NGOs and Accountability: What it says in the Papers

Irish NGOs are clearly very aware of the challenges and opportunities for greater NGO Accountability. But a research sample suggests they have failed to harness the power of the media to educate the Irish public about the issue.

Why NOT to use overhead ratios as a way to compare NGOs

We would like everybody to support high quality NGOs. And that is why we are promoting standards of Quality in the Development NGO world. But we keep coming up against the fact that most ordinary people think that the easiest way to judge the quality of an NGO is the amount it spends on administration and overheads. In this blog post, we list a few reasons why that is NOT a good idea.

Charities and Financial Transparency

A short note on the importance of transparency and clarity when it comes to aid data – for Governments as well as for NGOs.

Reviewing Ireland’s development policy – the major issues

The review of the Government White Paper on Irish Aid is getting into full swing. Irish Aid has recently added some information on the review to its website and they also plan to publish a Review discussion document by December.

NGO overhead costs

We encourage anyone to ask critical questions of NGOs. Just make sure your questions focus on the quality of the work of the organisation – The ever-popular measure of the level of overheads is about the worst place to start. This article attempts to show why.

Discuss: What makes a good NGO?

An invitation to debate: What are the key characteristics of “an effective Development NGO”?
Please comment.

An Ode to Effective NGOs

NGOs represent People Power. And if harnessed well, that is an awesome force of change. This blog post contains some musings about what that means for NGOs, and how they can aspire to get even better at what they do.

New tools to improve NGO accountability

Dóchas has launched some tools and templates for NGO financial reporting. We are looking for feed-back on those documents.

The NGO of the Future?

This blog aims to promote discussion among Irish Development NGOs, as they continue to articulate their views of Development Effectiveness and quality standards for their work. It argues that NGOs need to go beyond statements of Principles, and reconsider their fundamental role: The NGO of the future is not an implementor, but a networker.