NGO Start-up 101
HOW WE DID IT
Don’t quit the day job too soon. Start saving. Eye out part-time opportunities. You will need to use your own resources to begin unless you have an investor (if anyone finds one, send them our way).
Be a sponge. Put out feelers for contacts, test your gumption, volunteer, read everything you can find, go and visit similar projects or organisations if you can (or their websites). Chat to others doing similar things about the behind-the-scenes reality (speak to us).
Float the idea to everyone you know, and listen to what they say (but don’t let anyone decide for you). We sat down and wrote a basic business plan following templates found on the web. It helped us ask the right questions about things we hadn’t even considered.
Start the paperwork for company registration well before you plan to launch. It can take many months to get through the basic legal steps: first, finding your three directors, drafting a Memorandum of Incorporation for the NGO, and registering it with the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission. Then registering with the Department of Social Development as a non-profit company, and lastly, if needed, registering with the South African Revenue Service as a public benefit organisation so that donations to your cause are tax deductible.
Know your weaknesses. Then ask for help. Accounting and bureaucracy are some of mine. We found accountants with big hearts (Indevaldi in Cape Town), who waived most of their fees because they believed in the cause. It was an amazing moment actually, and helped us carry on.
Scrub up on social media skills for your NGO. And figure out how important a web presence is. Will a simple web page do the trick? Ours had to be a kind of “shop” for our donors. We needed a quality website designer and incredible photographs. Give this whole process twice the time you think you’ll need!
Get used to saying ‘please’. Unless you have splodges of wonga or a big donor, you’ll have to ask for discounts on everything. I find that hard to do.
Practise multi-tasking. If it’s willpower, rather than money, making your project happen, you’ll be taking on all and every task at some point in the first months. Learning 100% of every day is the new normal.