Page 60 - Proceeding 2015

FAMP PĂCE?ILĂ Mihaela
CCASP INVOLVEMENT OF NGOS IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

According to Official Development Assistance (1990), NGOs are voluntary organizations serving

community interests locally, nationally and internationally. Moore (1993) considers that these
organizations are essential vehicles of democracy and key elements for the success of civil society. Frantz
(1987) defines them as formal organizational structures that arise when people constitute themselves into

a social unit and pursue an explicit objective. They formulate rules governing the relations between their
members as well as their obligations. Korten (1991) argues that NGOs are the earliest form of human
organization arising before the establishment of governments. Furthermore, Banks and Hulme (2012)

believe that the failure of the state in certain fields between 1970 and 1980 fueled interest in NGOs as an
alternative to development, focused on solving community problems and providing services. Lewis and

Kanji (2009) state that these organizations have emerged due to philanthropic tradition and helpfulness.

An important issue in defining NGOs is that in many countries the concept of NGOs is considered
synonymous with the concept of civil society (Frantz, 1987). However, the concept of civil society has a

wider scope. There is no commonly accepted definition of the concept of civil society in communities or
in academic debate. Civil society is the arena of collective voluntary actions grouped around interests,
goals and shared values, an intermediate space between the state and family populated by organizations

that are separate from the state and have autonomy (Buzec, 2007). PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11 TH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ”Strategic Management for Local Communities” 30 th – 31 st October 2015 Bucharest

With respect to nongovernmental organizations classification, it is very difficult to distinguish between
different types of NGOs because the boundaries between them are vague. Therefore, a single - standard

typology of NGOs does not exist. Taking into account the definitions of different authors in literature, we
cannot say that NGOs could be seen as one class of organization. (Hailu Senbeta, 2003). Probably the
only way to analyse the organizations of this sector is the study of a small sample and massive repetition

of the study on other small samples by taking into account their similar characteristics.

It is also important to mention that the same NGO may evolve to a great extent during its life, for example
from a volunteer based organization to a professional staff organization successful in attracting additional

funding from private donors and governments (Sooryamoorthy and Gangrade, 2001; Wood, 1997).

Additionally, non-governmental organizations vary depending on the following criteria: size and scope,
structure, role, funding, origin, membership forms, motivations, values, religious orientation, their use of

volunteers or professionals, and their relationships to governments and donors etc.

Therefore, in terms of size, they could be small or large; in terms of organizing they could be formal or
informal, bureaucratic or flexible. Other difference regards the funding: some of them are externally

funded receiving funds from donors, while others are based on locally mobilized resources. The literature
makes also a distinction between “Northern NGO” and “Southern NGO”. The former concerns the

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