Starting and managing ngo ebook

www.johnjohnie.com [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.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE 3

DEDICATION 4

WHAT IT TAKES TO ESTABLISH A SUCCESSFUL NGO 5

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SUCCESSFUL NGO OWNER/MANAGER 6

THE FIRST STEPS IN ESTABLISHING NGO 8

COMPLIANCE IN NGOs 16

HOW TO MAKE BENEFICIARIES OF YOUR NGO HAPPY 18

SOURCES OF FINANCE 20

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 23

PROJECT MANAGEMENT 24

MARKETING YOUR NGO 27

MANAGEMENT OF EQUIPMENT 34

MANAGING YOUR NGO CULTURE 35

RECORDS MANAGEMENT 38

MANAGEMENT OF MEETINGS 40

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 41

MANAGEMENT OF DONORS AND OTHER PARTNERS 44

SUSTAINABILITY CHECKLIST POINTS 48

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 56


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.

Throughout this book, emphasis has been on how to establish a professional,
productive, growing and sustainable NGO.

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


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.


WHAT IT TAKES TO ESTABLISH A SUCCESSFUL NGO

The following points explain 7 ingredients of a successful NGO

1. Projects that match targeted groups
It is a common mistake by many NGOs to introduce projects to certain groups of
people without extensive research on what really the groups want.

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.

2. The feeling of ownership
Though it is important to involve target groups when designing and implementing
projects, NGOs need to create a culture/feeling that the projects belong to the
people, and the targeted people should be encouraged to innovate better ways of
improving the projects.

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.


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.

4. Continuous efficiency and productivity
Efficiency and productivity depend on the management style and introduction of the
project. But continuous improvement and strategic thinking will help to ensure
efficiency and productivity in the organization.
Strategic thinking is necessary to solve unexpected challenges and problems while
projecting the better future of 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.

6. Marketing and Public relations management
Even NGOs, need to establish for themselves, good marketing and public relations
management. Read more on marketing and public relations for NGO on page 27.

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.


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SUCCESSFUL NGO
OWNER/MANAGER

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.

Entrepreneurial skills are necessary as most NGOs can no longer rely on
donors/sponsors.

NGOs need to establish their own enterprises /investments to generate income to
cover costs of their management operations and core projects expenses.

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


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.

6. Knowledge of the subject matter

It is not a must that the manager/founders be people of a specialized field in which
the NGO is dealing with – say it is not a must that the NGO that deals with HIV/AIDS
be formed and managed by doctors, but it is necessary that the managers/founders
have adequate knowledge of the challenge their NGO is trying to face and solve. For
example, it is not wise to run a project that aims to provide HIV counselling services
while you are not familiar with neither HIV nor counselling field.

Experts may be sought, and research conducted by the managers to familiarize
themselves with the subject matter so that they can perform their duties well.

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.


THE FIRST STEPS IN ESTABLISHING NGO

1. Select target group

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.

2. Defining the problem

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.

3. Background to the problem:

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


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.

4. Formulate proposed solutions

After careful and comprehensive background study of challenge or problems faced
by the target group, you need to carefully formulate solutions to such challenges or
problems.

NGOs implement solutions of challenges faced by their targeted groups through
designing and implementing projects or programmes.

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.

This is therefore going to be considered when formulating bylaws or constitution of
your NGO. For example in your NGO’s constitution you will need to outline
management structure, types of meetings, sources of finance, and rules related to
membership. All these rules should be in line with the works or plans that your NGO
has to accomplish.

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?


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.

6. Define scope of your NGO

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

A broad look at what bylaws/constitution mean to NGO:

Constitution is a collection of rules that define procedures, powers and
limitations of staff, members and management.
The constitution defines vision, mission and scope of the organization.
Constitution is a very important document, and needs to be well prepared,
well understood, and approved by members.
Constitution is also a document that communicates what your NGO is to the
public.
It is important to note that your NGO’s constitution/bylaws are not secret
document, but rather public documents. Members of your NGO, donors,
partner organizations, government and any individual from the public may
require reading your NGO’s bylaws/constitution.


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.

In its life, your organization can have as many changes as necessary.

Important contents to consider in your constitution

Name and Abbreviation of the organization: This part is important as it
shows consent of the members on what name and abbreviation should be
used. The name and official abbreviation are going to be used by registrar of
the organizations, to register your NGO, and they are also used in other
registrations with authorities and in opening bank account.

Some organizations may opt to include their official logo in the constitution.

Head Office Location: Normally you would be required to mention region,
city, and country where the head office of your organization would be situated.
If you already have already located an office premise, you can write full
physical address of that office.
Vision and Mission: Again these too are very important as they tell registrar
what your NGO is about and what is dreamed to become. It is very important
to mention these as they help the registrar to justify his or her decision to
register your NGO. It is also important to consider vision and mission in your
constitution because Vision – the dream of what the NGO will accomplish and
Mission – what the NGO is going to do, are key reasons why the members
join together to form that particular organization. If these two key reasons are
not understood and not consented by all members then to run the NGO will be
very difficult.
Objectives: Just like vision and mission, objectives – which mean specific
targets that your organization seek to achieve, should be very well understood
and agreed by all members. These objectives are the ones that set type of
activities your organization is going to engage itself with. Some legislation like
Children’s Homes Act in Tanzania requires that any NGO which wants to


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,


membership fees and mode of payment of membership fee, disqualification of
a member.
Meetings clauses: It should mention in the constitution, types of meetings –
members and management meetings. Important rules regarding the meetings
such as who will chair the meetings, quorum for meetings, voting, how many
times in a year will the meetings be called up, and notice for meetings.
Sources of finance clause: This clause mentions different sources from
which your NGO is expected to generate its financial resources. It is safe to
mention as many sources as possible, but also limit if it is found necessary.
Such sources could be members’ contribution, loans, grants, profit from profit
generating projects, gifts etc.
Finance control clauses: This clause is about rules and procedures to be
followed to ensure that organization’s resources are used properly. Your
organization can set general rules such as who can be a signatory of cheques
and financial reporting arrangements. More specific day to day financial
controls can be set later, by management through financial policies. You may
find it helpful to mention in the constitution that financial policies and other
policies will be formulated.
Interpretation and changes of the constitution clauses: These clauses
outline who has the power to clarify clauses of the constitution when there is a
problem of interpretation, plus how changes to the constitution should be
carried.
Dissolution clauses: You need to agree on what will happen if your NGO
goes to an end. The rules that set procedures to be followed in dissolving the
organization are set in these clauses. Typical information in these clauses
include circumstances under which the NGO will be dissolved, quorum for
meeting to dissolve the NGO, payment of liabilities of the organization and
distribution of its resources of the organization. Normally the residual of the
resources of the NGO after paying all liabilities will not be distributed to
members; instead it is given to government or other organizations.


8. Registering the NGO

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.


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………

From The Times of India (online) September 4, 2012. Available at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Over-350-NGOs-may-lose-international-
aid/articleshow/16241966.cms

NGOs are typically required to:

1. Conduct meetings – at least one general meeting for every year.
2. File annual reports – these reports include audited financial reports and
reports of activities conducted by the organization for a specific reporting
period. In Tanzania, NGOs are also required to pay annual fees to the
registrar of NGOs.
3. Registering with tax authorities and Filing tax returns – NGOs are
required when they qualify for employees’ tax collection, to collect taxes such
as SKILLS AND DEVELOPMENT LEVY (SDL) and Pay As You Earn
(PAYEE) from the employees, and submit to tax authorities. For this reason
the NGOs are also required to submit monthly and annual tax returns for
respective taxes.
4. NGOs if the happen to engage themselves in a profit making project, they
should also remember that profit making projects (business) are in many
cases subjected to paying income tax.
5. Licences – In some cases NGOs are required to obtain licence to allow them
conduct certain activities. A good example is in Tanzania, where NGOs that
want to run a Children’s Home for orphans /vulnerable children must obtain
licence to do so from Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. The NGOs also
need to obtain business licences and permits to conduct specific profit making
projects.


6. Compliance from various memberships – If your NGO is a member to a
certain association then you should remember to adhere to what members
have to qualify to.
7. Compliance concerns from partners and donors – Donors and partners
may also require your NGO to fulfil certain requirements to ensue
transparency, accountability, commitment and professionalism. They may
require period reports, audits, or more critical bylaws.
8. Other legal Compliance concerns – apart from the NGOs being required to
comply to the acts under which they are registered, they are also required to
comply to other laws such laws governing employment and workplace
relations, laws governing environment protection, laws governing business
and contracts, laws governing land management, intellectual properties, mass
communication, laws governing international trade, laws governing health and
security issues at work places etc.
You can see the example from India, in the beginning of this chapter where
legal compliance failure may result into NGO to lose funds.


HOW TO MAKE BENEFICIARIES OF YOUR NGO HAPPY

1. Understand the beneficiaries well and their challenges

If your NGO is targeting a certain group of people in a society as beneficiaries, it
should attempt to understand such beneficiaries very well so that you can come up
with projects that can really solve or reduce challenges faced by those beneficiaries.

Areas to put emphasis on during studying the beneficiaries are:

The group’s culture.
The past and current success and failure stories of the group
Specific and related challenge faced by the group. For example, if your NGO
is going to focus on HIV/AIDS, you need to get deep into the HIV/AIDS
problem of the society, but also learn the other associated challenges such as
unemployment and education though your NGO may not be involved in these,
but you know they may affect your efforts with the HIV/AIDS.

2. Effective communication

Make sure your organization opens as many channels of communication as possible
such as formal meetings, telephone calls, emails, text messages, suggestion box,
visits to the communities houses, and public announcements using available mass
media.

Never underestimate the power of feedback from your target group.

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.

You know that you can always improve your services.

Create an environment whereby your staff can come up with new ways of solving
challenges.


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.

Innovation can be implemented by learning from other organizations around the
world, read success stories and techniques from organizations such as NGO
Manager (www.ngomanager.org) and Funds for NGOs (www.fundsforngos.org).

4. Maintain strong management system

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.


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.

1. Internal sources of finance for NGOs:
i. Membership fees; Your NGO should structure membership fees in such a
way that it generates enough amount.
It should be a practise that membership fees are not just fees, but should be
amount of money that can help to further certain objectives of your
organization.
The amount and timing of payment should consider desirable cash flow
position of your NGO.
ii. Members’ contribution; Apart from fees, members may be asked to
contribute money or other resources like furniture and volunteer services to
the organization.
iii. Members’ fines; as a way of encouraging discipline in the organization,
members may be fined when they act against rules and regulations of the
organization.
Typical cases where a member could be fined is when without prior notice he
or she fails to pay membership fee in time, fails to attend meeting or arrives
late during meeting .
iv. NGO’s profit making projects: Being a not for profit organization doesn’t
limit your organization from conducting profit making projects.
Your organization can establish profit making projects as a way to generate
income to run its main activities.


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.

2. External sources of finance for NGOs
i. Donations and gifts: Your NGO can obtain gifts and donations from ‘friends’
of your organization or friends of individual members of the organization.

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.


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.

The following is a list of common criteria by grants providers:

A complete filled application form
Recent audited financial reports
Project proposal write up
Recent bank statement for your NGO
Qualified and competent key staff and management personnel- hence
Resumes of your NGO’s staff may be required
Project must be authorized (endorsed) by Government and other key project
stakeholders’
Your NGO’s personal financial commitment in the proposed project – hence
your NGO should specify how much it will contribute to the project, and how
much it requests from grant provider.


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.

3. Your NGO’s financial reporting should ensure that:
All financial records captured are correct, and have supporting evidence.
Appropriate accounting standards and guidelines have been followed in the
recording and summarizing the financial records, and in the preparation of
financial statements.
All financial statements are timely prepared, audited and they are available to
stakeholders.
The available financial records are not only prepared because of external
stakeholders’ pressure such as to fulfil a donor’s conditions, but the financial
records are also used as management tool to know how the NGO is
performing , to make appropriate decisions so that your NGO can move
forward. It is a good practice to have your NGO’s financial/accounting policies
plus procedure manuals.


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.

Therefore to manage a project we have to:

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.

A well designed management structure for specific project should be identified to
make sure that human resources are well managed for each project.

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.


2. Project Implementation

It makes no sense to have a project proposal which is not implemented; therefore
there is a need to have a careful approach of implementing activities according to
project proposal, and the use of resources accordingly.

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 control involves three groups of activities;

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.

Looking into reasons for such differences regardless of whether the
differences are favourable or unfavourable.

Taking appropriate action: Knowing the favourable and unfavourable
differences between what was planned and what actual results of the project
alone without taking appropriate measures doesn’t help much. For example if
the variance shows that the budget was followed properly and that the


organization has saved money, then people responsible should be positively
rewarded to motivate them and let others have a challenge to do the same in
the future projects.

When the variance is unfavourable, corrective actions should be taken
accordingly. For example when funds have been misappropriated, the
reasons for such misappropriations and who is responsible should be
understood and appropriate disciplinary action must be taken.


MARKETING YOUR NGO

1. Understand what marketing is:

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.

For this reasons a product has

To be carefully produced taking into consideration the needs of target
audience,
Be priced well enough to attract and make it possible for the targeted
audience to purchase the product,
To make the targeted audience know about the product and give them
reasons as to why they should buy the product – for example by explaining
the benefits and features of the product etc.

2. What is your NGO’s product?

You should know that your NGO needs marketing too because it has ‘product’ that it
intends to ‘sell’ to certain target audience.

The product in your case may be a project proposal
Invitation to a fundraising project,
Goods and services from investment that your NGO has such as selling
clothes etc.

3. Why marketing your NGO

If you wonder why marketing is important to your NGO study the following points:

a) To create awareness: Your marketing activities will create popularity of your
organization, will raise image of your organization.

People or other organizations would like to do business with a well-known
organization.


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.

4. Ways of Marketing your NGO

a) Create a brand for your NGO:

In marketing, brand refers to unique mark associated with a product and an
organization.

Brand includes name, letters, groups of words or specially designed trade mark.

The concept of brand applies to your NGO by:

Creating a unique name or abbreviation for your NGO
A wonderful distinguishable logo and use of unique colors for to identify your
NGO.

Brand serves a purpose of distinguishing your NGO from other NGOs and makes it
easy for the public to recognize your NGO.

b) Publicity: In marketing, publicity refers to an organization’s undertaking to
carefully plan and prepare information that will be used as news by the mass
media such as TV, newspapers, blogs, radio,etc.


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.

Typical publicity for your NGO could be:

An article in newspapers, blogs and magazines about issues and solutions
related to the target audience your NGO is serving.
Your NGO can also submit articles describing its success stories that may
attract and inspire public –this way the mass media will love to publish for
free.
Your NGO’s leaders or key persons can appear on TV shows or events where
they can be providing expert contribution or experience on important issues to
the public.
When your NGO has to undertake a project, find a way to notify press,
arrange a good story about your project so that the press find it as news
worthy story for them to report.

c) Business cards: never under estimate the power of business cards as
marketing tool.
Business cards when well-prepared they save as a mark of professionalism
that your NGO has.
Make sure that the business cards contain all important contact information
about your NGO –email address, phone numbers, website. Plus what the
NGO is all about.
The business cards can also contain mission of your NGO.
d) Website/Blog Website or blog for your NGO is a gateway of information
about your NGO’s activities, successes and the challenge that your NGO is
working to overcome.
Useful information to include on your NGO’s website:
Strategic Direction of your NGO – Vision, Mission and Values
Management structure and profiles of key people staff in your organization
Your NGOs projects, success stories
Information about your target group


• 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.

e) Introducing your NGO to different stakeholders: You can write business
letters to different organizations and individuals who have some influence in
the public or to your NGO.
For example you write short but comprehensive letter explaining your NGO’s
mission, target audience, project and success stories if any and direct such
letters to appropriate government agencies, local governments, associations
of NGOs, professional associations, and other NGOs.
This way you make those who receive your letters aware of presence of your
NGO.
Remember nice letter head design with all important contact information and
website is essential.
You can attach your NGO’s profile to give the readers more insight of your
NGO.

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.

g) Membership with various associations : There are different associations
that your NGO can join to create awareness to the public and get ‘friends’ who
may later be helpful.
Your NGO can also use such associations to promote its products from
projects such as selling of clothes etc.


h) Advertisements: Different forms of advertisements can be used by your
organization depending on financial capacity, management capability and
other factors.
You can use radio, TV, billboards, social network adverts, Google, Yahoo
adverts, local newspapers etc.
Your NGO may also consider use of flyers and leaflets to send message
about its business projects and simply create awareness about its existence
to the public.
i) Presence on Social networks such: Opening a Facebook fan page, Twitter
account or Google Plus account for your NGO is a good a way to increase
awareness of the public about your NGO.
It is also a good way to share information about the challenges your NGO
want to overcome for the respective target group, this way more support can
be obtained from the public.

This guide from http://topnonprofits.com/posting-guide/ is helpful:


j) NGO’s profile: This document is like a resume of a human being.
It is a document that is intended to give more details about strength and
opportunities available to your NGO.
The contents of your NGO’s profile may be;
Strategic Direction statements such as vision, mission and values
NGO’s activities and projects,
Management Structure and profiles of key personal,
Legal status of your NGO such as information about registrations as
required by various legislations,
Information about financial matters – summary of recent incomes and
expenditures, financial position, information about any partnership that
your NGO has etc.
All contact information.

k) Newsletter Your NGO can publish period newsletter to contain information
about its activities and upcoming events.
The aim of the newsletter is to keep stakeholders up to date about the
progress and events that concern the NGO.

l) Location and physical environment: Your NGO’s office should be at a
location where it can easily be reached, where infrastructure allows smooth
running of day to activities – for example electricity and internet is reliable.
Your office layout and arrangement should look professional, taking into
account factors such as cleanness, decorations, equipment and necessary
furniture.

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.


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.

o) Manage communication professionally: The way your NGO manages
communication has an impact on its image and success.
It is good practice to understand different needs, culture and level of
understanding of your NGO’s stakeholders when communicating with them.
Understanding and adhering to set standards of communication and business
ethics are vital to success.
Your communication should be clear, complete, correct, understandable, and
concise.


MANAGEMENT OF EQUIPMENT

1. What equipment to buy:

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.

2. How to use the 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.

3. How to maintain the equipment:

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.

4. How to dispose the equipment sell

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.


MANAGING YOUR NGO CULTURE

1. What is culture?

Culture refers to totality way of doing things and relationship within your NGO.

It covers values that your people as organization what to live by.

If not well managed your NGO’s culture may be poor and hence become obstacle to
the success of your NGO.

2. How your NGO’s culture is displayed? To understand this answer the
following questions:

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?


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.

3. Effective ways of building appropriate culture:-

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.

Set and communicate management structure: Management structure is an
outline of duties, responsibilities and distribution of power in the organization.
An organization structure tells it clearly who does what and reports to whom.
A well prepared management structure will help to clear misunderstanding as
to who has to do what, it is helpful in understanding a person responsible for a
particular outcome in your NGO.
When management structure is well prepared and implemented it helps your
organization to conduct its operations quickly and smoothly because jobs are
already analysed, job descriptions are provided, and hopefully competent
people will take the positions according to the management structure.


Set and communicate code of conduct: Code of conduct refers to an
outline of what has to be done, and those things that must not be done.
It is directed to the behaviour of the people that is why it is called code of
conduct.
The aim of having a code of conduct is to create an environment of
responsible staff in the organization, create good image and an identity to
outsiders.
Matters to be considered in your code of conduct include but not limited to;
Dressing code, Communication, Authority issues, NGO’s procedures and
exception to the rules.

Set and communicate policies: Policies can be defined as set of respected
guidelines in your NGO explaining how to perform operations, making choices
and decisions.
Normally policies will be set for major management functions such as financial
policies, human resources policies and marketing policies.
Policies aim at giving direction on important matters and areas where
individual judgement may not be suitable.
Policies tend to speak for your organization in such areas where confusion
may happen or individual person’s decision may not be adequate.

Set and communicate bylaws/constitution: Clauses of your constitution
should be well understood by members.
Efforts to make members participate in setting up the constitution are vital so
that they can provide cooperation in the implementation of the constitution.
Remember constitution is the basis for your NGO’s existence, so don’t just
copy and paste from other organizations.

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.


RECORDS MANAGEMENT

1. What records should your NGO manage?

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.


Records about meetings: Meetings are important occasions for your
organization.
Again separate records for each type of meetings should be well kept.
Meetings in your NGO include members meetings, meetings of management
team, meetings with donors and meetings with strategic partners.
Records related to meetings include minutes of the meetings, notes to the
meetings, and follow ups of resolutions /outcomes of the meetings.

Literatures/References: These are documents such as books, research
papers, articles from sources such as websites, blogs, newspapers,
magazines, newsletters and other internal works that can be used as
reference reading materials.
To be aware of such type of documents, and have a proper way of managing
them, will help your NGO to perform efficiently because information is power.

Administration records: These are records produced and supplied for
internal administration of day to day activities of the organization not
mentioned in above categories.
Administration information includes memorandums, announcements, policies,
controls and correspondences.

2. Key things to consider in record management:
Correctness of the information,
Suitable form of storage – electronic or hard copy,
Make sure that the information is clear,
Establish access control to monitor who has gets hold of the information for
security purposes and for efficient distribution of the records,
Ensure there is back up for the information so that one set of records is lost or
destroyed, your NGO can still have the information.
Have an appropriate way of discarding unwanted records to ensure there is
no redundancy of information and that information is not mistakenly
destroyed.


MANAGEMENT OF MEETINGS

Management of meetings in NGOs involve the following:

1. Documentation: Outcomes of meetings should be communicated to
respective audience for effective implementation of such resolutions.
The outcomes of implementation of resolution of the meetings should also be
communicated.
All information related to meetings should be well documented as suggested
in the section about Records Management.

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.

3. Managing meeting sessions:

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.

Expenses related to meetings include communication, transportation, stationery and
printing and renting of a meeting room/hall.


HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

1. Sources of human power

For effective management of human resources, we need to know the sources of
human resources for your NGO. Here are few examples:-

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.


Supreme decision making body: This is a group of individuals whose job is
to provide direction and advice on short, medium and more importantly long
term position of your NGO.

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.

Members: You shouldn’t under estimate members of your NGO as source of
man power for your NGO’s activities.
Members can be volunteers or they may become full time employees.

2. What to manage when it comes to human resources?

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.


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.

Skills development can be also be a way to prepare some of your staff to
succeed other staff whose time in the NGO is reaching its limit.

Developing your staff could also enhance participative management as the
staff will have necessary skills that will give them voice to comment, correct or
suggest valuable input into the operations and success of your NGO.

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.

Retaining: Your NGO human resources management should consider the
ways of making sure that the key and competent people stay in the
organization for as long as possible.
Efforts to understand their demands, challenges and concerns must be done
by your management.
Your organization should also maintain generally good public image, to make
such key people proud to continue serving your organization.

Acquiring: Your NGO’s management should periodically review its human
power requirements to see what sorts of people are required so that your
NGO can be prepared in advance to make acquisition of the required people.

Comprehensive job analysis should be done, and clear job description and
key qualifications pointed out, before the search of the right candidate begins.

The method of recruitment and appointment should be transparent .The
selected candidates should be given all necessary prior work commencement
information, and be familiarized with important processes and documentations
of your NGO.


MANAGEMENT OF DONORS AND OTHER PARTNERS

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.

The above important elements are explained below:

1. Be prepared/ plan for engagement

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.

Online methods involve visiting government websites, individual donors’
websites, and companies’ websites and look for corporate responsibility
pages such as this page for Microsoft-
http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/community-
tools/nonprofits/get-inspired/.
You can also visit other websites specialized with information about NGO
funding such as http://www.fundsforngos.org.
You can also use Google and other search engines to enquire links for donors
and sponsors, social networks and other forms of social media can also be
good place for searching your perfect donor/sponsor.


Offline methods of searching for donors include reading flyers, newspapers
adverts and physical visits to organizations that are known as potential donors
/sponsors.
Your NGO’s membership in local and international associations of NGOs can
also help to obtain information.

3. Techniques to get finances for your NGO

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.

Know what a donor/sponsor is ready to offer: It doesn’t help you to go the
hustle of applying for funds from a donor /sponsor only to be replied that the
donor/sponsor doesn’t fund the type of project you are applying for or the
amount you applied is not what the sponsor can offer.
Be sure to read eligibility criteria given by the donor/sponsor plus other
directions such as the mode of application, content of an application, and
deadline for submission of your application.

Be organized and convincing: Your NGO needs to put together a strong
well organized and convincing application that will make donor/sponsor ‘buy’
your request.
To be able to do that, you should forward an application that meets
requirement of the particular donor/sponsor, use clear but convincing
language, organize your information logically, and make it possible for


someone to see that there is ‘something big’ going to happen through that
project you are looking forward to fund.

4. Effective management of relationship with donors

To effectively manage relationship with donors and sponsors, you should ensure the
following are well managed:

Procedures: Your NGO should establish procedures of handling many of the
transactions in your organization.
Such procedures many include not limited to: procedure of managing
incomes, procedures of handling payments, procedures related to
employment, producers related to distribution of services to targeted
beneficiaries, procedures related to your NGO’s members and meetings.

Accountability: As an organization, your NGO is expected to provide
explanation to a number of its stakeholders.
It is important to know how your organization can balance the demands or
meet expectations of its stakeholders.
a) To the beneficiaries: Your NGO is responsible to make sure that it delivers
what it promises, and there is quality in its delivery.
Therefore you NGO is answerable to the beneficiaries, meaning that it has to
answer to such beneficiaries how it uses its resources to reach out to those
beneficiaries.
b) To the donors: Your NGO should show that it has met the expectation of
donors by being able to use the funds according to the agreement set.
The NGO meet the accountability to the donors through quality service
delivery and proper financial reporting.

Make, understand and follow terms of agreements with
donors/sponsors: Another way of making sponsors/donors happy is by
making sure you have official agreements or memorandum of understanding.
Your NGO should then make effort to understand and follow the terms of such
contracts/MOU.


Communicate effectively: Your NGO should maintain effective
communication, observing professionalism in all communication with donor
and understand any cultural differences that might exist between your NGO
and the partners.

Keep your NGO’s image high: Donors/sponsors like to be associated with
well performing partners. If your NGO performs well and keep its image high,
you are likely going to make your relationship with the donors strong.

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


SUSTAINABILITY CHECKLIST POINTS

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.

So, check the following: -

Do the key people (Members of management team, Founders) in the
organization understand the constitution?
Is the constitution up to date – does it consider the current needs of the
organization?
Is the constitution strategic wise, or merely a document purposely formulated
as a requirement for registration but nothing more?

Suggestion: Have a deep look into the constitution /Memorandum of Incorporation
in areas such as Management structure, Organization Objectives, Vision and
Mission, Financial Management and Winding up of the organization.

2. Financial records: Accounting has been described as the language of
business meaning that the accounting information stand as medium of
communication about events that are happening in an organization.

So, check the following:-

Does your organization produce documents to justify internal transactions
such as payment of wages, allowances, and contributions from members?


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.

3. Performance reports: Your organization has probably done a number of
projects.

So check the following:-

Do you have reports of how your organization performed in such projects?
Can you account for what happened on such reports?
Do you have a system or culture of preparing and keeping reports?
Are the results of the projects communicated to key stakeholders of the
project?

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.


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.

4. Contacts Management: Organizations are started and run by people, hence
contacts are important. How your organization manages its contacts is one of
the key strength or weaknesses to analyse.

So check the following:-

Do you have a proper record of contacts your organization has?
Is the record of your contacts complete?
How do you use the contacts record?

Suggestion: The contacts record can be in a form of spreadsheet where by names
of people, their titles and organizations are listed, or a business card holder.

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.

5. Marketing Communications and Public Relations: Some people think that
marketing and public relations is for business organizations only. However the
truth is NGOs that use marketing and public tools have seen great
achievements.


What Marketing strategies and techniques does you organization use?
Does your organization have a website or blog or Facebook page?
If yes, does your organization maximize the existence of the blog, website or
Facebook page? You may need to learn more techniques on this.
Do you have competent person(s) for marketing and public relations
management?
Do you have a budget for marketing and public relations?


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.

6. Management Structure: Management structure is about who is doing what
and reports to whom.
But for a successful and sustainable organization, management structure
should be viewed more than just description of duties and powers.


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?

Suggestion: Your organization should have a system of assessing performance of
its management structure through periodic reports of individuals involved and
through the annual reports by the board of directors. People should be given position
in the management and board of directors based on their skills and management
capabilities not otherwise. Your organization should maintain a management
structure which is as small as possible.


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?

8. Enterprising culture: An organization to survive, grow and be sustainable needs
to have initiative to generate its own income through using opportunities that exist.


Is there spirit of innovation and creativity in the organization?
What is the system of reward for creative or innovative attempts in the
organization?
What is the management style? Democratic, dictatorship centralized or
decentralized?


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.

9. Compliance: Your organization does not operate in Mars, it operates in the
world, specifically it is registered and operate somewhere where laws,
regulations and codes of conduct exist so as to monitor operations of the
NGOs.

It is better to follow the compliance requirements because without following them,
you may cause your organization to be in trouble with respective authorities, the
result of which may be fines, suspension or total ban of operations of your
organization.

To other stakeholders, the way your organization follows the compliance
requirements may indicate the level of professionalism and accountability within your
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


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.

10. Funding opportunities: As a non-profit organization, in many cases your
organization will need funds from external sources.

The ability of your organization to succeed in obtaining the funds depend on
many things including; compliance, credibility as far as your past projects are
concerned or strategic relationship management that your organization has
created, and your organization should meet specific requirements for funding
as stipulated by a donor.


Is your organization good at compliance?
Does your organization have good team of strategic thinkers and project
proposal writers or you may outsource the services?
Is your organization well informed about new funding opportunities?

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.

So, check the following:

Does your organization have strategic statements like Vision, Mission,
Strategies, and Objectives?
Are the strategic statements understood by key people in the organization?
Are the strategic statements put into operations or they are merely there as a
formality?
Is there a system of reviewing the strategic position of the organization?


Who is in charge of formulating and control the strategic plan of your
organization?

Suggestion: Get qualified people in your organization or outsource service of
experts to do strategic plan for your organization and make sure the key people and
members are educated about the strategic plan and they know their roles in the
strategic plan.

12. Client Knowledge: Fundamentally, NGOs exist to provide service to a certain
group of people.


Does your organization have any established justification as to why it provides
services it provides?
How are clients involved in the decision of what is to be provided by the
organization?
Is there any feedback system that helps the clients say honestly how they feel
about the services provided by the organization?
Is their client-provider relationship?

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.


Is there a procedure for founders and managers/staff to declare their conflicts
of interests?
Is there any procedure to identify areas of conflicts of interests?


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Gabriel Myungire is a freelance business and management consultant. He
also does training for small and medium enterprises and non-profit organizations.

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.

John has also worked for several organizations as management coach.

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.

John is the founded of two great sites: www.johnjohnie.com and www.unowbiz.com

Feel Free to contact him at: john.myungire@gmail.com Skype ID: john.myungire

His Linkedin profile is available at:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=154965474&trk=tab_pro

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