Thinking of starting an NGO? Advice from NGO executives

The number of nongovernmental organizations has grown exponentially over the years. But as new NGOs are being set up, often at the onset of a humanitarian emergency, existing ones are closing down. Kenya, for instance, deregistered more than 500 development organizations last December after failing to submit their financial reports. The same month, Invisible Children, the group behind the contentious Kony 2012 video campaign, announced it is folding up. A few months prior, two Irish agricultural development organizations finalized a merger to leverage each other’s strengths and efficiencies. These examples show how starting an NGO needs more than just an idea and goodwill. There is paperwork that needs to be taken care of, as it is vital in mobilizing funds and claiming tax exemptions. There are laws that need to be learned and be familiar with, especially if you will be setting up and NGO in a country with strict rules and procedures for charities. Beyond logistics, you also need to consider what development challenge you really want to address. You need to be able to define your mission and find your niche, generate funding to fuel your operations, and employ the right set of people to get your organization up and running. And while it’s true that there are huge development gaps that need to be filled, requiring more ideas, help and people with vision, the industry could also do away with mediocrity, as Ubuntu Education Fund Co-founder Jacob Lief put it. Lief, along with Kshama Metre, founder and national director of of the Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development, a nonprofit focused on supporting rural development programs in India, and Matthew Forti, managing director of One Acre Fund, knew better than anyone what it’s like to start an NGO, having experienced it themselves. And contrary to popular assumptions, money is not everything. You don’t need a funding director — not yet In setting up an organization, one of the first things most individuals think about is how they can mobilize resources to succeed and of the first things they do is to hire fundraising managers. But while money is crucial, hiring a fundraiser is one of the biggest mistakes people do, according to Lief. “The founder is the fundraiser,” he said. “No one wants to meet with anyone but your founder.” It is difficult to get a donor to invest in an organization with no name recall and no track record. That’s why meeting with potential investors — and in the process building relationships with them — is crucial. In Ubuntu’s early years, Lief recalled that he was everywhere, speaking to everybody about his vision. “In the beginning, it was just hustle, hustle, hustle. I was everywhere, you name it. You would invite me to the Philippines, I would be there,” he said. Keep your friends close: They’ll be the first ones to run with your idea In 2005, Andrew Youn, CEO of One Acre Fund, had a grand vision and business plan to help farmers in rural Kenya to feed their families and increase their incomes: provide them access to better agricultural tools and services. But the young entrepreneur is faced with a dilemma. He did not have enough capital to move his idea beyond the pilot phase, and as he’s still in school, he didn’t have a stable source of income. Lucky for him, he found friends who were willing to volunteer their time to help raise funding for One Acre Fund and do the back-end work, from setting up its website and carrying out the marketing to doing the organization’s accounts to complete its registration as a nonprofit. One of them, who he approached over lunch, would become his board chair and eventually, his managing director. “I didn’t really know anything about Africa or agriculture, but for me it was more about helping a friend that I believed in,” Forti told Devex. Stop doubting yourself, and accept that challenges are part and parcel When Ubuntu finally gained traction in South Africa, Lief remembered someone at university telling him: I never thought you’d do it. “What struck me to my core was: I never thought I wouldn’t do it. It never once crossed my mind that I wouldn’t get this thing off the ground,” he said. But he did admit to thinking several times about how insane his idea was. For someone who grew up in the United States, setting up an organization halfway around the world may seem too daunting. It didn’t help that people around him had nothing but doubts. “The most difficult part is people doubting you. Everyone sort of thinks that’s not going to work. [And it will make] you feel like you’re going to fail,” he said. Overcoming these hurdles, however, often leads to more speed bumps. The key is learning to accept that these challenges are an integral component of running an organization, especially one that’s just starting out. On its second year, One Acre Fund faced what Forti described as “an extenuating circumstance”: a partial drought took place in Kenya that affected farmers’ yield. “Our model really depends on adequate rainfall for the crops to grow because we do not work in areas with irrigation. So that was a very discouraging season for us,” he said. “We had done everything correctly, but because of the drought, the farmers were not very successful.” But instead of giving up, the team thought it through and, after a few years, introduced crop insurance that would pay farmers out in the event of crop loss. “When you are working anywhere, there will always be certain things that won’t happen the way we like it. So we should do what we can do to change what we can change to make it better, and leave the rest,” Metre said. “Life is a chain of challenges. You don’t have to buy them, they will come.” Show people you care When Metre started CORD in 2003, her main problem was that she did not have professional staff — only semi-literate village women who not only need training but also face opposition from their husbands and neighbors. “They would say, ‘Where are you going? What are you doing? Women don’t go around,’” she said. A team of professionals eventually came, and with it, a new problem: convincing these professionals to stay. “Most professionals who are very well-qualified would rather work as consultants [in nice urban places where all facilities are available] rather than being in the field and working with the people,” Metre said. “It’s not easy to live in rural, remote India.” One Acre Fund, whose operations is also largely in the field, had a similar experience, struggling to find good local leaders with basic skills training. Their experiences aren’t unique, and often exacerbated by the fact that they are unable to offer competitive compensation packages, not even prestige because, as startups, they aren’t considered an institution in the field. How then do you attract — and retain — talent? Lief’s advice to a young Egyptian man who is starting out an organization in the Bronx: show people you care. “I’m telling him, it’s OK you’re not currently offering these health benefits, but make it part of your vision. It’s key to how you retain talent,” he said. “People want to be cared about. It’s human nature. They want to know there’s a place for them in this company, that the company is thinking about them.” “What struck me to my core was: I never thought I wouldn’t do it. It never once crossed my mind that I wouldn’t get this thing off the ground.” --— Jacob Lief, co-founder of Ubuntu Education Fund In getting people’s trust, patience is a virtue When CORD was still part of the Chinmaya Tapovan Trust, Metre would go to remote villages in Hichamal Pradesh, and people would stare and question her presence. “The people wouldn’t believe I was a doctor, because a doctor never goes down into these remote areas. They wonder how [a doctor could come] to them when they travel — walk — miles to reach [one],” she said. But because of her persistence and consistency — she would visit them in their homes, deliver their babies — people gradually warmed up to her. This is true for Youn, who Forti said moved to rural Kenya and lived in the community where One Acre Fund started to work, and took the time to meet with village leaders to explain why he was there and what he is trying to achieve. “Most leaders of NGOs would not do that. The work would be in the rural area and they would live in the capital. So I think the fact that we were committed to having our staff, including our CEO, live in the rural communities where we are working. I think that made a big difference,” he said. Ultimately though, the biggest attraction is still proof that your model works. “The first group of farmers that took a leap, if they see really good results, then a lot of it becomes organic. Their neighbors would see that their maize yields are growing much taller, and their neighbors would ask, ‘How did they do that?’” Forti said. “The farmers themselves became our sales agents so to speak, and they were the ones who were able to recruit more farmers into our program.” Variety is the spice of life Given their experience and knowledge in the field, development professionals can be an asset to a startup. But they don’t need to comprise the entirety of your staff. You may find a good accountant, for instance, with no experience in development or a skilled marketing and communications professional from an advertising firm. “Have people who have good connections to help you build and gather support in terms of money [as well as help you with effective decision-making],” Metre said, adding, “If they are loyal also, then well and good.” Lief meanwhile said that while in the beginning he preferred people who would be his “cheerleaders and ambassadors,” today, “more than anything,” he wants people who would challenge his decisions. “Respect me as a CEO, but be prepared to ask and challenge me why I’m making the decisions I do,” he said. So should you set up your own NGO? Forti and Lief agree that there’s no such a thing as an oversupply of NGOs, but they have differing opinions on whether an individual should go ahead and start his or her own NGO. It would be best to do your own research first and see how novel your idea is and if you are really addressing a gap rather than duplicating efforts, Forti argued. “I think a lot of people sort of find the idea of starting a new organization to be very exciting. And obviously it is. But I really advise people, before you start something, really do a pretty thorough scan of what already exists out there. And really confirm that what you’re proposing is truly an innovation and that has high probability of working,” the One Acre Fund’s managing director said. “Because if you’re out there kind of researching what already exists, in the area where you are looking to launch your nonprofit, 9 out of 10 times you probably will find that there’s someone already doing this, or it’s been tried and it hasn’t worked.” While Lief agrees that research is needed, he also pointed out that there are a lot of “mediocre” NGOs out there that measure success based on output and not on impact. “I get it, because I could have joined another organization, but I saw a need and no one wanted to do what I wanted to do,” he said. Check out more insights and analysis for global development leaders like you, and sign up as an Executive Member to receive the information you need for your organization to thrive.