Internal Technical Up-Gradation of NGOs - Essay Example

Internal technical up-gradation of NGOs Contents Introduction 3 Detailed Study with examples 4 Pros and Cons of the topic 8 Conclusion 9 ReferenceList 11 Introduction NGOs are diverse group of organizations that are engaged in a broad range of activities. There are almost 25000 organizations that qualify as NGO (Lewis, 2003). Few NGOs affects a small region of the world while there are others which are spread across a number of continents. NGOs are funded by foundations, governments or private persons. Again there are NGOs which are run by volunteers. Several NGOs are registered for the purpose of tax exemption on the basis of recognition for social works while some have charitable status (Lindenberg and Bryant, 2001). In short, NGOs are value based organizations whose sole motivation is the desire for a better world for the disadvantaged and the poor. With the rise in competition and the increase in expectation of the donors it is important for these organizations to develop the inner efficiencies successfully (Aall, 2000 The paper presents a deep insight of the need for internal competencies in NGOs. With the increase in competition and pressure from donors, it is vital for the emerging NGOs to upgrade the internal technical competencies (Princen, et al., 2004). NGOs in general lacked a sound management team and professional strategic plans. The non-profit organizations need to respond to the changes, introduce new management structures, adapt to fresh communication and information technology and decentralize authority and responsibility. It is essential for the NGOs to evolve different enterprise structure that are designed to cope with fresh challenges in development. The management of NGOs is an emerging topic as the number of these enterprises is growing and their profile is increasing all over the world. Detailed Study with examples There is an increased need for NGOs to utilize a number of PR (Public Relation) or marketing strategies framed by the management to attract the social attention, financial assistance and funds towards an organization (Ramanath, 2008). Therefore each organization needs to hire new breed of managers who are familiar with the public management approaches and various project management tools. These organizations can succeed if they efficiently maximize the professionalism, marketing, relationship management as well as healthy relations with the government and strategic alliances with the business. Proper marketing helps to attract capital and human resources (Smillie and Hailey, 2001). Therefore, efficient team of educated mangers is necessary for the modern NGOs to prosper and be competent enough to deal with all aspects of running an organization. In the past, the number of NGOs was very small and there was downfall of several of these organizations because of the incompetency’s present in the team of management (Jordan and Van Tuijl, 2006). The NGOS were run without any effort of the managers towards promoting the enterprise and keeping healthy terms with the government and the donors. The lack of corporate governance leads to the non availability of funds from various sources to the organizations. The rise in the number of NGOS today is followed by increased need of mangers that are capable to handle the organization in the most proficient manner (Teegen, Doh and Vachani, 2004). The trends of modernized NGOS already exist. The extension of BAIF has recently taken place through devolution of power to various entities and administrative decentralization (Princen, et al., 2004). BRAC on the other hand has increasingly started to integrate in their organization sophisticated income generating operations such as the publishing, agro processing, internet services and printing. There are a number of NGOs who stressed on the importance of increased investment in the organizational staffing, learning as well as development to create more creative, flexible, inclusive and effective organizations (Abdel-Kader and Wadongo, 2011). There are several NGOs in the Asian country such as Bangladesh that focuses on proper management and service delivery to the donors as these aspects are important for the growth and survival of the NG O (Heap, 2000). These NGOs realized that PR plays a vital role in the growth and development of the business. Besides that, the management team of the NGOs in Bangladesh carries out campaigns that can attract the attention of the donors and the government towards the NGO and help to open sources of funds for the welfare of the people supported by the organizations (Princen, et al., 2004). Care International is an example of a large NGO that is deeply committed towards fighting for poverty (Hailey, 2000). This NGO takes special interest for empowering the poor women so that they can support the entire community to escape from poverty. The managers of Care are selected after proper identification of their skills, capacities, experience and knowledge. The management team of the organization believes in the up teem satisfaction of the stakeholders who are affected by the business. Extensive campaigning and marketing is carried out by the marketing department with the sole motive of attracting more investors towards the organization. The medium of marketing chosen by the nonprofit organization is newspapers, brochures, advertisements, websites and television. Among all the mediums web advertising is the most used source by the organization. Care gets support from the retail stores such as Goodwill and Oxfam who sells their T-shirts and other items at subsidized rate by the mode of internet and shops. Most of the fund collected through selling various items present in the store is donated to Care. The PR team and marketing managers of Care therefore keep contact with several sources from which they can gather funds for continuing their work of charity (Hailey, 2000). Besides that, fund raising through several events from eminent personalities are also carried out by Care. The mangers of Care are equally familiar with the project management tools such as log frames, Gantt chart which fulfills their planning needs. The log frame is utilized by the educated mangers of the NGO for prolonged humanitarian operations and timely review of the same (Wallace, Bornstein and Chapman, 2007). Gantt chart enables the mangers of Care to evaluate the activities carried out by the NGO against the time (Wallace, Bornstein and Chapman, 2007). The constant reviewing of the performance through the project management tools supports the entire activities of the NGO. The PR team and the marketing managers’ work in association with each other to establish healthy contacts with the government. Therefore, Care understood the need for having an efficient managerial team from the perspective of the changing needs of the modern day NGOs and implemented the same within the organization unlike many of its competitors. The organization therefore hires professional every year whose talent are fully utilized. Effective governance, leadership and strategic planning by the managers of Care have resulted in the increase in performance by the NGO (Lane and Morrison, 2006). The NGO gets substantial amount of government support for the healthy performance since the last few years. Care can therefore be cited as an example of a NGO which became successful due to the extreme internal competencies. Cure Violence is a NGO which promotes anti violence by the usage of outreach workers who interrupts in the potentially violent situations. The NGO is run by a group of efficient management who is technically knowledgeable and are the most proficient in handling the NGO. The organization was started initially with little funds but gradually it turned out to be a huge success. The organization managed to sustain and gain support from the government because of the unconventional issue taken by the management with the sole purpose of eliminating it. The management of Cure Violence supported the fact that effective management and marketing activities can attract more donations in huge quantities (Pacquiao, 2007). The non- profit organization grew drastically as the mangers were involved in the constant analysis of the performance of the organization. They brought in the most effective strategies into the business with the help of the PR and the marketing team. The workers were equally motivated by the mangers to revol6t against the violence. The company carried out extensive web advertisements to make the public aware of the organization. The activity selected by the NGO for prevention was supported by the government equally (Hassin, 2009). Therefore, the right usage of the technical competency in the business resulted in the increased sustenance and growth of various non-profit organizations. The mangers that are outstanding in handling the business through proper usage of logic at the right time and in the right place can definitely bring in more efficiency into a business. As there is a rise in the number of NGOs all over the world, it is important t for NGOs to incorporate competitive advantages within the business. The advantages can be derived from the selection of brilliant set of mangers that have all the management skills and are appropriate to be a part of the board member of a non-profit organization. Pros and Cons of the topic The advantages associated with the up gradation of the internal competencies are therefore immense. Proper modification and up gradation of the competencies present in a NGO is urgently needed for a number of non profit making enterprises functioning in different parts of the world. The new breed of managers in the board room is essential as they have the required qualities to develop strategies that can help a NGO to sustain in the market (Malunga, 2009). With the rising competition among the NGOs, it is vital for the mangers associated with a particular NGO to bring in maximum professionalism within their activities. Fund raising activities for organizations is extremely difficult a task. It has turned out to be more complex due to the rising number of NGOs carrying out a similar type of charity work. Therefore, it creates hazards for the donors like the common people and government to decide the organization where they want to invest. Therefore creation of goodwill by the strategic efforts of the management is also necessary for the NGOs to sustain in the market (Lewis, 2006). There are several NGOs who misused the funds received by the stakeholders which de-motivated the stakeholders from investing in these organizations. Effective marketing about the company and the cause for raising funds through charity is necessary for the nonprofit organizations to disclose successfully to the public by way of various marketing media. The role of educated mangers comes into the fore-front more at the time of marketing about the charitable activities carried on by a particular organization and utilization of various tools to understand the performance of the NGO. The non-profit organizations with a team of knowledgeable management can carry on effective collaboration with the government. NGOs that are supported by the government financially are able to sustain in the long run more easily unlike the ones which fails to get adequate support. Nevertheless, there are more advantages lying ahead of the NGOs that have a robust team of management to support their charitable activities in an organized and strategically manner. The organizations that have a centralized team of management consisting of marketing skills and have knowledge of the various tools for analyzing the market can control the operations of the NGO in a more suitable manner. The disadvantages of internal technical competencies present in a NGO are that the excessive involvement of the management who are not loyal to the enterprise might lead to the misuse of funds and downfall of the charitable organization drastically (OCass and Ngo, 2007). Conclusion Through the analysis of the entire paper it can be concluded that NGOs with strong internal technical competencies has greater probabilities of success. With the changes in the market scenario and modernization, it is vital for the NGOs to constantly increase the technical competencies through the recruitment of mangers that are knowledgeable and proficient enough to run a business successfully. The managers who can productively build healthy and professional relationship with the contributors of funds like the common man and the government can increase the capability of the business to greater heights. The control of the business becomes easier for the managers if they proficiently promote the activity of the NGO to which they are involved through timely advertisements that has the capability to draw the attention of a large number of donors at the same time. It is a known fact that marketing has the ability to attract huge masses towards a NGO at the same time. An effective managerial team can establish good marketing strategies more than any normal staffs that were recruited by the existing NGOs which resulted in their downfall. Large amount of donations can be attracted by way of adequate dissemination of information about the charitable activity to which the organization is attached to. The managers who have knowledge about the various project management tools like the Gantt chart and log frames can better understand the condition of a variety of business activities. They can logically bring in the changes in the business which is most suitable for their respective NGOs. At present, there are a number of NGOs which are involved in similar kind of charitable work which augments the need for the best mangers for handling the business and bringing in the required funds. Thus, NGOs should get on with upgrading their internal technical competencies urgently to match the increased competition affecting the market. Reference List Aall, P., 2000. NGOs, conflict management and peacekeeping.International Peacekeeping, 7(1), pp. 121-141. Abdel-Kader, M. G. and Wadongo, B., 2011. Performance management in NGOs: Evidence from Kenya, pp. 204. Hailey, J., 2000. Indicators of identity: NGOs and the strategic imperative of assessing core values. Development in Practice, 10(3-4), pp. 402-407. Hassin, A., 2009.The link between operations strategy and human resource management for NGOs working in unstable environments. Journal of Business Systems, Governance and Ethics, 4(3), pp. 43-49. Heap, S., 2000. NGOs engaging with business: A world of difference and a difference to the world. Oxford: Intrac. Jordan, L. and Van Tuijl, P., 2006. NGO accountability: Politics, principles and innovations. London: Routledge. Lane, M. B. and Morrison, T. H., 2006. Public interest or private agenda: A meditation on the role of NGOs in environmental policy and management in Australia. Journal of rural studies, 22(2), pp. 232-242. Lewis, D., 2003. Theorizing the organization and management of non-governmental development organizations: Towards a composite approach.Public Management Review, 5(3), pp. 325-344. 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