Non-governmental organization (NGO) is a term that has become widely accepted as referring to a legally constituted, non-governmental organization created by natural or legal persons with no participation or representation of any government. In the cases in which NGOs are funded totally or partially by governments, the NGO maintains its non-governmental status and excludes government representatives from membership in the organization. Unlike the term intergovernmental organization, “non-governmental organization” is a term in general use but is not a legal definition. In many jurisdictions these types of organization are defined as “civil society organizations” or referred to by other names.
What is there purpose? NGOs vary in their methods. Some act primarily as lobbyists, while others primarily conduct programs and activities. For instance, an NGO such as Oxfam, concerned with poverty alleviation, might provide needy people with the equipment and skills to find food and clean drinking water, whereas an NGO like the FFDA helps through investigation and documentation of human rights violations and provides legal assistance to victims of human rights abuses. Others, such as Afghanistan Information Management Services, provide specialized technical products and services to support development activities implemented on the ground by other organizations.
What we must note, is that PR is essential in NGOs, from any sector, because Non-governmental organizations need healthy relationships with the public to meet their goals. Foundations and charities use sophisticated public relations campaigns to raise funds and employ standard lobbying techniques with governments. Interest groups may be of political importance because of their ability to influence social and political outcomes. The PR essence is needed and definitely used, but however, NGO workers do not like to associate with PR, in fact they deny everything about PR.
It’s all a big irony if you ask me because, the guest speaker this week from Friends of the Earth called himself the brand destroyer, yes his job is to destroy big brands. Because according to him that’s what NGOs do: they destroy or threaten to destroy the reputation of big brands in order to get their way – in other words impose their ideas on the big companies to get what they want, now normally its theirs cause, but they can go to extremes to get people to click on the “donate now” button as well. Is this all transparent or are there vested interests involved? But the question is how do people from NGOs who deny any PR connection know how to defend their causes if the do not have the skills required, and by that I mean, PR skills…worth thinking about I think…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non governmental_organization#Public_relations
Babusha's Blog: Reflective PR 