Successful NGO Steps

Many new activists are ready to commit their lives to “the cause.” Some are even willing to die for it. Most of these enthusiastic newbies are nowhere to be found a few months later.

There’s no need to turn down the volume of your enthusiasm, but before starting your own NGO, consider joining one that does similar work for a while.

If starting your own NGO really is right for you, the experience of working for an established NGO will only strengthen your resolve and direct your passion.

Maybe you’ll find that NGOs are not your life calling after all. Better to learn that early on, before making a big commitment.

Becoming obsolete should be the fundamental goal of all NGOs. You must constantly strive to work yourself out of a job.

Becoming obsolete works on two levels. In terms of your personal involvement, you should build the NGO to the point where it can function independently of your leadership. The long term goal of your NGO should be to solve a problem and thereby become unnecessary.

Put Lao Tsu’s advice into practice and you’ll be able to help more people in more profound ways, and enjoy every minute of the experience. If you try to maintain control, dependencies will develop, and once dependencies start they are hard to stop.

Dependency can leave NGO volunteers feeling trapped and sometimes even leave negative impacts on the people you are trying so hard to help.

Set clear and achievable goals for yourself and the NGO.

“Ending world hunger” is a great goal and looks good on your NGO’s t-shirt, but it’s not a problem you can seriously hope to solve.

Finding a niche is good place to start. Positive change usually comes from picking something small, doing it well and following through. A good example of this attitude in action is the

A plan of action is your chance to make an NGO effective, address any potential negative impacts and make sure your NGO will attract donors and volunteers.

Make sure you are able to follow through with what you start. Think hard about your action plan. Hard work is important, but hard work without a good plan is a waste of time and money.

It’s never too early to make a website for your NGO. A good website helps you to spread the word, attract volunteers, secure funding and establish a professional appearance. An interactive website can also minimize your need for meetings and micro managing.

Attention spans on the web are very short. Be clear and concise.

Be sure to make an online profile for your NGO at Matador, where you can tap into a network of thousands of potential donors and volunteers.

Local knowledge is indispensable to every NGO. Even if you grew up in the city where you want to start an NGO, you still need to research and make contacts. Making solid local contacts and understanding the locals’ worldview is especially important if you want to work in a foreign culture.

Good use of local knowledge can really make an NGO effective. Without local knowledge, you may do more harm than good.

Money, when it does come, usually requires great amounts of paperwork and sometimes has strings attached. The quality of the work an NGO does and the amount of its funding are often inversely related. That is to say, the NGOs with less money do better work per hour and dollar spent. The crucial point is to to minimize your NGO’s need for money.

That said, money can be really helpful sometimes. Here’s how to get it. Filing for 501c (official non profit) status is a pain and involves costly lawyer fees. No need to waste your efforts there.

Get an established NGO to accept you under its umbrella. Tax deductible donations and grants will go to them, care of your NGO. Setting up this arrangement could be as easy as a 30 minute talk with your local peace center.

Make friends with people and organizations doing similar work so that you can learn from their successes and mistakes. Networking also helps you to know when to team up and when to divide your efforts for maximum effectiveness. The links below are good places to start networking:

how to start an ngo

The procedure is as follows:

You have to conduct meeting of the proposed NGO. In the meeting you have to
mention aim, objective, president, vice president, treasurer, advisor,
member etc. You have to pass the resolution of forming NGO and all member
must sign on it with date and proposed name of NGO

Therefter you have to go to Charity Commissioner/Asst charity commissioner's
office and buy the form (it cost 5 or 10 RS)

Thereafter according to the performa you have to complete following
documents:

1) power of attorney in the name of president/secretary
2) Consent letter of all members/trustees
3) Resolution
4) by laws of NGO as performa (Draft an MOA)
5) NOC from the premises owner of the address in which NGO to be registered
6) Declaration of all movable and immovable assets of NGO on 20 RS non
judicial stamp
7) other document as required

There after, you have to apply to the same office under Registration of
Societies Act 1860 and Public Trust Act of respective states (In Maharashtra
it is Bombay Public Trust Act 1950 /section 25 of the companies act .

You should get your registration certificate within 1 months of Society and
within 2 months of Trust and you will get registration number

if you want tax exemption, as soon as you get registration number, apply to
Income Tax department for tax exemption under section 80(G)

In case of Foreign Funding then one needs to Apply for FCRA

Once the procedures our completed then you need to take care of the
Other Important Departments Of the NGOs like

• Fundraising
• Marketing techniques
• Strategy Management
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Accounting guide

ngo definition

non-governmental organization

NGOs are generally defined as autonomous non-profit and non-party/politically unaffiliated organizations that advance a particular cause or set of causes in the public interest. The range of causes on which an NGO can focus is unlimited, but a cardinal principle is that NGOs operate in a manner consistent with the bye-laws or trust deed as the case may be, and objectives or causes for which they receive funds. For most NGOs, donations are a lifeline as they are independent organisations. Funding can come from the UN, Government organisations, private trusts and philanthropies, individual donations, religious institutions, and in many cases, other NGOs. NGOs can and do contribute to democracy through challenging governments and promoting social interests, but they themselves are not democratic institutions and generally have no democratic accountability. However, an NGO is only accountable to its particular funding organisations and members and has to abide by the monitoring standards set up these funding entities and ofcourse, the law of the land.

A non-governmental organization (NGO) is not part of a government and is therefore typically independent of governments. Although the definition can technically include for-profit corporations under certain circumstances, the term is generally restricted to social, cultural, legal, and environmental advocacy groups having goals that are primarily non-commercial. NGOs are usually non-profit organizations that gain at least a portion of their funding from private sources. They can however, and sometimes do, go in for commercial activities to raise resources and sustain themselves but the profits of these activities cannot he distributed to members as dividend and has instead to be retained in the organisations to further the interest and objects of the beneficiaries. Because the label "NGO" is considered too broad by some, as it might cover anything that is non-governmental, many NGOs now prefer the term private voluntary organization (PVO).

Though voluntary associations of citizens have existed throughout history, NGOs along the lines seen today, especially on the international level, have developed in the past two centuries. One of the first such organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, was founded in 1863. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is today the world's largest group of humanitarian NGO's.

The phrase non-governmental organization came into use with the establishment of the United Nations in 1945 with provisions in Article 71 of Chapter 10 of the United Nations Charter for a consultative role for organizations that neither are governments nor member states. The definition of international NGO (INGO) is first given in resolution 288 (X) of ECOSOC on February 27, 1950: it is defined as 'any international organisation that is not founded by an international treaty'. The vital role of NGOs and other "major groups" in sustainable development was recognized in Chapter 27 of Agenda 21, leading to revised arrangements for consultative relationship between the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.

Volunterism in India has a long history. During the freedom struggle, voluntarism in India received an impetus from the work of religious and social reformers and national leaders, notably Swami Dayananda, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi. International organizations also expanded to India. Several leading Indian industrialists such as Tatas, Birlas and Bajajs also started trusts and foundations and promoted voluntarism and this had gone a long way in spreading the movement in the country. The post-independence period saw further growth of voluntarism in many areas of development.

NGO Means

Meaning:

An organization that is not part of the local or state or federal government

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

NGO; nongovernmental organization

Hypernyms ("NGO" is a kind of...):

organisation; organization (a group of people who work together)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "NGO"):

AA; Alcoholics Anonymous (an international organization that provides a support group for persons trying to overcome alcoholism)

citizens committee; committee (a self-constituted organization to promote something)

Congress of Racial Equality; CORE (an organization founded by James Leonard Farmer in 1942 to work for racial equality)

denomination (a group of religious congregations having its own organization and a distinctive faith)

National Trust; NT (an organization concerned to preserve historic monuments and buildings and places of historical interest or natural beauty; founded in 1895 and supported by endowment and private subscription)

Umma Tameer-e-Nau; UTN (a nongovernmental organization of Pakistani scientists that has been a supporter of terrorism; has provided information about chemical and biological and nuclear warfare to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and the Taliban)

Salvation Army (a charitable and religious organization to evangelize and to care for the poor and homeless)

Red Cross (an international organization that cares for the sick or wounded or homeless in wartime)

foreign mission; mission; missionary post; missionary station (an organization of missionaries in a foreign land sent to carry on religious work)

NGO

DEFINITION OF NGOs

A non-governmental organization (NGO) is any non-profit, voluntary citizens' group which is organized on a local, national or international level. Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions, bring citizen concerns to Governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political particpation through provision of information. Some are organized around specific issues, such as human rights, environment or health. They provide analysis and expertise, serve as early warning mechanisms and help monitor and implement international agreements. Their relationship with offices and agencies of the United Nations system differs depending on their goals, their venue and the mandate of a particular institution.