a project has its beginning and end – the end being the achievement of
the goal or cancellation of the project.
Identify all activities and all resources needed for a particular project
Arrange, implement and coordinate the activities and resources as identified
above
Consider how to obtain resources for project and how to ensure such
resources are used properly
Monitor the implementation of the project
Evaluate the progress and achievements of the project
Take appropriate measures for outcomes of the project
Projects planning, monitoring and controlling
The areas that your NGO should pay more attention in managing its project include:-
1. Project Planning:
The final result of your NGO’s project planning is the project proposal.
The proposal therefore should well be prepared by identifying the purpose of the
project, activities in the project, how the activities and resources will be implemented
and managed.
Project financier /sponsor should be well identified, how much resources is expected
from this sponsor, how much will be contributed from the NGO.
Record keeping for project, risks involved in the project and how to overcome
challenges of the project should be well considered during the project planning
phase.
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2. Project Implementation
If there is any need to change project scope and use of resources, then this need
should be communicated appropriately.
Your NGO should oversee the implementation schedule according to the action;
ensure the budgeted resources allocation is followed, with appropriate authorization.
3. Project Control
Project monitoring: This involves all approaches to ensure that what has
been planned is being implemented.
Therefore during project monitoring the following activities may be performed;
a) Taking record of all relevant information about the progress of the
project such as bookkeeping,
b) Conducting of meetings and taking minutes of such meetings,
c) Managing time sheets,
d) Implement feedback and complaints system.
Project evaluation: In project evaluation, you compare the plan of the project
and the actual results of the project.
Project evaluation is not just about comparing the actual with what was
planned. It goes further into analysing the differences between the project
plan and actual project results.
Marketing can simply be explained as a mix of activities that are intended to make a
product reach, satisfy and make a target audience continue to look for that product.
You should know that your NGO needs marketing too because it has ‘product’ that it
intends to ‘sell’ to certain target audience.
If you wonder why marketing is important to your NGO study the following points:
b) To reach out target audience: You can reach large audience with a well
design marketing plan.
Have appropriate marketing tools and strategies.
Your target audience could be the people your NGO is mainly serving like
orphans, youth, widows, our just strategic business partners and donors.
c) Compliance: Marketing and public relations can help your organization in
complying with common requirements of transparency and responsibility. For
example, having a website that you use to publish periodic financial reports is
a good way to show transparency.
d) Strategic Advantage: Your organization can make itself a more favoured
NGO compared to other NGOs through its well-designed, well implemented,
well controlled marketing plan for example the plan may be used to make your
NGO more popular, more engaging with the public.
This way your NGO shows that it is better than other NGOs.
Brand includes name, letters, groups of words or specially designed trade mark.
Brand serves a purpose of distinguishing your NGO from other NGOs and makes it
easy for the public to recognize your NGO.
Mass media will cover the planned ‘news’ for free. For example when an
organization conducts press conference to explain its new services to the
public.
• Mention your NGO’s partners and donors (Only if they agree that you mention
them)
• Mentioning of your NGO’s presence on social networks –tell viewers to follow
your NGO on Facebook, Google plus, Twitter etc.
• Expressly show that your NGO needs sponsors, partners, volunteers, or
donors.
f) Strategic Partnership: Your NGO can create partnership with other NGOs
and business organizations.
The partnership can be for doing certain activities that are of mutual benefit to
both your NGO and the partner of your NGO.
This way, you send out message that your NGO is reliable plus you create
awareness to the public.
m) Redefine your NGO’s ‘Product’: You can periodically define the product
your NGO is going to provide.
Your NGO’s product is the services that you want to offer to your target group.
Consider how you will measure quality of search services, consider feedback
and challenges from the target group and make improvements.
This way your organization will shine in front of the people you serve, hence
the image will be enhanced.
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n) Events Your: NGOs can create different kinds of events that their staff and
members can participate.
Members of the NGO and the community may be involved.
Example of events includes cleaning streets in a town where your NGO is
situated.
The events when they are well managed can help to improve the image of
your organization.
MANAGEMENT OF EQUIPMENT
Price, uses of equipment, quality of the product, after sell service from the supplier,
availability of spare parts and experts for repair and maintenance are some of the
factors you should consider before you purchase equipment.
In order to manage your NGO’s equipment make sure that people who use such
equipment have appropriate skills on how to use.
Make sure that there is control of who is using what equipment and when, where and
with home equipment is located.
In order to make sure that equipment for your NGO stays for a long you need to
make sure that there are periodic services and check-ups plus handling the
equipment with care every time.
Proper management of equipment involves consideration that a time will come when
your NGO will need to dispose its equipment.
Reasons for disposing the equipment include the fact that the equipment are out-
dated, or because of the structural changes within your NGO which make the
equipment to longer be needed.
Your equipment therefore needs to be maintained well for any possible sell to the
public, or replacement with other equipment.
This involves good accounting practices to understand the carrying value of your
NGO’s equipment.
In this case, your NGO’s accountant has to maintain a fixed assets register.
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1. What is culture?
Culture refers to totality way of doing things and relationship within your NGO.
If not well managed your NGO’s culture may be poor and hence become obstacle to
the success of your NGO.
How plans and decisions made in your NGO are: How long it takes, who
participates, what is the feeling after decisions have been made.
How implementations of plans and decisions are take place: Do you have
cooperation, who implement the plans and decision, which monitors
implementation.
How results of your NGO measured: What is in place to know the level of
achievement of your NGO’s plans and strategy, how are the results
communicated to stakeholders.
How is communication managed: Do you have systematic ways of
managing communication in your NGO;
How feedback is obtained?
How are plans and strategies communicated?
How are complaints acknowledged, how are orders given?
How are disciplinary hearing carried?
How requests and permission given out?
What level of respect is there between individuals within your NGO?
How is quality and value defined and managed: Is quality and value of
your NGO’s activities managed seriously?
How do you measure that there is quality?
What actions are taken for if results don’t show quality and what happens if
results are of quality intended or exceed expectations?
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How power and responsibilities are shared in your NGO: Do the staff and
founders feel that they are a team or just a group of people?
Remember teams have a common goal; team members understand they
need each other and they recognize and respect each other’s roles.
Define and communicate vision and mission: Vision and mission should
be defined and be understood by all members, staff and management so that
unity and common direction is nurtured in the organization.
While vision states what the dream is/what the organization wants to see, or
become, mission on the other hand is states exactly what the organization is
doing, the organization is all about.
Define and communicate values of your NGO: Values are what your
organization wants to live by, it is that behaviour or way of life that you think
will make it possible to achieve vision, mission and objectives of your NGO.
For example your NGOs values can be; professionalism, innovation,
commitment, transparency, accountability.
It is not enough to just mention that your NGO’s value is for instance
innovation; you should go further into explaining how your NGO is prepared to
live by with such value.
Training and development: Staff and leaders of your NGO should have
appropriate level of training to equip them with competency needed in fulfilling
their duties and produce value.
Continues training, workshops and seminars are useful in order developing
your NGO’s human resources.
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RECORDS MANAGEMENT
In order to be able to manage your organization’s records you need first to identify
types of records you will be dealing with when you establish NGO.
Here is an outline of main types of records you should identify and keep properly:
Records about projects: In this category you may have information such as
project plans, project proposals, and project reports.
Records about key stakeholders: In this category you may have information
such as, website addresses, physical addresses, types of assistance from
other organizations and their conditions.
Information about donors, government, business and other NGOs fall in this
group.
Records about members: Information such as full name, contact
information, profiles, contributions, membership fees, and individual’s
members’ services and activities in your NGO have to be separately and well
kept.
Records about staff and volunteers: Information such as job description,
date of appointment, remunerations, personal information, individual
performance reports and copies of contract are important to manage your
human resources.
Financial records: It has been explained above on Bookkeeping and
Financial reporting types of information your NGO should keep. Refer to page
23.
Marketing records: You need to prepare and keep a number of records for
your NGO marketing campaigns.
Note that once you have used certain materials for marketing, it is wise to
keep copy for future references.
Records to prepare and keep for your NGO marketing include NGO profile,
NGO’s website content, Business cards, Brand information- logo design,
feedback from ‘customers’ of your NGO, success stories, photos and videos.
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MANAGEMENT OF MEETINGS
2. Compliance management:
There should be clear procedures and guideline on how meetings are managed,
stipulating important issues related to meetings such as: Duration for notice of
meetings, who should attend, quorum, leadership of the meetings, documentation of
the resolution, and financing of the meetings.
The following are suggested areas to watch in order to make sure meetings are well
managed:
Time management: There should be properly scheduled time for opening and
closing of the meetings.
Leadership: Who leads a meeting, who takes notes and who monitors time,
Agenda: What has to be discussed in a meeting should be known and well
communicated to attendees before the meeting to ensure they prepare
themselves so that they can be effective in giving their contribution in the
discussions.
4. Accounting
If there are any costs related to meetings, your NGO should account such expenses
accordingly.
Volunteers: These are non-paid staff who may opt to work on permanent or
part time basis.
However, being volunteers do not mean their participation should not be
planned, coordinated and controlled.
Volunteers may be called to fill up specific job positions in the NGO’s
management structure or they can just be called to assist those in the specific
positions within your organization.
Since getting volunteers is very difficult, your NGO needs to have a strong
strategy to motivate qualified people to volunteer.
Therefore, volunteers are part of your main target of marketing and public
relations strategies to ensure that your organization has strong public image
so that it becomes easy to attract competent people to volunteer in your
organization.
Employed staff: For a small NGO, employing its own staff can be very
challenging because of lack of funds.
However, in many cases in order to perform efficiently your NGO needs
services of competent, full time or part time staff that are paid in order to
motivate and establish control and accountability from such staff.
Management team: This is a group of people whose role is to guide, monitor
and evaluate day to day operations of the organization.
The management team has to be composed of people who are truly skilled in
the matters of project administration, office administration, finance
administration and human resources.
The members of the management team should also identify compliance and
risk management issues that they have to take care about.
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Some organizations would use board of directors, advisory body while other
NGOs would use the term board of trustees to express their supreme decision
making body.
The members of this group may not have direct involvement in the day to day
operations, but their decisions and advice on matters such as policies and
strategic plans are vital for the survival of your NGO.
Compliance issues: You must be aware of what must be done right when it
comes to man power for your NGO such as:
a) Contracts of employment,
b) Contract of service for volunteers,
c) Memorandum of understanding for joint ventures,
d) payment of government taxes such as PAYE, and SDL,
e) Related tax returns to your country’s revenue authority.
f) You should also check if you have to register with the labour
department/ministry in your country.
Performance: The human resource must be guided, monitored and
evaluated to ensure maximum results of the activities of your NGO.
Job descriptions and chain of command should be clear, expected results
must also be clear, and how the people are going to measured should also be
communicated.
The people should be equipped skill wise and technologically empowered
while establishing appropriate level of motivation.
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People Development: As your NGO grows, you will realize that demand for
new skills and competencies for your existing staff is around the corner, you
must plan to develop your people if you don’t want your NGO to be left out.
Typical skills development areas could be technology, new processes,
marketing, compliance, and finance.
Developing your ‘people’ can also play a great role as a motivating factor and
a way to build royalty on the side of your employees.
Comprehensive job analysis should be done, and clear job description and
key qualifications pointed out, before the search of the right candidate begins.
Effective management of donors involve three important elements which are (i)
planning for engagement with them (ii) Searching and closing deal with them (iii)
Techniques to obtain finances (iv) Effective management of relationship.
Your NGO should be aware of what is expected by donors, sponsors and other
partners.
Typically, potential donors, sponsors and other partners prefer to work with NGO:
a) Has reputable image; Here quality of service delivery of your NGO and
marketing strategies is evaluated.
b) Which is transparent and accountable; here financial records and registrations
are used to evaluate NGOs.
c) Has good track record of managing projects,
d) The one that has competent human resource to undertake projects for which
it seeks help from outsiders.
2. How to get donors, sponsors and other partners for your NGO
You can search for sponsorship or donations using online and offline methods.
Be specific in your request: Say exactly what you need from the
donor/sponsor, what you already have and what you would contribute.
The problem/challenge you are going to address as well as the beneficiaries
should be clearly identified and justified.
Explain how the project will be implemented, monitored and evaluated.
Think about other things, not money only: Donors or sponsors are not
only for cash finance.
You may obtain assistance of expertize, equipment, software, places for
conference, or guarantee for a loan.
someone to see that there is ‘something big’ going to happen through that
project you are looking forward to fund.
To effectively manage relationship with donors and sponsors, you should ensure the
following are well managed:
Here is a list of some websites with information about funding for NGOs
1. http://www.iapad.org/funding_sources.htm
2. http://www.proposalwriter.com/intgrants.html
3. http://www.stopvaw.org/ngo_funding_resources2.html
4. http://ec.europa.eu/contracts_grants/index_en.htm
5. http://www.civilsoc.org/funding.htm
6. http://www.fundsforngos.org/category/latest-funds-for-ngos/
7. http://www.fundsforngos.org/corporate-donors/ten-corporate-donors-
ngos/
8. http://www.ngosindia.com/fa/index.html
9. http://networkingfordevelopment.org/group/fundsforngos/forum/topics/li
st-of-donor-agencies-for
10. http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/lead/pdf/donors_en.pdf
11. http://www.pda.or.th/downloads/Tsunami-DonorsList.pdf
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You may assess ability of your NGO to create its own sustainability by going through
the following points.
The points listed below will help you know better whether you are doing good or bad,
whether you can survive and grow or not:
1. Bylaws:
Constitution is the document that should provide a picture of the direction of the
organization, and how the organization is going to reach there.
Does your organization obtain and keep documents to justify its transactions
with the public, such as purchase of equipment, furniture, stationeries,
refreshments, etc.?
Do you have a designated person for keeping the financial records?
Do you have a system of keeping record? note that even if you have a donor
that requires you to prepare certain reports in a certain stated format /style,
you should have an appropriate individual organization’s system of recording
to ensure that at the end of one financial period, your organization can
produce financial reports for the public and authorities that govern conduct of
your organization.
Suggestion: Proper financial records keeping is essential not only because donors
require financial records, but it is for individual organization’s success as the financial
reports provide managers and founders with useful information on how the
organization is run, hence they can make better plans for the future.
Get qualified personnel to do the financial records keeping and have the financial
reports audited.
Suggestion: The performance reports are very important tool that your
organization can use for different purposes.
For example you can review the reports to learn about previous projects, the
challenges and how you overcame them so that in the next project you don’t
experience the same problems or when they occur you can quickly solve them.
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The performance reports can also be used as source of information when you write
proposal for funding another project.
The performance reports are useful tools to motivate employees and management
as they provide a history of where the organization is coming from. Performance
reports can also help new staff to learn operations and capacity of the organization.
Include in the record the names of employees, members, and the clients (people)
that your organization is serving. Remember it is not about keeping the contacts
information but how you arrange them and use.
Advice: Marketing and Public relations do not only increase your organization’s
popularity but also may improve the image of your organization.
This way your organization may attract more volunteers, and strategic partnerships
that may see your organization grow and be sustainable.
Your desire to get big donors may be met as your organization’s image is improved
and popularity is increased.
Does the current management structure fit the objectives of the organization,
the economic and social environment the organization is in, the projects it is
undertaking and projects it is about to undertake ?
Do the people assigned to the positions according to the management
structure know their duties and limitations of their powers?
Do the people in the management position have the necessary skills and
experience to perform their duties and exercise their powers?
Do the people involved in the management of the organization actually have
time and other resources to perform designated job descriptions?
7. Knowledge Base: Dan Sullivan once said: “Success comes from two things,
the thoughts that occupy your mind and the people that you surround yourself
with”.
This quote reminds us that the knowledge base you create for your organization is
very important for your organization because the knowledge/information affects
development of your organization, the organization is run, and how it will survive in
the long run.
Also the knowledge that people surround the organization (here we mean the
management team, board of directors, staff and employees).
What sources of information your organization and its people have? – Internet
access, newspaper, journals and magazines
Do you have sound records management system?
What skills and qualifications do the people in the board of directors,
management and operations have?
What training and other means like workshops and seminars does the
organization have for its people?
How does your organization use service of experts/professionals of a certain
field from outside (outsourcing)?
Is there any way, the staff and management team can learn from the people
who from outside?
What does the constitution say about Income generating activities of the
organization?
What is the system of managing incomes and costs within the organization?
Suggestion: If your organization does not have its own sources of income, you
better start developing them now.
As the financial and political crisis continue to rise in the world, getting funds from
donors may continue to be difficult, hence your organization’s reliable source of
income should be the income you can generate from within the organization.
Do you have a list of all compliance procedures and documents that your
organization needs to follow?
Do you have a system of monitoring compliance status of your organization?
Do you understand consequences of breaching compliance requirements?
Suggestion: Have a thoroughly review of all compliance issues and put strategies
on how to tackle the issues.
Start with reviewing your organization’s constitution and the law under which your
organization is registered, check the other laws that govern your operations such as
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Income Tax laws, if it is an orphanage check laws related to orphans and children,
consider also different policies of the country in which your NGO operates.
11. Strategic Thinking: Strategic thinking is about analysing the present, how it
affects the future and how you can structure it, in search a way you create
desirable future for your organization.
It concerns analysing your organization’s capabilities, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats.
Your NGO needs to formulate plans and strategies to achieve the future that
you wish your organization should have.
Without planning, it is difficult to know what to control.
Advice: Have a database of the people your NGO is serving; conduct needs
assessment periodically because needs and wants of people change.
Establish and improve customer feedback system, conduct customer care training
for the staff of your organization.
13. Conflicts of Interest: NGOs have many stakeholders, main ones being
Founders, Management and staff who may have different objectives as
compared to what the objectives of the organization are.
He has been performing the following duties for his clients: Business Planning,
Strategic Planning, Preparation of Code of Conduct, Marketing Planning, and
Consultation on Management structure, Website Layout Design and Content writing.
His qualifications? John holds Bachelor degree in Commerce and Management from
the University of Dar es salaam. He is a blogger, author and social media strategist.
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