Today, the participants learned about Organizational Management lectured by Ms. Yoko Asakawa. She is one of the founding members of JEN (Japan Emergency NGOs) and she has been engaged in the realm of emergency assistance as well as JEN’s organizational development since its establishment in 1994. JEN is a NPO which aims to support reconstruction of the life which was lost after war or disaster.
She explained major issues of organizational management using her own experiences, especially difficulties that she faced in the process of JEN’s development.
She said that it is important to consider both merits and demerits of being different sizes of organization, keeping in mind its mission to achieve. The participants understood that a bigger organization is not always good. She also illustrated stages of organizational growth and it was easy to see in which stage one’s organization stands. Attractive slogan is another important factor of organizational management. It appeals to the donors and makes people understand easily why the organization exist.
So the participants made their own slogans of their organizations and compared which are more attactive.
Different types of staff are needed to manage an organization. The participants showed a strong interest in how to work with unpaid staff and volunteers.
She also mentioned about the importance of accounting. Keeping financial records and receipts, price comparison, and checking cash balance are essential duties.
Fundraising is the most difficult issue. Ms. Asakawa said that an important point was to get continuous donations. The key of asking for donation is starting from a small amount, after the success of one project increase it gradually.
She introduced a lot of practical tactics.
Lecture material : Leadership DevelopmentOrganizational Management
[ PDF file 01 (796KB) , 02 (1078KB) , 03 (1054KB) ]
In the lecture, the participants also shared their experiences and gave comments to each other. Ms. Asakawa commented that both successful and unsuccessful case studies are significant to figure out and avoid future problems.
All participants were eagerly attentive and understood well about key components of organizational management.
