Managing a community-based organization--New Resources

“CBOs play an important and relevant role in providing services at the local level. They work in a variety of different fields, such as education, health, the rights of the disabled, and gender issues. Wise management of the organization can contribute significantly to ensuring the effectiveness of the work that it does. This notebook will provide basic and comprehensive definitions of what organizations are, what a CBO is and what management is. The definitions will help you to understand the concept of CBO management, highlighting management skills, different types of managers and the main functions of managers. It also examines different topics that need to be managed to ensure the effectiveness of the organization, such as tasks, time, meetings, human resources, and employee performance.”

Written by Marta Chechetto-Salles and Yvette Geyer for the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA), it is available at: www.idasa.org.za/gbOutputFiles.asp?WriteContent=Y&RID=1701

In a similar vein is "How to build a good small NGO" is a 79 page (1 MB) guide available at: www.networklearning.org/books/build-ngo.html

Throughout this manual you will find best practice theory and appropriate exercises which apply ideas and theory to particular situations (e.g. Does this project seem relevant for the problems?). These exercises can be done individually, or better by a group discussing the text. The manual is particularly helpful in the way it compares and contrast Western versus non-western approaches to developing NGOs. Check out www.networklearning.org in particular, the "Resources" page at www.networklearning.org/directory.html