Financial Structures of an NGO - Spotlight #7

As a member of NGOs for more than 8 years and working in the finance sector at the same time, in this article I wanted to share my observations on the financing of the NGOs and the economy.

I had to be in charge of financial structures because I had been a presidential candidate and treasurer for CSO several times. The first thing I noticed here is the situation that I want to draw attention to; $1 in an NGO's fortune is very valuable from $100 in my pocket because this money may have been forgiven by a donation, maybe a lot of effort spent on it. More importantly, every dollar of money in this coin will be used for a social purpose.

For this reason, the NGO finance structure that we are talking about has a much more sensitive and important structure and needs to be managed in a very good and completely transparent manner. We can start by examining three different funding methods of NGOs to examine this sensitivity. These; donations, dues and activity revenues.

Subsidies the NGO is one of the most important income sources of profit. It is a constant power and can be predicted and calculated more clearly. Thanks to this structure, it is very important to meet the fixed costs. As an example of fixed costs; if there is an office of an NGO, if there is a rented, invoiced, salaried employee of this office,
Another source of finance is the activity-activity revenues that we Leo use the most. Meals, kermes, tournaments, and any other kind of income that may come to mind are available. These revenues can be used for project-based activities or for funding large long-term social projects. Funding is indeed very important for large-scale projects. It provides a very great service with little small contributions. Lions and Leo draw attention as an NGO that has created this funding structure in a very accurate way.

Donations and sponsorships can be the greatest source of funding for NGOs, but they are the most difficult and sensitive part. For a donation or sponsorship, you must first have a well-prepared progeny or campaign with every detail. This donation or sponsorship from one or more persons or a company is conveyed unexpectedly without any material provision. For this reason, they want to make sure that they are transmitted rightly and correctly. It is necessary to transparently demonstrate at every stage that these donations are used in the most functional and beneficial way.  At this stage in the beginning, we will talk about the value of $1 in our pocket, $1 in our donation, and the liability can even exceed $100.
In most of the NGOs, it is observed that the required fundamentals are shown in this finance structure. In some of the forms we mentioned, it is seen that the financial resources provided to the voluntary people are used very inefficiently. In order to prevent this situation, a good finance team needs to create the supervision system with great care. I think that it is necessary to raise awareness of the financial structure of each NGO member in order to prevent the great efforts being made due to finance from falling in efficiency.

Leo Ahmet Yukselbaba,
District 118-R President,
Turkey.

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