Large charities and NGOs use specialist fundraising software to keep information on large numbers of individual donors. However, if you are a small or medium-size NGO with limited numbers of supporters and contacts, you can still manage these using basic Excel spreadsheets. In the UK, there is now a legal requirement to ask donors if… [Read More]
What is the best way to raise unrestricted income for staff and overheads?
The issue of raising money to support operating costs and staffing has always been challenging for NGOs. If you are applying for funding to a grant-maker, it is important to not under-estimate the hidden costs which should also be included in the budget. For example, rent, rates, IT, utilities, support staff etc. For staff whose… [Read More]
I am a new Executive Director in an established NGO but changes are needed internally to improve upon old, out-dated practices and staff who are reluctant to change their behaviour and attitudes. What is the best way to handle this situation?
Change management is a difficult aspect of a Director’s job and needs to be handled with sensitivity, especially if you are to take your staff with you rather than create upset and discord. Overall, most people do not like change. They feel threatened by it and often can feel unsettled and insecure because they are… [Read More]
What are the best practices when applying for a USAID funding opportunity?
Here are some of the considerations and tips for preparing your application for USAID funding, or in USAID terms, preparing for a solicitation: First of all, go through the solicitation in-depth and detail: Make sure you go read the solicitation in-depth and detail and make notes of the important points. Some points to be understood… [Read More]
How to apply for USAID funding? Or in USAID terms- ‘What process does responding to a solicitation involve?’
USAID encourages a large number of applications and competition to ensure high-quality proposals and solutions. To this end, USAID issues solicitations and asks the organizations to respond to them. After this, the organizations whose response best meets the evaluation criteria outlined in the particular solicitation, get selected. However, this is not the end of the… [Read More]
Can you explain the Indian Companies Act 2013 in relation to CSR?
Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is a mandate that has been introduced in the rules of the Government of India’s Companies Act,differently-abled 2013 under Section 135 in the year 2014. It mandates the companies that have an annual turnover of 1000 crores or more or a net worth of 500 crores or more or a… [Read More]
What is a Co-operative and what are its Salient Features? What are the types of Co-operative?
What is a Co-operative? According to the International Co-operative Alliance, cooperative has been defined as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. Salient Features are as follows: The membership to any co-operative is voluntary and a person is… [Read More]
How NGOs can write a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for their projects?
A Standing Operating Procedure (SOP) can be defined as a document providing an approach describing all the required activities that are essential to complete a task in accordance with the regulatory aspects, in a standard way or according to the operations of the organization that all the employees shall comply and work. SOPs are effective… [Read More]
What is a Value Chain Analysis? What is the Process of implementing it?
Meaning of Value Chain A value chain is used to describe all the activities it takes to create a product, from start to finish (raw material to finished product) for example, design, production, distribution, etc. Meaning of Value Chain Analysis Value chain analysis is the way for business to analyze the activities they perform to… [Read More]
What is Project Management?
Project Management can be defined as the discipline of applying specific process to initiate, plan, execute to manage a certain project. Key components of project management are: Time – the intended duration of the work Cost – the budget allocated for the work Scope – what innovations or changes will be delivered by the project Quality – the standard… [Read More]
