NPL 273  Introduction to Nonprofit Leadership

Readings from The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, Robert Herman ed. (1994)

Ch. 5  “Internationalization and the Nonprofit Sector,” Anheier & Cunningham

 

NGOs (“Non-Governmental Organizations”) are nonprofit organizations that work across different political, economic, and cultural systems.

 

  1. The Rise of NGOs
    1. Two types:

                                                               i.      Humanitarian relief and private-development assistance

                                                             ii.      Interest associations

    1. Role of NGOs in modern world of international relations:

                                                               i.      Participated alongside governments in first human rights conferences

                                                             ii.      Organized to create a system of international contracts and agreements

                                                            iii.      Socialist countries tend to distrust NGOs (they are “meddling”)

    1. NGOs and development
    2. US Development Assistance and NGOs

                                                               i.      Fits pattern of “third-party government,” by which government delegates public tasks to private nonprofit organizations.

                                                             ii.      NGOs favored (given failure of public sector) for sustained development due to

1.      flexibility

2.      ability to reach grassroots

3.      low-cost, participatory management style

                                                            iii.      Empirical evidence suggests that the NGOs may not be any better at this than the national governments.

  1. International Philanthropy
    1. Foundation giving
    2. Individual giving
    3. International philanthropy in the United States (Japan as the case study)
  2. Management of NGOs
    1. Decentralized federated structure more successful than centralized or hierarchical federation
    2. Weaknesses:

                                                               i.      Lack of institutional planning

                                                             ii.      Management of fundraising

                                                            iii.      Financial planning

                                                           iv.      Management of human resources

                                                             v.      Headquarters/field staff relations

                                                           vi.      Project evaluation and information management

                                                          vii.      Administrative difficulties

                                                        viii.      Professionalization

 

MSU

© 2004 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised 5 July 2004