Views
Working with NGOs
From NGOPedia
- How NGOs differ from profit-based businesses
- Similarities between NGOs and SMEs
- Identifying ICT goals in the NGO environment
- Pitfalls to avoid
Worlds Apart
This article introduces the differences between non-profit organisations and commercial entities. The objective of this section is to help you better understand these similarities and differences with the goal of helping you to develop the right approach in working with them.
To begin with, NGOs do not view themselves as businesses. Philosophically, NGOs are established to meet social and economic needs and to fill the gaps in society by addressing the concerns of the disadvantaged. Some may argue that they have socio-economic agendas rather than strictly economic ones. Although this has changed somewhat in recent years, traditionally their objectives do not involve making a profit. Many well-meaning attempts have failed because commercial partners did not respect the philosophy of the NGO and/or its objectives and approach.
Over the years this difference in focus has made it difficult for business to understand and work with NGOs. Partnership between the two sectors appears to be at odds with their respective goals and roles.
The paradox of business/NGO partnership is that despite their differences, the two groups need each other and each other’s skills. There are real reasons for the groups to partner and support each other.
When a business partners with an NGO, the two groups need to acknowledge each other's differences and work with them. The challenge facing such partnerships does not lie in trying to resolve their differences but rather in how best to manage them and to learn from the experience.
The following table highlights some of the key defining differences between non-profit organisations and for-profit businesses. Most of these fall under the category of philosophical and economic/financial differences. We explore some of these differences below:
| Issue | Non-profit | For-Profit |
|---|---|---|
| Philosophy | Improving collective access to resources for living a good life | Successfully securing a reliable and purchasing market for products and services |
| Mission | Focused on solving complex social problems | Obliged to maximise financial return to shareholders |
| Financing/capital | Donations from foundations, corporations, individuals; some earned income in entrepreneurial organisations
Unable to issue debt or equity | Revenue from sale of products or services
Efficient capital markets allow issuance of debt or equity to raise capital |
| Size/scale | Mostly small (less than 50 people) nationally- and locally-based
Difficult to get to scale owing to lack of capital | Often larger, may operate nationally or internationally
Easier to get to scale and grow because easier to raise capital |
| Structure | Smaller size creates flatter organisational structure; few management layers | Larger size creates more complex structures, with multiple management layers, offices, etc |
| Organisation/HR | Salaries often lower and not tied to performance
Less investment in staff training and development | Salaries often higher and linked to performance
Staff development directly linked to bottom line |
| Governance | Multiple stakeholders (board, staff, funders, community) makes governance complex | Board has ultimate legal accountability and represents other stakeholders |
| Measurement/evaluation | Difficult to measure impact on complex social problems; multiple ‘bottom-lines’ | Company performance ultimately measured by profitability or ‘bottom-line’ |
| Power | Financial dependency on donors and general resource scarcity often creates lack of bargaining power | Financial independence (self-sufficient) and access to resources creates more powerful organisation |
| Customers/stakeholders | Primary customers are the constituents they serve and represent, but donors and funders, government, and the private sector can also be stakeholders | Primary customers are the purchasers and consumers of the products and services they sell |
In addition, given their working environment, non-profit organisations face challenges not always faced by their commercial counterparts such as
- Health and environmental concerns
- Political concerns
- Community involvement
However, many of the differences actually lie in approach and terminology. At the end of the day, tpeople work in both environments and there are structures and procedures to be followed in each of these environments. In order to work together, it is important to speak the same language.
Some of the key differences in terminology include the following:
| Commercial Entity | Non-profit |
|---|---|
| Investors | Donors/funders |
| Project planning | Logframe (Logical Framework) |
| Profit/loss | Surplus/deficit |
| Shareholders | Members |
| Results | Impact |
Similarities between NGOs and SMEs (not so apart)
Despite the differences highlighted above, small independent NGOs are widely seen to function in similar ways to small-medium enterprises (SMEs) and to have similar concerns and needs.
Organisational challenges:
| Organisational challenge | NGO | SME |
|---|---|---|
| Human resources hiring and retention employee development | ||
| Outdated and/or inappropriate IT and business systems/collaboration | ||
| Affordable solutions and support | ||
| IT skills and training | ||
| Budgeting/planning/cash flow | ||
| Financing/fundraising | ||
| Marketing with limited budgets | ||
| Growth and scalability |
Similarly, the issues and concerns of the local/regional offices of larger NGOs tend to mirror the challenges of medium-large size organisations and franchises.
One of the biggest challenges for these organisations is that the larger parent organisations expect the same resources and services in the local countries. These organisations are often hampered by higher technology usage expectations but with limited bandwidth, services, and expertise in the local markets.
The above-mentioned concerns and challenges include:
- Growth – creating an enabling environment for growth at both the individual and organisational level
- Productivity –increasing the efficacy of the work done by employees and doing more with less
- Environmental impact – ensuring that the work that is done has a positive (or not-negative) impact on the larger environment and surrounding communities
- Security – ensuring the protection and safety of employees working in communities
The similarities outlined above include challenges faced in the area of ICT functioning. Many of the ICT challenges in both sectors can be solved with the same solution sets.
Identifying ICT goals in the NGO environment
NGOs face a number of ICT constraints. The table below lists some of the most common challenges as well as some possible solutions:
| Objective | Description | Success Indicators |
| Increased productivity | Find creative ways to help NGOs to plan their ICT and overcome the fact that they have limited or no ICT support. Use of interns is a possibility. See Microsoft’s Student to Business programme as an example | Technology plan |
| NGOs generally have a geographical spread of offices and find it impossible to synchronise information due to lack of funding for servers, new computers and Internet access. Look at mobile solutions that could assist in crossing the divide | A common network connecting multiple sites. Minimised network downtime | |
| Look at ways to improve central data storage, automatic backup and restore as the core objective | ICT that “just works” | |
| An innovative solution like autonomic and remote maintenance is one way of helping NGOs with a very limited ICT budget for implementation, management and maintenance | Reduced costs and simplified manageability
ICT resources acquired | |
| Enabling technology training: | Shared learning and examples or case studies can be most helpful. If NGOs do not have the ability to absorb technology, solutions will not be sustainable, objectives will not be met and return business will be impossible | Community learning platform |
| It’s important to have several delivery channels, such as online and offline | Use applicable curricula to increase tech fluency | |
| Improving communication and collaboration | One of the major challenges NGOs face, is having unbroken communication channels with their staff and beneficiaries in the field. Mobile solutions exist and should be investigated | Strengthened communications |
| Many NGOs have a multitude of projects running with various objectives, timelines, budgets and role players. The pressure to deliver consistently and be able to report to funders in various formats is a key challenge | Streamlined team project management and collaboration tools and methodologies | |
| By and large many NGOs do not have an effective and maintained virtual presence. The do not have the resources and in many areas the connectivity to do so | Web-based presence | |
| Finding and organising critical information quickly | Many funders still require the infamous “Logical Framework” or logframe for reporting purposes. Look at working with both funders and NGOs to develop more user-friendly reporting solutions linked to operational projects and programmes | Manage funder or sponsor information |
| Improvements in streamlining financial processes, workflow functionality and customised reporting could allow NGOs to achieve more with the same resources | Effective financial management systems | |
| Many NGOs work with sensitive information, especially in the health sector. They need ways to protect sensitive and confidential information, reduce spam and junk mail, manage data access and address liability concerns like the loss of a laptop | IT security | |
| Many NGOs have fieldworkers travelling and working in remote areas without the resources to access their office virtually. Look at innovative, cost-saving solutions to this problem by using mobiles more effectively | Enable staff to work remotely in a secure way | |
| In many instances NGOs want software solutions customised for their use. They often end up using sub-standard, home-grown products that may cause loss of data and other problems. Off-the-shelf software often does not meet their needs or is too expensive | NGO specific software solutions | |
| Across many NGOs information is so scattered and fragmented that users find it impossible to get access to data. Data about beneficiaries, funders, government, company CSI projects etc are all examples of crucial information. ERM’s are often too expensive for NGO’s but a crucial link in their functioning | Database management |
For many organisations which are offering or would like to offer the NGO community technology assistance, dealing with NGO’s is either a new field or one in which they have little experience. This can deter some organisations from entering this market altogether.
Luckily, some research has already been done that can provide clues to service providers such as yourself to strategies that can be employed to help NGOs derive the best benefit from ICTs that they deploy. One such report is the World Economic Forum, IT Access for Everyone - Global Benchmarking Study. This study, which surveyed over 50 projects worldwide and was supported by Accenture, AMD, Cisco, Dell, Ingram Micro, Intel and others, learnt the following 9 lessons about offering ICT’s to the developing world:
- Focus relentlessly on end-user needs.
- Build a strong consortium that holistically incorporates each of the “must-have” elements (power, connectivity, hardware, software and applications, training and support, and cost structure and financing).
- Create a robust business model for each partner.
- Focus on niche markets.
- Capitalise on entrepreneurialism.
- Attack cost structure and financing from multiple angles.
- Focus on tackling a specific issue at the outset with a view to expanding scope once the program is up and running.
- Establish sufficient set-up funding and core investment relations to ensure pilot project will be fully funded.
Pitfalls to avoid
The main purpose of this document is to encourage productive engagements between commercial entities and non-profit organsations. We know that many of you have had previous engagements, some of which have failed. Why has this been the case? This section introduces some common pitfalls and potential solutions.
Note: Some of these have been adapted from an article published by NPower: Weathering IT Integration in the Nonprofit Sector.
Not respecting the culture and expertise
SmartTech wanted to understand what went wrong, so they went back to the local NGOs and started asking questions. They discovered the following:
- The location and hours of the job meant that two of the employees would miss transportation, and they couldn’t afford a taxi.
- Employees didn’t understand what was expected of them. The introductory paperwork given to them didn’t make sense.
- One of the employees didn’t understand the software.
Donations do not always mean for free
The staff at Compuskill quickly realised that most of the machines, although top-ofthe-range, where so outdated that the cost to upgrade and buy the necessary software to make this equipment useable, would be unaffordable.
The machines are currently standing in the passages gathering dust.
(In)appropriate use of technology – bells and whistles are often just that
Necessary support skills not available in organisation
Carefully assess the skill levels needed to support new technologies. Be very open and discuss this with the client in order to assist them in making realistic decisions.
The disconnect between the goals of a non-profit and the objectives of a commercial entity
He approached their Executive Director who was excited by their discussion and communicated the organisation’s need of a database to assist them in matching their customers with prospective employers.
DesignIT agreed to dedicate one programmer to the project. They shook hands, both excited to get started.
Three months later, nothing had been done. After an initial meeting between the programmer and Jobs 4U, the programmer had been unable to make it back to the NGO. He’d only been allocated one day a month for the project.
Things to do
Read up on programme areas
It is crucial to understand what the organisation is about. In the case of NGOs, this can initially seem like an overwhelming task and often requires a bit of time to get used to. A good way of getting started is to ask about their programme areas and the objectives of each, as this often gives an indication of their founding objectives, as well as what they receive funding for and need to.
Understand resource constraints and technology access
When analysing a small-to-medium business, it is often the case that the owners cannot fully define their needs in the language of the service provider. They know what it is that they want from the process but often cannot understand the limitations and opportunities inherent in specific technologies. This leaves them with expectations which may not be met. It is useful to take the time to go through a S.W.O.T. analysis with them as this can improve the chances of success.
Utilise their terminology
NGO terms such as “Monitoring and Evaluation”, “Development Indicators” and “Information Dissemination” , are often difficult to comprehend but almost always have a corresponding business term. Respect their knowledge and approach. Once understood, you can utilise these in engagements and will find that it opens up the NGO world to a large extent. It may even help you to identify further opportunities.
Set clear expectations
NGOs have had a remarkable impact in Africa with access to very limited resources. If you treat them as respected partners they will be more accepting of the limitations inherent tin the discounted or free services that you provide. This will ensure that the project will be constructive and realistic and not based on overly high expectations.
Build in a support plan
NGOs need after-sales support just like any other small-medium business. Your support plan should be reasonable and take into account the in-house skills. For example, some new remote- management technologies may make your plan more effective. The NGO’s skill in noting and communicating early warning signs should be improved. . The support plan must include regular follow-ups and not be based on crisis management. Another example of pro-active support would be to set up the right level of permissions for an organisation. . Discuss this with them from the outset and agree on the plan and the level of service that would form part of the package.
Follow up with them
As mentioned earlier, regular follow-ups are a way to ensure client satisfaction and to prevent system-downtime or malfunctions. Resourcefulness is a trademark of many small entrepreneurs and this applies to NGOs as well. If they have ICT problems and cannot access their service provider they will try and fix the problem or develop solutions themselves. Whilst they may be successful, this is a risk you need to be aware of when working with NGOs. Regular follow-ups can make a big difference and can also help you to stay current with new trends in the development world.
Help build their ICT skills
Working with NGOs implies building a new market. First engagements may be time-consuming, but a relationship can be built through trial and error. As NGOs become more aware of the vast opportunities imbedded in ICT usage through the acquisition of greater skills and confidence, new avenues for innovation and solutions will start to open up. ICT-skilled NGOs could have a greater impact in the development world as well as being a considerable market segment.
Contact NGOConnect Africa
As you work with non-profit organisations, some of you may find or develop a solution that could be made available or marketed to other non-profit organisations. NGOConnect Africa may help you get the word out or guide you on how (visit http://www.ngoconnectafrica.org).
References
- Microsoft Unlimited Potential Group http://www.microsoft.com/About/CorporateCitizenship/CommunityInvestment/NGO/en/us/ngoStories.mspx
- EReadiness:Self Assessment Tool for NGOs - You can find the complete document in PDF format in NGOConnect Africa Resource Centre: Link to ICT and e-Readiness Self Assessment Tool.
- Weathering IT Integration in the Nonprofit Sector.
- ITAFE Report: World Economic Forum, IT Access for Everyone - Global Benchmarking Study.
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