NGOs survival kit

www.johnjohnie.blogspot.com [NGO SURVIVAL KIT]

CHECKLIST
POINTS

John Gabriel
Freelance Strategic Management Consultant
www.johnjohnie.blogspot.com
www.johnjohnie.blogspot.com Page 0


INTRODUCTION
I believe that Non governmental Organizations (NGOs) are started with good intentions of
the founders; such good intentions could be as caring for the disabled, orphans or taking
care of community tasks such as environment protection.

Because of the good intentions that NGOs have, it is very sad to see some non profit
organizations suffer to death.

There are many reasons why non profit organizations suffer leaving them with no power to
fulfil the objectives for which they were established.

The aim of this eBook is not to highlight the reasons for the failure of the NGOs but rather, to
bring out some key areas that need to be taken into consideration so that NGOs do not get
into sufferings of financial nature, or management nature.

Hence this book is intended to strengthen the new and existing NGOs, and for those NGOs
which are dying slowly, they may learn something and get up from the situation they are in.

Who would want to see the NGOs die? Just remember that, NGOs provide employment, and
NGOs can establish social enterprises in this way they can even compete with for profit
organizations (businesses).

Emphasis I provide in this book is that while it may be easy to register an NGO, the running,
growth and sustainability of the NGO are really what matters.

The title says Survival kit, because the main target is to make sure that those NGOs which
are in trouble getting up, should know how they can be better.

However, it is my hope that if an organization follows the advice and recommendations on
the checklist provided in this book, that organization will not only survive, but will grow and
be sustainable.

So, enjoy your reading, remember the checklist is not ranked in order of importance, don’t
mind the sequence, and just get the knowledge behind the checklists.

Please if you find any mistakes or you want to comment or ask something for more
clarification, write to me at : john.myungire@gmail.com



CHECKLIST POINTS
You may assess the ability of your NGO by going through the following points which will help
you know better whether you are doing good or bad, whether you can survive and grow or
not:

1; Desire to read this book? Do you find this book too long and you want to skip reading it?

Advice: Please read this book to the end, you will not regret to do that.

2: Your organization’s Constitution/memorandum of Incorporation:

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 (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?

Advice: 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.

3. 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.



Advice: 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.

4. Performance reports: Your organization has probably done a number of projects. Even if
they are small to your understanding.

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?

Advice: 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.

5. 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 analyze

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?

Advice: 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.



6. 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. Of course your desire to get big donors may be met as your
organization’s image is improved and popularity is increased.

7. 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?

Advice: 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.



8. 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?

Advice:

9. 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?

Advice: 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.



10. 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?

Advice: 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.

Consider other standards set by other authorities like professional bodies..

11. 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?

Advice: Read careful the checklist on compliance, financial records and marketing above.



12. Strategic Thinking: Strategic thinking is about analyzing 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 analyzing your organization’s capabilities, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats. If you had read carefully this Survival kit and asked yourself the
questions posed in this document, I have good news for you- You have done a good job in
terms of Strategic Thinking.

Now you need 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?

Advice: 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.

13. 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 your clients; 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.



14. 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?

Advice:
It is very important that founders, management and staff know their responsibilities and
limitations towards achieving the objectives of the NGO.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION:
1) I encourage you to read the following comprehensive article on NGO management.
Find it on the internet:-

http://isgmit.org/projects-storage/NGOManagement/NGO_Management_Final.pdf

2) Keep on visiting our blog for updates and more resources for your organization and
its people:

Visit us at: www.johnjohnie.blogspot.com

And: www.facebook.com/pages/johnie-blog

Disclaimer: This document and any of the pages and Johnie Blog are not intended to provide
personalized management or business advice. They are merely outline of possible good
practices that organizations or individuals may follow. The author of this document and
owners of Johnie blog do not guarantee any positive result to any individual and
organization as a result of applying the guidelines and advice described in the document or
blog and therefore the reader take full own responsibility for any result from what he or she
does for following what is written here.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Gabriel Myungire is a freelance business and management consultant. He also does
training for small and medium business and non profit organizations. He can do for you the
following: - Business Planning, Strategic Planning, Prepare Code of Conduct, Marketing Plan,
Management structure, Website Layout Design and Content writing.

John can also provide training/coaching to staff on areas of Customer Care, Marketing Plan
and Corporate Strategy.

His qualifications? John holds Bachelor degree in Commerce and Management from the
University of Dar es salaam. He is a blogger and internet marketing personnel.

John is the founder of Johnie Blog-www.johnjohnie.blogspot.com

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

REFERENCES

Rieder.F (2011) CORPORATE STRATEGY-GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES FOR THE EXECUTIVE, EDGE
LEARNING MEDIA CC. CAPETOWN

Smit P.J etal (2007) MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES- A CONTEMPORARY EDITION FOR AFRICA
(4th edn) FORMSET, CAPE TOWN

ROBBINS.P.S (1998) ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR (8th edn) PRENTICE HALL, SIMON &
SCHUSTER COMPANY, USA.

http://isgmit.org/projects-storage/NGOManagement/NGO_Management_Final.pdf


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