Managing Developmental Civil Society Organizations

When citizens band together in a civil society organization to effect change for the better, they can be a tremendous force for good. This book is about how to channel people’s enthusiasm most effectively, so that pitfalls are avoided, and goals are attained. The book reviews the variety and different kinds of civil society organizations (CSOs) in operation, and what is within their powers to achieve. It follows the progress of enthusiasts through to professional development practitioners, setting out the processes of planning, resource mobilization, and developing links to governments, businesses and citizens, while still conserving the spark and fire that brings citizens to development work in the first place. It highlights the alternative vision that CSOs bring to their countries’ problems and how this can inspire effective service provision and advocacy, as well as holding government accountable for what has been promised but not delivered. It helps with the periodic maintenance problems of CSOs and how they can keep up their standards. Finally it addresses three dangers of CSOs – foreign donor dependence, possible irrelevance in larger strategic thinking, and the loss of organizational strength.
This book is essential reading for staff of national and international development organizations; fieldworkers; and all those wishing to create a people’s organization to effect change.
‘Packed with hard-won insights based on the author's longstanding and unrivalled personal experience working in the civil society organization field, and drawn from his wide-ranging knowledge of relevant ideas, concepts and literature, this book is unlike any other you will read on the real worlds of civil society organizations. Read it -- and be inspired!’
Professor David Lewis, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics & Political Science
‘Unravelling civil society and then explaining how to make developmental organizations effective is a tricky challenge. It takes a person of Richard Holloway’s insights and experience to do so in a real-life, practical way. Avoiding confusing theories and jargon, this book’s comprehensive guidance draws on and revisits proven ideas and tools that can feed confidence about what to do and how in the messy work for sustainable change towards social justice. It is not just recommended reading to those new to the field. Old hands would do well to reflect on the text as they deal with disruptive forces that are the daily reality of management with pressures to “follow the (foreign) money”, often at the cost of identity and values.’
Alan Fowler is an emeritus professor of the International Institute of Social Studies in the Hague.