Issues in capacity building: There are nevertheless some challenges that capacity build-ing face as far its further growth is concerned. First of all there has not been a thorough evaluation of the service quali-ty of capacity building organisations.
Good capacity build-ing needs to draw from current management approaches, and it needs to reflect the changing nature of the environment at large. Technical assistance is also poor in quality. Second, Non-profits and communities need stronger ties.
As discussed before, a relationship built on trust and involvement leads to better communication and sustainable development. The lack of education required to learn state of the art technical practices could be a third reason.
The current health of the economy means that non-profits simply cannot compete in offering salaries that will attract the best people. This situation, combined with the lack of education and training opportunities for those who want to pursue careers in the non-profit sector, may produce the service quality problems noted earlier. There also is potential for overlap and duplication of learning, which will be increasingly like-ly.
Finally, more infrastructure is needed to support capacity building in philanthropy - to educate funders, non-profits, and communities; to replicate good strategies; to promote sharing of good practices; and to enhance the impor-tance of the relationship between capacity building and phi-lanthropy.
ASSESSMENT OF INITIATIVES: Due to the diversity in the non-profit sector, the needs and ability of non-profit organisations to build future capacity will vary widely from one organisation to the other. So the question arises, is capacity building supply driven or demand driven? When a civil society is mature and self-sufficient, such as those in the North, the need is demand driven and more specific as opposed to the South where it is supply driven due to NGO sector infancy.
Because developing country NGOs are struggling to survive and impact, they have a greater degree of dependence, much to learn and there is always room for improvement.
Determining an organisations capacity-building needs is not a simple process, in part, because no one has established what characteristics actually make an effective organisation. Factors considered important in assessing the capacity and needs of an organisation in a majority of data include a vision or mission, good leadership, a foundation of trust, well defined responsibilities, appropriate levels of technical support, effective needs assessment, effective communication and of course, resources.
Vision and mission are directly related to the leadership capacity of the organisation which in turn affects all other components. Most literature on capacity building stresses the need for a successful organisation or indeed any organisation to first and foremost have a clear mission statement that provides direction and a long term focus to all the people, activities and operations within.
It is against that vision that the NPOs performance must be measured. A reevaluation or dedication to the organisation's vision and mission are important first steps in answering the question, "Build capacity for what?"
Leaders then are the conductors of this process of ensuring that the objectives are being met and the right val-ues are being instilled. Leaders motivate and inspire others, create action and direct all the efforts of those involved. So leadership is closely tied to vision and mission and is required at every level of the organisation.
Especially in the NGO sector, where leaders can stem out of volunteers, pro-fessional staff, board members or other any other source, some prominent charismatic personality needs to maintain a balance between communication amongst everyone and direction with extraordinary co-ordination skills. The competence of this leader will have consequent effects on all other facets of the organisation.
In short, the organisation's leadership provides direction for selecting among the con-straints and options posed by both the internal and external environments.
Resources can be most importantly, financial as they affect the recruitment of all other resources, human, or physical. But what's important after acquiring them is mak-ing sure they are put to good use. One way to do that is to constantly monitor, upgrade and evaluate these resources which are now being aided heavily by technological enhancements that allow faster, more efficient dissemination of activity.
Internal management especially has been aided heavily by technological enhancements. External communications and outreach have also been changed dramatically by the telecommunications revolution. In today's fast-paced world, a non-profit organisation without connections to the Internet can be at a major disadvantage.
Outreach is a method of building the foundation for support as it determines how many people you have access to and are addressing. It can include marketing, public relations, community education, alliances and partnerships, networking and anything that reinstates the organisations presence in the community and increases its resource avail-ability. Without outreach, the impact off the above facets will be limited.
Finally, the persistent need for NPOs to demonstrate that their products and services are making a difference to society and that they are effectively using their resources heightens the need to measure and evaluate these products and services. While some evaluation is possible after observing tangible improvements in society, organisational inputs can also help determine how well the objectives will be met. It is important to distinguish between out-put and outcome when dealing with evaluation. Non-profit organisations are much more adept at measuring outputs than outcomes and are only beginning to explore how to develop outcome measures.
(To be concluded)
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