Characteristics of NGO

Characteristics of NGO

In this article we would explain some important Characteristics of NGO (Nonprofit organization) .NGO is basically a nonprofit organization, which is set up to achieve certain target in a selected area.

Important Characteristics of NGO

Some Important characteristics of Non Government organization or NGOs have been briefly explained below. Characteristics of Non Governmental Organization include Limited scale operations, nonprofit objective, introduction of best practices, changing the behavior of community, capacity and resources constraint etc.

1.   Limited Operations:

First important characteristic of NGO is its limited or small scale operations in a targeted area. NGO focuses on a particular area for intervention due to limited resources.  Thus NGO is not supposed to provide welfare to whole community or country; rather it operates in a specified or targeted area.

2.   Non Profit Objective:

Another important characteristic of NGO is its non profit objective.  NGO is not a commercial organization; rather it is social organization, which is set up to achieve some social cause. This is an important characteristic of NGO, which distinguish it from a commercial organization.

3.    Best Practice Introduction:

Another important characteristic of nonprofit organization is introduction of best practices to a community. NGO apply best practices to a specified or targeted area and then these best practices are suggested for replication in other areas. Thus it would be appropriate to say that NGO works on pilot projects.

4.   Change the Behavior:

Another key characteristic of NGO is to introduce the change behavior process in the society. The society may be following some harmful social practices due to old tradition or religious belief etc. NGO try to eliminate those practices from the community by changing the behavior of the community.

5.   Funding Sources:

Nonprofit organization sources of  funding includes donations from the general public , Government Grants and grants from international donor organization like United Nations. Funds arrangement is big challenge for the NGOs especially for new NGOs.

6.   Capacity & Resource Constraints:

Many NGOs have capacity & resource constraints to implement or execute large scale projects. Thus it is rightly said that NGO cannot bring a big social change to the society, rather it can only intervene in a particular area.

7.   Control Issues:

Another important characteristic of NGO is its poor internal and management controls. Many Non Governmental organizations have limited capacity and run by some social activists of the local community. Those individuals have limited knowledge about the control & organization structure.

List of important Characteristics of NGO

Some important characteristics of NGO are listed below;

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 limited capacity.

6.    NGOs are run by donations & Government Grants.