Ask What You Can Do: The NGO Path of Public Service

Posted on 06 March 2010

By Lakshmi Iyer

Thinking of starting an NGO? Grappling with sustaining an NGO? A discussion with five fellow Kennedy School students who have started NGOs across countries explores lessons learned.

“Ask what you can do…” is the Harvard Kennedy School motto, and most of us at this school have chosen the path of public service after asking ourselves this soul-searching question at some stage in our personal or professional lives.

A handful of us have had the determination, gut and passion to start social initiatives ourselves while some of us have been deliberating the same path. On February 25, I had an opportunity to meet five such passionate Kennedy School students who have started NGOs in countries including India, Brazil, Uganda and Zimbabwe. These five students led the discussion at the NGOs & Development Study Group session on “Establishing and Sustaining an NGO: Successes, Dilemmas and Lessons Learned.”

The four NGOs were in different stages of maturity and had different missions which gave broader perspectives on the topic. Ramaswami Balasubramaniam, a physician who founded the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) as a young medical student 25 years ago, was President and CEO of SVYM which now reaches nearly 5 million people through health, education and community development projects in Karnataka, India. By starting Forgotten Voices International, Ryan Keith helps church leaders in southern Africa to meet physical and spiritual needs of HIV/AIDS orphans through education, home-based care and skill development. Carolina Larriera started up and ran the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDI) in Rio de Janeiro which did drug research & development to develop new treatments for neglected diseases. The young Paul Wang and Esther Hsu helped establish TamTam, an NGO that distributes free bednets to help prevent malaria in a cost-effective, evidence-based manner, and conducts operational research to improve the use of bednets worldwide.

So what can a soon-to-be NGO initiator learn from their experiences?

While insatiable passion and a clear mission are critical, there were four highlights that emerged from these diverse experiences:

• Effective internal management is a must. As a founder, you might end up delving into everything from making photo-copies to developing strategic relationships in addition to serving your beneficiaries.  Be prepared for that.
• Hiring the right people is vital. Investing time for this process is what all the speakers felt was a must, especially when what you require is a balance of technical skills and human skills. Having the right people is what will give continuity to your organization, in addition to scale.
• You will get better at managing donors with time. Almost all the panelists agreed that when you are starting up, the power imbalances with donors are quite high. On the bright side, as your organization expands, your work speaks for itself, leading to an equal partnership. After all, even the donors want to associate themselves with a credible organization!
• Relationships with other NGOs is essential for larger societal good. Other NGOs with similar missions might seem like competitors for the funding space. However, it is important to keep the passion alive, and develop strong partnerships to avoid duplication of services and promote collaboration to achieve similar goals.

The interactive discussion gave a real picture of what it takes to start and sustain an NGO. It was not only inspiring for those of us who have been thinking of starting NGOs to solve social problems, but also gave us a reality check.

Lakshmi Iyer is a first-year Masters in Public Policy candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School.