garyb wrote:they have no constraints on their actions. since they are non-government and corporate, there's really no one to hold accountable
I disagree! Not totally but I see that from the inside, and believe me or not, the IT tools we're installing for them... I've never seen that amount of precision so far in any other private companies in 8 years of integration.
Before working for such companies (3-4 years ago), Financial analysis was just bullshit to me, when deployed for profitable entities.
Now: NGOs I work for are just submitting themselves to the necessary rigour of inputing/modifying (but never deleting) ledger entries with the right dimensions (a constraint, they wouldn't be able to post transactions without it anyway), so that we can trace whatever they input into the system, in any period, with any analytical dimension. Their analytical is daily conciliated with real costs. I prefer not to speak about auditors, as they are just a joke to pass through.
Last customer problematic was to debate about the necessity to include travel costs into their analytical reports to donors (been done in a few clicks)... Which led them to the drastic decision they need to reduce these costs and they will do it!
They shall temporarily loose some donors but they understood there is no choice but to do that, moral integrity driving that decision!
I could debate with you for hours about means and real goals of foundations like Gates: the fact that they can't even invest that amount of money they have and that they are playing with it on markets, trying to make the more profitable, even without ethical thoughts about if these investments are employed on markets for completely opposite interests, it could nearly destroy all the good they do when investing into NGOs, the balance would still be be positive.
Most of scientific researches conducted by some of my customer will just kill private interests which needed decades of investment because they are faster now, gathering the best they can and forbidding (another ethical constraint) any private use of the discovery they make during their projects lifetime.
What if they were commissioned to manage global social projects, not only limiting themselves to neglected diseases, malaria, hunger, anti personal mines or urgent situations? Constraints of results and precise activity reporting but applied to some other massive good actions?
All NGOs are not acting as they should but at least, there is an emulation and most of them have the will to drastically change the worst situations all around the world...
