Tag Archives: NGOs

Professionalising aid work: the missing links

Posted in: Ethics in development, Humanitarian Relief & Post-Conflict, Research | April 29, 2013 at 8:00 am , by Brendan Rigby

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Two recent surveys shined the spotlight on the current state of professionalism in the aid and development world. Brendan discusses the findings and more broadly the current state of professional development for aid workers. The same issues plaguing development efforts also affect professional development. ...

Time to talk: The Practical Initiatives Network

Posted in: Alternatives in development | April 17, 2013 at 9:00 am , by Guest Author/s

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In the development sector, funding is hard to come by, making the cost of reinventing the wheel or repeating the mistakes of others particularly high. To counter this, Eleanor Paton and Alice Jowett introduce the Practical Initiatives Network (PIN), established to facilitate development organisations learning from each other....

Why your non-profit CEO needs to be the M&E officer

Posted in: Aid Effectiveness, M&E | April 11, 2013 at 9:00 am , by Emanuel Souvairan

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CEOs shouldn't just have a great smile, good business sense and a keen nose for fundraising; they need to be masters of monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Emanuel Souvairan of DevEd describes how M&E relates to NGO communications, donor relationships, and even organisational culture....

NGOs and INGOs can work well together by working intentionally

Posted in: Alternatives in development, Foreign Aid, Technology | March 4, 2013 at 3:30 pm , by Guest Author/s

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Participants in Dalia Association's Momentum for Philanthropy Competition.

There are often tensions between local and international NGOs. Using their online competition to celebrate Palestinian philanthropy as a case study, Nora Lester Murad of Dalia Association and Renee Black of PeaceGeeks reflect on how NGOs and INGOs can work well together....

Working Together to Create a Sustainable Future

Posted in: Community Development, Fundraising | December 20, 2012 at 7:00 am , by Rachel Kurzyp

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People & Planet is committed to helping its partner organisations create a more just and environmentally sustainable world. Rachel Kurzyp profiles three of these partner NGOs and how you too can support them during this holiday season....

Brand Aid Solutions: a response to ‘Stop branding aid’

Posted in: Aid Effectiveness, Alternatives in development, Ethics in development, Foreign Aid | December 5, 2012 at 7:00 am , by Jennifer Foth

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In a recent post on WhyDev, Josie Stewart provides a sharp critique of the branding practices of aid agencies such as USAID and DfiD. Here, Jennifer responds, arguing that we need to harness the potential of branding in creating awareness and demand, particularly for smaller, national NGOs....

Celebrating 200 posts: our favourite WhyDev posts of the past year

Posted in: Aid Effectiveness, Blogs | August 16, 2012 at 11:01 am , by Allison Smith

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Three months after the second birthday of the blog, the WhyDev team celebrates its 200th post by choosing a few of their favourite posts from the past year, covering everything from sustainable development to international volunteerism to disaster relief and more. What are your favourite WhyDev posts?...

Why competing over funding is killing development (and how we might improve)

Posted in: Alternatives in development, Ethics in development, Fundraising | July 12, 2012 at 10:00 pm , by Weh Yeoh

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Development, which should theoretically be full of people who value empathy and sharing, is a hyper-competitive sector. This attitude of competition is no more prevalent than in the sphere of fundraising. How do we make fundraising more collaborative, while still allowing everyone to achieve their targets? In this post, Weh...

Why donating to disaster relief is short-sighted with WhyDev’s Allison Smith | AidWorks

Posted in: AidWorks | July 3, 2012 at 10:00 pm , by Albion Harrison-Naish

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On June 6, the good folks at AidWorks had Allison on the show to talk about some of the problems associated with donating to disaster relief efforts, and what NGOs can do to address the problems. Do non-profits need to do better at clearly communicating with donors, particularly in the...

Don’t change the message. Change the messenger.

Posted in: Fundraising | May 16, 2012 at 10:00 pm , by Weh Yeoh

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Everything that we do in development is about selling a message. But how do we convince people when a message goes against the grain of what they already believe? As Weh Yeoh argues, framing the argument is important, but even more important is the person who is doing the framing....

CSR: Causing Some Reservations. A response to the Aid Blog Forum

Posted in: CSR | September 21, 2011 at 8:00 am , by Emily D'Ath

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This is a joint post in response to the first discussion for the 'The Aid Blog Forum'; an initiative started by J. at Tales from the Hood. The first topic is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Emily, Weh and Brendan present each of their responses to the guiding questions for this...

Career advice: If I had only known…

Posted in: Career Advice | May 20, 2011 at 5:00 pm , by Jennifer Lentfer

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Last month, Jennifer Lentfer, creator or how-matters.org, was invited to speak at her alma matter. In preparation, Jennifer jotted down some bits of advice for international development students and job seekers. Here’s a collection of those thoughts for people embarking on an aid career or any international do-gooder endeavor....

Career advice (from people smarter than me)

Posted in: Career Advice | January 13, 2011 at 8:39 pm , by Dave Algoso

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Ah, the New Year. A nice time to pause and reflect on life's path. If you're thinking about your career, here's a compilation of advice for young professionals and students in international aid/development. You'll notice some mixed messages: Networking! No, experience is more important that connections! Actually, you need a...