Building effective and successful Non Governmental Organizations: Have a genuine passion

I have being formally being involved in the non governmental Organization (N.G.O) sector for just about a year, though all through my life, I have been involved in voluntary and social work through church based activities. This past year has taught me so much that I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and wish to continue on the same work on a much larger platform than my current one. Top on the list of lessons learnt is a confirmation of a belief that I have always held that in order to succeed in doing something, you must genuinely love and be consumed by the thing that you are doing.

In the Voluntary/ N.G.O sector, I have come to learn that one must be genuinely passionate of your cause, something that can only stem from your heart to see a genuine change in the lives of others, society or in one’s environment. That passion cannot be borne in your mind because your mind gets quickly distracted by other interests even though you mind plays a very huge role in moulding that genuine passion by nurturing it. Your actions will soon follow and so your decisions that will make you a truly effective person in your organization. Take, for example, a cause to eradicate poverty; must come from your heart and your mind should help you focus on ways to achieving that goal.

Sometimes our passion may get molded by our past experiences like living in poverty. It is however important to really clarify what got embedded in your heart during your experiences. So some it’s a strong hatred for the rich and thus engages in activities that focus on equality and fair distribution of wealth. For others unfortunately, their experiences give them a strong desire to get themselves out of poverty and many others but stop in their quest once they themselves are out of poverty. This is why I state that one should really clarify their motive and align it to a genuine social cause in order to build a successful N.G.O.

One can build a genuine passion for the cause they champion by engaging and spending time with the people that are suffering from the negative effects of the causes they champion. Using the example of poverty, it would be good for a social entrepreneur to spend time with the poor, eating with them, sleeping with them and facing their daily struggles for at least a week so as to truly understand the problems that they are facing. Chances are that after spending that one week with such a poor person one would be able to identify the real problems and needs that that poor person has. Not only that, but the mark the experience will leave on the social entrepreneur will be so long lasting that all future decisions will be based on that experience especially in relation to living luxuriously in the name of helping the needy. Unfortunately most of us don’t want that experience and prefer our good life in the name of helping.

A second strategy is to engross oneself in literature about the given social cause and write about it giving presentations and speeches on the same to all forums and audiences. What is likely to happen is that your passion for the cause is likely to increase especially when you share with others that have succeeded in the same and get a few words of encouragement from friends. They say that a man is what he thinks and soon you shall become the embodiment of that social cause. One good example is the 2004 Nobel peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, who still, up to date, passionately speaks about the protection of trees that she even made a memorable statement that; every coffin she sees, she sees a tree dead. That’s passion!

The benefits of being passionate for your cause are obvious. Firstly, you shall genuinely be able to make a difference in that cause and leave a mark. People will be able to see your genuine love for your passion and support you with all they can. Normally your legacy lives beyond you as in the case of Mother Teresa. Most importantly, you get to live a truly fulfilled life as you notice every little improvement and positive change towards the fulfillment of your cause. Your organization, finally, will never have problems attracting new members and funds from all walks of life to support the cause you champion. That’s success!