It is pretty useless to talk of an NGO management in general. One can open any book, devoted to this theme (and there are plenty) and read everything about effective management. Putting it simple, an effective organization is the one that does a lot of important and useful work using the small amount of resources. This organization has a good governing body, a talented director; the functions are distributed competently as are the responsibilities and duties. All people in organizations as well as its clients understand very well why it has been created.

One of the main problems in the NGO management is the low level of planning, strategic as well the tactical one. The fundraising is also helpless due to the lack of creative ideas. It is positive that now the youth has started entering the sector as young people have no paternalistic attitudes and tend to make money independently. They do not have the Soviet complexes that taint most of the middle-aged NGO-workers and disturb them from working effectively. There is hope that the new energy, coming now to the 'Third Sector', the energy of young people who have accumulated some business skills (they at least have attended some courses in their colleges) will change the situation for better. Some organizations - as the ones that work only with volunteers - do not need regular management. What they need is an ability to listen to each other and reach agreements.

 

 

- Is there a NGOs' 'commercialization' problem?

 

- Of course, there is such a trend, and it is especially true for the professional NGOs that have existed for the long time. Some experts consider that a problem as, being commercialized, the NGOs are detached from the aims that they were created to fulfill. But then - how are they supposed to survive when the Western financing is being curtailed and the local sources are insufficient? Many successful NGOs start providing services for payment and if that works out, they become very involved, start polishing those services and stop providing the ones that were very important but cannot be 'sold' to anybody. It also has to be mentioned that the NGOs' services are much cheaper than the services if the commercial organizations. The Russian 'Third Sector' is very diverse. There are the organizations that will never become 'commercialized' due to the specific activity that they are carrying out:  such are the human rights, some of the cultural ones, the ones that are engaged in public education. All strong organizations in Russia, may I say so, are created using the Western finances. Now, when these sources are becoming scarce, the organizations have to look for money inside the country or make them. It is impossible for the NGO to be completely self-sufficient. Ant for an organization to provide at least for the 10 percent of its budget selling the commercial services, it has to be making enormous efforts. It is very complicated as only 2 percent of the NGO-workers have business-education.

 

 

 

- Talking of the specific problems of Jewish NGO management the main one is the strict budgetary limitations. Of course, they are strict due to the decision of sponsors, but it does not make the managers more creative. The managers of Jewish NGOs have gone through an endless series of training and seminars, most of the programs being targeted at perfecting their management skills and developing their creativity. But due to the strict conditions, named above, they are unable to apply their knowledge in practice. Result is disappointment and the low motivation for improving the activity. This is the impression that I got from my encounters with the representatives of Jewish organization.