Characteristics of Non Governmental Organization

Characteristics of Non Governmental Organization

Some Important characteristics of Non Governmental organizations or NGOs have been explained in this article. Characteristics of Non Governmental Organization includes limited operations, non profit objectives, best practice introduction, change behavior, donation & Grant etc. Nonprofit organization objective is set up to achieve certain targets in a selected area.

1.   Limited Operations

First characteristic of non Governmental or nonprofit organization is its limited target area. NGO works in a limited area for improvement (This is known as intervention). It is very logical because, nonprofit organization has limited resources for its operations.

2.   Non Profit Objective

Second important characteristic of non Governmental organization is its nonprofit objective.  Both NGOs and public sector organizations work for the social welfare or uplift of the community.  It means both NGOs and public sector organization have same objective i.e. social welfare.

3.    Best Practice Introduction

Another important characteristic of non Governmental organization is introduction of best practices to a community. NGO apply these best practices in an area and then suggest government to replicate those best practices in other areas. This is more kind of case study or research work by a NGO.

4.   Change the Behavior

Another key characteristic of Non profit organization is to initiate the change behavior process in the society. The society may be following some harmful social practices due to old traditions or religious belief etc. NGO try to change these practices to bring long term and sustainable change in the society.

5.   Donations & Grants

Nonprofit organization mostly arranges funds from donations from the general public , Government grants and international donor organization like United Nations. resource constraint is main reason for limited operations of non profit organizations.

6.   Capacity Issues

Many Non governmental organizations have limited capacity to bring the change in the society. Non Government organization faces severe financial and capacity constraints especially in the developing countries. Capacity and resource constraints is a key characteristics of NGO sector.

7.   Control Issues

Another important characteristic of nongovernmental organization is poor financial and operational controls within Non government organizations (Especially in case of community based organization). These organizations are run by local persons, who have limited knowledge about the financial and operational controls.

List of important Characteristics of NGO

1.    NGO has limited operations.

2.    NGO are nonprofit organization.

3.    NGO introduces best practice to community.

4.    NGO try to change the behavior of the community.

5.    NGOs have capacity issues.

6.    NGOs are run by donations & Government Grants.