Issues Facing Minority NGOs

Introductory Remarks Once upon a time NGOs, their leaders and workers were celebrated as the "voice of the poor people", avant-garde for social transformation. No doubt, in some areas a few NGOs played and play an important role in raising the voice of the concerned people of India. But yet, by and large they have failed to be "Poor people's voice". Precisely because the NGOs definitely have and can take on a role, not only because there is a need, but also because there is a potential (see: 'Independent Sector' in the Report of the 'Club of Rome': The First Global Revolution, Rome 1991), it becomes all the more important to understand the reasons that debilitates the NGOs from becoming the "poor people's voice". One of the reasons: The majority of the NGOs are not democratic, participatory and just within their own structure. If this is true, then there is a necessity to look into the NGO phenomenon and the institutions related to it closely and critically. This short paper does not cover all aspects of it but wants to invite the readers to fill the gaps as per their positions, views and experience. Every institution and profession has its own jargon, creating new phrases and word combinations, very specific to their context, allowing the persons affected and involved to express their positions, hopes, anxieties, disappointments or achievements with sarcasm or humour. The use of jargon may not always describe a situation precisely; it shows primarily a tendency. It may not even mean to address every person and institution related to that profession. The words used here on the cover need a short clarification since the very specific and contextual NGO translation of them will not be available in the dictionaries. * Remote Moneylender Funding Agency (FA). Actually FAs do not lend money. They donate it. They have their reasons to do this. Some call them also "Absentee Patron". * NGO Lord, NGO Lady Managing director or the proprietor of the NGOs; also called as leader, king/queen or dictator, depending upon his/her character. * Middleman A man (seldom a woman) between FA and NGO who covers all sorts of jobs keeping sharply his own advantage (money, power, information) in mind. In some cases he is titled as "consultant". * Joint Family NGO with a patriarch at the top, whom no 'family member' can criticize. Normally this function is executed by the NGO lord or middleman. Usually in public or when in conflict with the workers, they title the NGO as "family" or "joint family". * Voluntarism A trait that NGO workers are expected to function with uncritically, within the "family". * Bondage To tolerate oppression in order to avoid the booting out of the "family", though NGO worker is "free" to leave anytime. This paper is divided into three parts. The first deals with the development of the NGOs, the second with the donor agencies, and the third with the situation of the NGO workers. Any reaction from your side is welcome! C.R Bijoy/K Arun 1992

Humanities and social sciences, 2014

Development organizations need resources to help them continue providing services to the community. Non Govermental Organizations (NGOs) for a long time have relied on the generosity of donors to support their project activities through grants and donations. However organizations have realized that such funding sources are often insufficient to meet needs and rising costs for project implementation. In Africa despite vast differences among the NGOs most share a common challenge of unlimited needs chasing limited resources. Local NGOs face difficulties securing enough funds because the projects undertaken require substantial amounts of resources, both financial and non-financial due to high poverty levels in most parts of the continent. Resource mobilization requires a lot of time and skills to seek resources from different sources and the pressure to mobilize resources may lead the organizations to use methods that compromise the values they are fighting for through their work.

The rise of the non-governmental, non-profit associations of civil society as increasingly important actors has been described by a number of observers (Schneider, 1988; Salamon, 1993 cited by Brown and Kalegaonkar, 1999). It couldn’t be denied that there is an increasing interest in the growing visibility of non-government organization. NGOs appear to play a particularly important role in social, political and economic development activities (Edwards and Hulme, 1996; Riddell and Robinson, 1995; Brown and Korten, 1991; Clark, 1990 cited by Brown and Kalegaonkar, 1999). NGOs are defined by the World Bank as "private organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development. On the other hand, Asian Development Bank study on 1999 defined NGO as intermediate agencies or institutions that tend to operate with a full-time staff complement and provide a wide range of services and programs. There are numerous possibilities to classify NGOs. The categorization of NGOs used by the World Bank are operational and advocacy. Operational NGOs primary purpose is the design and implementation of development-related projects. One categorization that is frequently used is the division into relief-oriented or development-oriented organizations; they can also be classified according to whether they stress service delivery or participation; or whether they are religious and secular; and whether they are more public or private-oriented. Operational NGOs can be community-based, national or international. Advocacy NGOs on the other hand primary purpose is to defend or promote a specific cause. As opposed to operational project management, these organizations typically try to raise awareness, acceptance, and knowledge by lobbying, press work and activist events. The purpose of this paper is to present the general profile of local NGOs. The next section provides a brief overview of the history of NGO from the International scene and how it emerged as an organization in the Philippines. This paper also endeavors to identify the commonalities and distinctiveness of this organization in terms of its nature and to what extent is the magnitude of their influence. The third section introduces the structure, systems and processes, tools and mechanism as it incorporates the application of the different management dimensions. The fourth section highlights strengths and weaknesses that appear inherent to this organization. And lastly, to give conclusion on how local NGOs as a development organization respond to the global changes.

INTRODUCTION The word "manage" can mean to cope with, to control or to make masterful use of. All these interpretations can be applied to how NGOs manage the diversity inherent in their development activities. The focus of this paper is on how diversity is managed within the context of monitoring and evaluation systems. The paper looks briefly at some of the forms of diversity that can be generated and the forces generating diversity, and then in more detail at a range of responses to that diversity, ranging from the traditional, to reformist, to the more innovative. The possibilities moving from coping and control oriented responses to more positive responses that make full use of diversity are explored. The empirical basis of this paper is the experience of working with two Bangladeshi NGOs during the last two years, Proshika and the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB).

2005

This text provides a comprehensive overview of nonprofit and voluntary organizations, nongovernmental organizations, philanthropic foundations, and civil society institutions. Taking an international perspective, Nonprofit Organizations details the background and concepts behind these organizations, examines relevant theories, and the central issues of nonprofit governance, management, and policy. Linking theory with practice, each chapter is illustrated with real life case studies.

ERIS – European Review of International Studies, 2020

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the prevailing CC-BY License at the time of publication. european review of international studies 7 (2020) 105-122 brill.com/eris

In the world of businesses and profitable institutions, one can easily get the feeling that the purpose and the work of nonprofit organizations is being underestimated and in a way even looked down upon, but the truth often lies elsewhere. This unjust environment has inspired me to dedicate this essay towards proving that the work that is done in these organizations is far from easy and insignificant- most of the time it is the exact opposite of common misconceptions. I will start this essay, by defining what a nonprofit organization is. Often when hearing the word nonprofit organization, people think of groups that feed children in Africa and work in preventing poverty and even though this is part of nonprofit work, the presence of these organizations in our everyday life is much more prevalent. I believe that by establishing a common ground in terms of a common concept will help recognize these organizations and their importance to our everyday life. In the second part of this chapter I will discuss just that, how crucial this organizations are and provide evidence for significance of our essay topic. I will back my arguments with relevant data from national economies of Canada and United States and prove that nonprofit organizations not only provide a significant share of GDP of both national economies, but also present essential share of jobs and engagement of local communities and overall population. After being clear on what nonprofit organizations are and how crucial their presence is to economies as well as social wellbeing of the people, we will look at the key problems that majority of nonprofits face. Moreover, I will connect the issues with the function of management and discuss, how these issues affect the organization’s governance. I will focus on the issue of revenue generation, stating that often nonprofits are being trapped between dependency on governmental funds and often restricted assets provided by donors, which is why we are able to recognize nonprofit management’s effort towards diversifying revenue structure and focusing more on their own independent sources of income. Argument will again be backed with relevant real world examples from multiple nonprofit industries. The second issue I will discuss is the measurement of success. Knowing that when it comes to nonprofits, there are many other things to look at rather than just profit and other financial measures, I will discuss the best way for a nonprofit to structure their evaluation of success and provide a case study example of organization that used the discussed approach method. Lastly, taking into account all of the previously discussed issues and trends I will discuss the future of the nonprofit sector. Considering the recent trend of nonprofits becoming more like businesses, I will draw implications about the changes in employment structure in nonprofits. More and more of MBA graduates are deciding to pursue a career in the nonprofit sector, because they want to make impact in the world not just serve for a big paycheck. Furthermore, I believe, we will see increased competition in this growing sector and increased presence of nonprofits on social media, because it is one of the most effective ways of engaging large pool of stakeholders, which nonprofits certainly have. I also talk about the increased trend of transparency of organizations in the future, because this is certainly one way to go about marketing and assuring your donors you are spending money in a legitimate matter and avoid having your funds restricted for only a specific use.

Routledge Handbook of NGOs and International Relations, 2019