Chapter One

Overview of Nongovernmental Organization

 What are nongovernmental organizations?
 Characteristics of NGOs
 Types of NGOs
 Criticisms of NGOs
Introduction
 In 1980s gradually democratization process started in the developing
countries.
 With the restoration of democratization process, people became more
aware of their freedom of organization and freedom of speech.
 So the people started to organize civil societies with different purposes
such as protection of rights of women, rights of children and other
disadvantage groups, protection of forest, environment and providing
health services etc.
 At the same time, NGOs have also become active in a wide range of
other more specialized roles such as emergency response, democracy
building, conflict resolution, human rights work, cultural preservation,
environmental activism, policy analysis, and research and information
provision.
 What are Nongovernmental Organizations?

 The term ‘NGO’ tends to be used in both a broad and a

narrower sense. In its widest sense, NGOs are ‘privately
constituted organizations – be they companies, professional,
trade and voluntary organizations, or charities – that may or
may not make a profit’.

 A usefully concise definition is that Provided by Vakil (1997:

2060), who – drawing on elements of the structural-
operational definition set out above – states that NGOs are
‘self-governing, private, not-for-profit organizations that are
formed to improving the quality of life for disadvantaged
people’. in narrower sense.
 Definition
• There is no clearly cut definitions about non government
organizations (NGOs).Nonetheless, it is sound to see some of
the definitions and classifications given by different scholars.
 NGOs are nonprofit voluntary organizations which are found by
people who share common goals and co-operate to achieve it.
 NGOs are non-profit organizations that give services to client
groups. They include lower level organizations such as
community groups, associations, co-operatives, religious and
private development organizations.
 An organisation or group of people working independently of
any external control with specific objectives and aims to fulfill
tasks that are oriented to bring about desirable change in a
given community, or area, or situation;
 Historical Background of NGOs
 Many of the world’s best known NGOs predate the emergence
of the development industry.
 Save the Children Fund (SCF) was founded by Eglantyne Jebb
in 1919 after the trauma of the First World War.
 Oxfam, which was originally known as the Oxford Committee
against the Famine, was established in 1942 in order to provide
famine relief to victims of the Greek Civil War.
 CARE began its life sending US food packages to Europe in
1946 after the Second World War.
 In fact, NGOs had been active at the international level since the
eighteenth century in Western countries, when national level
issue-based organizations focused on the abolition of the slave
trade and movements for peace.
 CONT..
 NGOs became prominent during the League of Nations after the
First World War, active on issues such as labor rights.
 In 1945, Article 71 of the UN Charter formalized NGO
involvement in UN processes and activities, and some NGOs
even contributed to the drafting of the Charter itself.
 But NGOs again began to lose influence, hampered by Cold
War tensions and by the institutional weakness of the UN
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
 In the post- Cold War era the international donor community
began to advocate a new policy agenda of ‘‘good governance’’
which saw development outcomes as emerging from a
balanced relationship between government, market, and third
sector. Within this paradigm, NGOs also came to be seen as
part of an emerging ‘‘civil society.’’
 International Perspectives

 There is now almost no country of the world where NGOs do

not exist or operate, yet their form and values are often strongly
rooted in specific contexts.
 In Latin America, the tradition of peasant movements seeking
improved rights to land, and the efforts of political radicals
working towards more open democratic societies both fed into
the emergence of local NGOs.
 In Asia, a different set of distinctive factors has influenced the
growth of NGOs, such as the influence of Christian missionaries,
the growth of reformist middle classes.
 in India the influential ideas of Mahatma Gandhi, who placed a
concept of voluntary action at the center of his vision of change,
inspiring organizations such as the Association of Sarva Seva
Farms (ASSEFA) seeking to build village level self-reliance.
 Cont..
 In Africa, the well-documented ‘‘harambee’’ self-help movement
in Kenya was a system based on kinship and neighborhood ties,
and was incorporated by President Kenyatta as part of a
modernization campaign to build a new infrastructure after
Independence.
 While NGOs have ended up taking different forms across these
many and varied contexts, there are basic common features that
remain at the core of people’s efforts to organize..
 It includes to increase income, secure rights or demand services,
and to avail of new opportunities that appear in the form of links
with outside organizations and resources, exposure to new ideas,
and political change which opens up new organizing spaces.
Characteristics of NGOs
NGO has the following key characteristics:
 Formal, that is, the organization is institutionalized in that it
has regular meetings, office bearer and some organizational
permanence;
 Private in that it is institutionally separate from
government, though it may receive some support from
government;
 Non-profit distributing, and if a financial surplus is
generated it does not accrue to owners or directors (often
termed the ‘non-distribution constraint’);
 Self-governing and therefore able to control and manage its
own affairs;
 Voluntary, and even if it does not use volunteer staff as
such, there is at least some degree of voluntary participation
in the conduct or management of the organization, such as
in the form of a voluntary board of governors.
Cont..
 Independent: NGOs are independent within the laws of
society, and controlled by those who have formed them or by
elected or appointed boards. The legal status of NGOs is based
on freedom of association—one of the most basic human
rights.
 Not self-serving in aims and related values: The aims of
NGOs are to improve the circumstances and prospects of
people or society as a whole
Role of NGOs

 The implementer role is concerned with the mobilization of

resources to provide goods and services to people who need
them.
 The service delivery role embodies a very wide range of
activities carried out by NGOs in fields as diverse as
healthcare, microfinance, agricultural extension, emergency
relief and human rights.
 The catalyst role can therefore be defined as an NGO’s ability
to inspire, facilitate or contribute to improved thinking and
action to promote change.
 It may include grassroots organizing and group formation,
gender and empowerment work, lobbying and advocacy
work, undertaking and disseminating research, and attempts
to influence wider policy processes through innovation and
policy entrepreneurship.
Types of NGOs

 NGOs can be classified on the bases of their institutional

location, organizational composition and activities.
 In their institutional location they are classified under
local, national and international levels.
 In their organizational composition there are donor
organizations of international nature and national NGOs
involved in providing services to those grass root level.
This base of classification takes in to account the NGOs’
source of fund, staff composition, leadership &
management.
 Based on their activities, NGOs can be categorized as
those involved in relief, research, environment,
emergency, health, education and development as a
whole.
Critiques of NGOs

 NGOs critiques that they impose their own agendas and

become self-interested actors at the expense of the people they
are in theory supporting and on the accountability problems of
NGOs.

 In the field of humanitarian action and response with critics

pointing to institutional self-interest by individual NGOs, a
lack of coordination leading to duplication of effort, limited
understanding of local circumstances among international
NGOs.
 Chapter Two
Non-governmental Organization Theories
• Stakeholder theory
• The law of unintended consequences
• NPM and NGOs
Stakeholder Theory
 In the past few years the concept of stakeholders has
boomed a lot and academics wrote a lot about the topic.
 And also NGOs, regulators, media, business and
policymakers are thinking about the Stakeholder Theory
concept and are trying to implement it in some way or the
other.
 What is Stakeholder?
 Freeman (1984) where he defines stakeholders as “any group or
individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the
organization objectives”.
Stakeholder Theory
 Stakeholder theory argues that the interests of all stakeholders
should be taken into consideration in order to maximise the
value of the organisation.
 The needs of each stakeholder should be understood, respected
and incorporated into company thinking and plans.
 To achieve this, managers need to identify their key stakeholders,
and understand their interest in, contribution to or affect on the
organisation and its ability to meet its objectives.
 Stakeholders Mapping and Stakeholders Management
Strategies for NGOs
• What is stakeholder mapping
 This mean mapping the stakeholders, providing detailed list of
the specific groups and companies related to each category of
stakeholders, and a corresponding list of interests.
 To facilitate important stakeholder mapping the following points
are suggested:
 Who are our current and potential stakeholders?
 What are their interests/rights?
 How does each stakeholder affect us?
 How do we affect each stakeholder?
 What are the “environmental variables” that affect us and our
stakeholder?
 Stakeholders Management Strategies for NGOs

 Two variables are commonly determining the optimal strategy:

the relative power of stakeholders and their potential to
cooperate or threaten.
 The power of threat is determined by resource dependence and
relevance of the threat to particular issue.
 The potential to cooperate is determined by the stakeholder’s
capacity to expand its dependence with the organization: the
greater is the dependence, the greater is the willingness to
cooperate.
 According to Savage et Al. distinguish four types of
stakeholders:
Four types of stakeholders:
1. Supportive: high cooperative potential and low competitive
threat. Considered as the ideal type and it includes the board of
trustees, managers, employees, parent companies, suppliers,
service providers and donors.
2. Marginal: low cooperative potential and low competitive
threat. Eg.professional associations for employees
3. Non-supportive: low cooperative potential and high
competitive threat. E.g competing organizations, employee
unions, the federal government and sometimes the news
media.
4. Mixed Blessing: high cooperative potential and competitive
threat. E.g employees who are in short supply, clients or
customers, and organizations with complementary
products or services.
Four main strategies are also suggested depending on the type
of stakeholders:

1.Offensive/supportive strategy: Should be adopted

when a group is supportive. Trying to pursue
change.
2. Hold/monitor strategies: Should be adopted
when a group is marginal. The company should
hold its current position and continue current
strategic program.
3. Defensive strategy: Should be adopted when a
group is Non supportive. The objective is to
prevent competitive threat on the part of these
stakeholders.
4. Swing/Collaborate strategy: Should be adopted
when a group is mixed blessing.
 The Law of Unintended Consequences
 Unintended consequences (unanticipated, unforeseen
consequences) are outcomes that are not the one intended by a
purposeful action of NGOs.
 In other words, unintended consequences refer to unexpected
drawback or unexpected benefit in the operation of NGOs.
Unintended consequences can be grouped into three types:-
• Unexpected benefits (a positive unexpected benefit)
• Unexpected drawback (unexpected detriment occurring in
addition to the desired effect of the policy)
• Unexpected perverse result (perverse effect oppose to what
was originally intended)
 example, the intended and unintended consequences of
humanitarian provider NGOs as follow:
Intended Consequences
1. Food aid used in humanitarian emergencies is largely intended
to protect human nutritional status and human life.
2. Market development
 helping to creating efficient channels through which food can
flow from producers to final consumers.
3. Stimulate growth
 At some level, the objective of all overseas development
assistance, food aid included, is to stimulate wealth
accumulation and economic growth in poor countries.
 Unintended Consequences

1. Price Effects
 Food prices almost invariably fall in local markets after food aid
distribution.
 Food aid can drive down local (or national) food prices in at least
three ways.
 First, monetization of food aid can flood the market, increasing
supply.
 Second, households receiving food aid may decrease demand for
the commodity received or for locally produced substitutes or, if
they produce substitutes or the commodity received, they may
sell more of it.
 Finally, recipients may sell food aid to purchase other necessities
or complements, driving down prices of the food aid commodity
and its substitutes, but also increasing demand for complements.
 2. Production disincentives
 labor disincentive effects, food aid can have the unintended
consequence of discouraging household-level production.
 This type of disincentive impacts not only food aid recipients but
perhaps especially to non-recipient producers who live in or sell
to areas receiving food aid flows.
3. Household labor disincentives
 claim is that food aid somehow makes people lazy, that food aid
unintentionally discourages people from working.
4. Changed consumption patterns
 Part of the donor-oriented rationale for food aid has long been
export promotion.
 the logic of export promotion necessarily entails some effort to
change consumers’ preferences, to introduce them to new foods
and thereby endogenously stimulate demand for foods with
which they were previously unfamiliar
 New Public Management (NPM) and NGOs

Definition and Features of New Public Management (NPM)

Reform
 NPM meant that government organizations started to use
management styles and instruments derived from the profit
sector.
 NPM focused on rational management and increasing economic
efficiency and effectiveness.
 It is difficult for government to achieve efficiency, economy and
effectiveness under the traditional bureaucratic regime.
 Therefore, useful private sector practices, including
privatization, contracting out, contract systems and public-
private partnerships, should be adopted in the public sector.
 Cont..
 NPM aims to downsize the bureaucracy, reduce government
deficits, better allocate limited resources, improve service
delivery and achieve the target of small government.
 NPM has brought changes to the old traditional bureaucratic
system and led government to function more like private
business.
NPM leads changes in different areas/aspects of NGOs
Management and Operations, such as:

Strategic Management
 An organization should have clear policies and procedures
on the structure of the organization and authority and
responsibilities of different staff members.
Human Resource Management
 HRM is about the ability of an organization to assess the
right people in the right jobs at the right time, manage
staff performance and reward good performance.
Financial Management
 Financial management refers to the effectiveness of an
organization in planning, organizing, monitoring and
reviewing the use of financial resources to achieve the
organization’s objectives.
Cont..
Performance Measurement and Management
 It refers to the ability of an organization to measure the
effectiveness and efficiency of the major processes in the
organization.
 Related policies and procedures should be formulated,
implemented and reviewed accordingly.
User Participation
 after the NPM and governance reforms, NGOs are responsible
for providing necessary information to service users.
 Positive Impacts of NPM

 First, it seems that NGOs have clearer development direction

than they had before.
 Second, the new management and governance trends have
increased the autonomy of NGOs.
 Third, in response to government requirements, the
accountability of NGOs has been enhanced.
 Fourth, service quality has improved in general, especially from
the point of view of service users.
 Fifth, there is more networking and collaboration among NGOs
and other sectors. In the past, these organizations operated more
independently and were more likely to focus on their own
services and development.
 Chapter 3
Functions of Nongovernmental Organizations
Social Functions
Some of social functions of NGOs include:
A. Social development service provision
 School and health centers construction & service provision
 Infrastructure facilities construction
 Cultural center construction and operation
 Agricultural facilities provision and Agricultural expert assistance
B. Community Health Promotion and Education
 Contraception and Intimacy Education
 General Hygiene
 Waste Disposal
 Water Usage
C. Emerging health crises
 HIV/AIDS education and support
 Drug Addiction recovery
D. Resolving Community Social Problems
 Crimes
 Street Children
 Prostitution
 Economic Functions
1. Improve the Local Business/Investment Climate
 This is through provision and maintenance of crucial economic and
social infrastructure; advocacy for improved policy and governance;
investment promotion and marketing and networking to improve flows
of information to enhance opportunities.
2. Encourage New Enterprises and Livelihood Programmes
 Encouraging new enterprises involves providing advice, technical
support, information and resource to help individuals set up their own
businesses in the form of sole entrepreneurs, partnerships, cooperatives
or community enterprises in various agricultural, industrial or trading
fields.
3. Relief and Rehabilitation
 NGOs bring five main strengths to relief and emergency work: early
warning of disaster; advocacy for international aid; speedy response;
cooperation with indigenous organizations; and, disaster awareness.
 Political Functions

NGOs As Advocates Of Policy Change

 NGOs are increasingly demanding involvement in the policy
formulation process. They argue that they now play a major
role in the implementation of the policies that are formulated by
the government, especially those that deal with sustainable
development and poverty alleviation.
 NGOs, as watchdogs, can also apply pressure on the
government to ensure that appropriate policies are enacted and
implemented. In the implementation of policies, NGOs can
monitor the application of the laws
 and also where compatible with community interests, design
programs that complement rather than undermine or
contradict government policies.
 Role of NGOs in Good Governance

 Good governance has recently been accorded a central place in

the discourse on development.
 It is being argued that without an appropriate governance
structure, developing countries will not be able to either sustain
economic growth or a momentum towards rapid poverty
reduction.
The World Development Report documents three ways in which
services can be improved:
• By increasing clients’ choice and participation in service
delivery, so they can monitor and discipline providers.
• By raising citizen’s voice, through the ballot box, and making
information widely available.
• By rewarding the effective and penalizing the ineffective
delivery of services to people.
 Role of NGO in empowering governance
The watchdog role
 This so-called watchdog model suggests that the members of civil
society should evaluate governance in all of its stages: from
policy-making to implementation. It’s a passive duty but it
demands careful supervision.
 Since the establishment of the watchdog model, governments and
state institutions are reducing the number of mistakes.
Advocacy
 Organizations of civil society can add new topics to the
government agenda and advocate public interests.
 They can attract the attention of all media and initiate fundraising
campaigns.
 They can organize protests or sign a petition. These are all ways to
support the local community and make a real change in the
society.
 Cont..
Mediation
These organizations can be a strong link between state
authorities and local communities.
 By providing Information, Recommendation and Participation
at this stage, NGO representatives actively participate
in decision-making processes.
Capacity building

Members of the civil society are often icebreakers who

bring new knowledge, technologies, and practices to
their communities. Therefore, another task they have is
to transfer this knowledge to the wider audience.
CHAPTER FOUR
Approaches of NGOs
 NGO Approach to Solving Community Problems

Relationships between NGO and the public Sector

Relationships between NGOs and the private sector

Relationships between NGOs and Communities

Relationships between NGOs and Donors

 NGO Relations with Government
The ‘public interest’ view of the state in 1950s and 1960s.
Society has a set of common interests, however, differences produced by class,
ethnicity, gender and age.
State
exists to serve the interests of the middle class and the interests of
commerce.
The neo-liberal critique of the state in 1980s and 1990s.

The likelihood of officials to act in their own, rather than common interests.

The tendency of bureaucratic structures to obstruct rather than facilitate

development initiatives
The reformist view of the state in the 1990s.
Building the ‘enabling’ state, that carries out the essential tasks of maintaining
peace and the rule of law, basic infrastructure and services, and manages the
economy effectively.
 NGO Relations with Government cont’d
NGOs adopt several strategies in relation to government.
First, maintaining a low profile by working in the ‘spaces’ which
exist in government provision, with tacit government acknowledgement
or letting government take credit for what is achieved by the NGO.
This gap-filling role may bring short-term benefits particularly when
resources are severely limited, but can raise problems of sustainability
and accountability in the longer term.
Second, NGOs can engage in selective collaboration with certain
government agencies, which may be restricted to a particular sector, or
may be based on individual relationships between personnel or local
level links which may not have formal government backing.
This strategy has the merits of pragmatic thinking, but may lead to
haphazard inconsistencies in policy and implementation.
 NGO Relations with Government cont’d
The final stance which NGOs may take is that of policy advocacy, in which the
organization acts as a pressure group in support of the interests of certain groups,
or demonstrates alternatives to the government’s own approaches.
However, a close relationship with the state can also bring identity problems and
organizational tensions within the NGO, if it has grown up with opposition to
government as a key plank of strategy.

Indeed, the growth of NGOs can pose a dilemma for the state, since private
institutional initiatives can challenge the state’s legitimacy if it shows that it is
unable to deliver what it has promised to the population.
On the other hand, the state is interested in NGOs if it sees the potential for
NGOs to broaden development services under an overall guiding hand from
government.
The state also tends to take an interest in NGOs from the perspective of ensuring
financial control and accountability, particularly if there are foreign funds being
channeled to the NGO sector.
 NGO Relations with Government cont’d
The state can use at least four different strategies to define their
relationships with NGOs:
I. Monitoring (keep track of what NGOs are doing and, if necessary,
restricting registration of organizations it does not like);
II. Coordination (seeking to spread NGO activities more evenly across
geographical areas and sectors in order to avoid duplication);
III. Co-optation (in which the state seeks to ‘capture’ NGOs and steer
them away from potentially threatening roles into the kind of work
which the government wants)
IV. Dissolution (in which the state develops mechanisms which give it
absolute control over NGOs like the power to delay approval for
their activities, limiting their scope or ultimately closing down the
NGO if necessary).
 NGO Relations with the Business Sector
There are two areas of interaction between NGOS and the business world.
The first is the growth of campaigning by NGOS to improve
accountability and social responsibility among the corporate sector.
NGOS have got a power to influence the behavior of corporations through
potential damage to their reputations brought about by civil action by
NGOS.
This ‘civil regulation’ model has been observed in campaigns against
high-profile companies such as nike, monsanto, shell and nestlé which
appear to have made a difference and where a potential ‘win/win’ situation
emerges because:
1)Staff are more motivated and work harder under a more ethical regime,
2)Consumers buy more products and
3)Governments provide more ‘enabling’ services.
 NGO Relations with the Business Sector cont’d
The second area of interaction between NGOs and the business sector is the
growth of the concept of ‘fair trade’, which serves the multiple purposes of:
1)Securing better prices for developing country producers,
2)Educating consumers to demand social, economic and environmental
business standards, and
3)Generating revenue for an NGO from the market.
Fair trade explicitly mixes profit-making with the objective of social or
environmental development and change.
Fair trade may have the potential to generate more sustainable alternatives to
conventional development assistance and project-based interventions, but it
blurs further the boundaries set out by the three-sector model as organizations.
 Within fair trade partnerships are forced to operate beyond the rules of their
usual ‘known’ environments.
 NGO Relations with Communities
• Many NGOs form direct relationships with sections of local
communities, as in the case, for example, of an organization which
delivers services to a marginalized group of people (such as landless
rural women).
• Some NGOs seek a less direct relationship with local communities
but attempt to represent their interests in undertaking advocacy work, or
attempt to work within broader definitions of the public interest.
• Other
NGOs seek to influence sections of the community. Whichever
the approach, most NGOs claim to be accountable to wider
communities, and claim legitimacy on the basis of this accountability.
• The concept of ‘social capital’ can be related to the efforts of some
NGOs to work towards the strengthening of local organizational
structures in the form of group building, and to the efforts of sections of
the community to organize itself into membership NGOs.
 NGO Relations with Donors
• Allnon-profit organizations tend to be highly resource-dependent and may
require diverse sources of funds for their survival, and it has been argued
convincingly that the ‘resource dependency perspective’ can be usefully
applied to NGOs in seeking explanations for their relationships and
activities (Hudock, 1995).
• An NGO may also become more vulnerable to changing donor fads and
fashions or may face decreased legitimacy in the eyes of some of its other
stakeholders.
• The evolution of the ‘donor consortium’ idea, in which NGOs receiving
funding from a number of different donors (each of whom may have
different disbursal methods and reporting criteria), is one such response.
• Inthis model an NGO works with the donors to form a group which can
standardize procedures and timetables and establish a single point of
contact and communication working with donor consortia.
 NGO Relations with Donors cont’d
• Some donors are also now considered to be looking
beyond mere funding relationships.

• Donorscan work towards helping to create an enabling

environment which would assist the work of NGOs – such
as:

1)Building bridges between non-membership NGOs,

2)Membership organizations

3)Wider political structures such as the state and

international donors.
Chapter Five

Building Capacity of NGOs

The concept of capacity building

Improving effectiveness of Nongovernmental Organizations

Fundraising

The Concept of Capacity Building

There are a variety of definitions for capacity building. Perhaps the
most fundamental definition is "actions that improve nonprofit
effectiveness".

Some other discussions about capacity building refer to the concept

as actions that enhance a non-profit's ability to work towards its
mission.

The concept of capacity building in nonprofits is similar to the

concept of organizational development, organizational effectiveness
and/or organizational performance management in for-profits.
 Cont..
Capacity building efforts can include a broad range of approaches,
eg:
Granting operating funds,
Granting management development funds,
Providing training and development sessions,
Providing coaching, supporting collaboration with other nonprofits,
etc.
 UNDP (1997) has introduced capacity building as the process by
which individuals, groups, and organizations increase their
abilities to:
1. Perform core functions, solve problems, define and achieve
objectives; and
2. Understand and deal with their development needs in a broad
context and in a sustainable manner.
 Cont…
Furthermore, in terms of NGOs’ functions,
Langran (2002) has defined capacity
building as the ability of one group (NGOs)
to strengthen the development abilities of
another group (local communities) through:
education,
skill training and
organizational support.
 Capacity Building Areas
Different studies regarding capacities have stated that the NGOs
need assistance to enhance capacity to implement development
programs by establishing effective management and administrative
system.
The assistance should include means for developing appropriate
mechanisms to plan and carryout tasks in collaboration with other
organizations.

The capacity building programs should include management

training of key decision makers of NGOs who tend to be more
activists than managers, building the capacity of management and
other staff by assisting them to acquire organizational, management
and behavioral skills so that they can produce an interesting
combination of home grown activism and modern management
technique that would help them to achieve better results.
Capacity building attempts to:

1. Build a stronger, more sustainable organization, including

establishing formal or systematic organizational structures and
developing and implementing long-term planning and strategies.
2. Improve administrative and program management systems and
abilities, including setting up a strong accounting system, improving
the process of planning and managing projects.
This way they would be able to be efficient, transparent,
accountable and sustainable organizations.
3. Strengthen technical expertise, through hiring or training staff or
volunteers in program planning and design, best practices, and other
similar technical areas.
The process would help them understand their strengths better and
identify areas where they should concentrate most establishing
priority.
 Process and Instruments for NGO Capacity Building
The processes and instruments for capacity building should include:
Training and other skills enhancement programs: Training and
other skills enhancement programs in the form of seminars,
workshops are useful instruments for human and organizational
capacity building.

Experiential learning: Experiential learning allows for a

combination of knowledge and attitude development, as well as
practical experience in carrying out activities on the ground.
It allows for the acquisition and utilization of skills, change in
behavior/attitude and application of knowledge on on-going
activities.

The use of expert assistance to transfer knowledge and skills could

be explored in the delivery arrangements.
 Cont..
Promoting and strengthening partnerships: Among NGOs is a
valuable instrument for enhancing all forms of capacity for
advocacy and influencing operational management, monitoring and
evaluation as well as for mass mobilization and collective action.

The promotion of partnership as a capacity building process

enhances dialogue and cooperation, which in turn enables NGOs to
respond collectively on issues at the macro level.

Promoting the formation/strengthening of alliances among

NGOs: This process again can lead to the enhancement of capacity
to take on issues at the macro level and also allows NGOs to close
their ranks, thus enabling them to speak with one voice, bigger and
better.
 Cont..
Launching an effective communication and information
dissemination program:

The main emphasis of such an instrument should include its

usefulness in enhancing the following capacities: advocacy and
influencing, mass mobilization and collective action and for
providing outreach.

Such a program could embrace audio and visual format and includes
the use of newsletters, newspaper publications, radio talk shows,
theatre and drama, video recordings all aimed at enhancing
advocacy.
 Success factors for NGOs
Organizational vision, which includes the positioning of an
organization within the external environment and its flexibility to
adapt to changes in this environment.
 Individual staff capacities, skills and aptitude, and their collective
synergy.
Organizational capacity to attract and retain a staff body and
individual staff of the caliber or potential caliber necessary for
running programs effectively.
Organizational capacity to be accountable to funders, governing
bodies or boards, staff and target groups.
Organizational ability to remain detached from party politics.
Sound organizational control mechanisms deriving from democratic
participation and/or measurable control systems
 Advantages of NGOs over other types of organization
There are many arguments which have been made:

There is a social argument which is based around equity issues: the idea is that
NGOs can encourage and facilitate participation of the poor and can reach strata of
the population.

There is an economic argument, based on the concept of efficiency, which

argues that NGOs provide services more cost-effectively than government
agencies can.

For example, Smith (1987) found that NGOs were generally more efficient than
government projects, based on a greater cost advantage due to lower labour costs
and incomplete pricing (relying on voluntary local inputs) .

The political argument is that NGOs are less vulnerable to sudden and
unexpected political upheaval and change than government agencies, and that
government agencies tend to have a ‘hidden’ political agenda which seeks to win
votes or build patron–client relationships.

NGOs are therefore seen as being more honest in that they are less likely to be
guided by these types of political considerations in their work.
 Cont..
Finally, the cultural argument points out that NGOs are more embedded in
the local culture and that they therefore can be more sensitive to assessing and
meeting local needs.

NGOs therefore possess a ‘comparative advantage’ over government

agencies in four main areas:

a) NGOs reach the poor in remote areas where government reach does not
exist or is ineffective;

b) NGOs operate at lower cost due to the voluntary nature of their activities
and lower technological overheads;

c) NGOs promote local participation by working with community groups as

partners, emphasizing self-help initiatives and local control of programs;

d) NGOs innovate and adapt to local conditions and needs.

 Fund Raising
AllNGOs will want to publicize themselves to different audiences and in different
ways as reputable organizations with high impact programs.

One of the reasons, but by no means the only one, that publicity is important is to
raise funds for the organization.

But organizations also want to publicize themselves for other reasons, such as
increasing their membership base, informing potential beneficiaries about the
work that they do, and networking more effectively with other organizations.

Many different tools can be used in a publicity strategy. Some of them are detailed
below.

Written documents

These are good for visitors to the office and funding agencies who are accustomed
to reading reports and documents.

All of them should carry the organization’s full name, the name of a contact
person, and contact telephone or fax numbers.
 Cont…
 Logos and branding
Anything that carries the organization’s logo will help others
remember and identify it. Some examples include calendars,
stickers, pins, hats, T-shirts, folders, or diaries.
Media

Media can cover special events that the organization holds, or they
can run general stories related to its work. i.e Television ,
Newspapers , Radio and News letter.
Conferences and workshops

Itcan also help to inform people about the organization’s areas of

work, and facilitate information sharing.
Workshops are a good place to meet other people, including funding
agency representatives, who share common interests.
 Cont…
Publicity events
Any event that an organization sponsors can be used for publicity.
Some examples are:
Open house: Open the office to the public and invite them to meet
the staff, see the office, and ask questions about the organization and
its work.
• Display banners and brochures, and show videos of programme
activities while people network with each other.
Project launch or closing ceremony: At the start of a project or
major programme activity, invite people from that field to attend a
small ceremony.
• For bigger projects, government officials or funding agency
representatives can be invited to make speeches to attract more
participants.
 Cont…
• Be sure to display banners, photographs and brochures,
and to show videos of programme activities if these are
available..
Local events: When invited to attend local events related
to the organization’s work, ask if banners or displays can
be taken.

Wear the organization’s T-shirt, if it has one, and let

people know the name of the organization and what it
stands for.
 Developing a Fundraising Plan

What is the purpose of fundraising strategy?

Itis important to clarify the purpose of a fundraising strategy which
might, for example, be to:

Diversify and increase the number of different income sources the

organization has.
 Develop and expand and maintain, the existing workforce and
programme or service.
Reduce financial dependency on funds received from any one
source or any international funding agency.

Enhance long term organizational sustainability.

 Some fundraising strategies for NGOs
Funds can be raised from many sources, including those outlined
below.
Grants/project funds provided by international funding agencies
and international NGOs.

• Before approaching such agencies it is a good idea to consider:

Which elements of the programme might best be marketed to
potential international funders?.
Income generation
Attempting to generate funds through specific events or initiatives
such as training workshops or fundraising events usually requires a
great deal of staff time and effort for small returns, especially for
smaller organizations.
 Cont…
User charges

Charging for indirect services might be an option for

some organizations, but opportunities for this are often
limited.
For example, some organizations hire out rooms in their
office for out-of-hours meetings.
Others charge consultancy fees for advice given to, for
example, other agencies.
 Corporate giving
A significant and growing number of corporations and
businesses (large and small) have established ‘social
investment funds’ or ‘community funds’ which carry both
tax and social benefits for them.

Most of these funds are devoted to specific areas of

activity, but some are more flexible and open ended.