I think this question has come up innumerable times and I am never sure what triggers it off. In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t believe in NGO ratings.
The starting point of this discussion is the purpose for this rating because that determines the factors that need to be evaluated by the rating system. The needs of an individual donor (and again, a small donor is different from a large donor), a development agency and a company, for instance, will be different and hence the purpose is critical. For instance, an individual donor may be satisfied with a system that ensures that his money does not get mis-spent while a development agency would also need to look at the long-term impact both on the people who will directly benefit and on public policy and practice. So, a universal rating system is perhaps not feasible.
For a development agency, developing a partnership with an NGO is based on an assessment of several sets of factors – strategic compatibility, competence and effectiveness of its work and financial integrity. In my view, the first cannot be objectively rated because “compatibility” implies by definition that the organisations concerned need to determine collectively – what may be acceptable for one partnership may not be for another. Competence and effectiveness are directly related to the first and so it is questionable whether this can be rated. Only the third can be rated in an objective fashion but the value of this rating is reduced because the other two factors that are critical cannot be rated. For instance, if an agency is looking to impact education quality, it will look for a partner that not only understands education but believes in working with the state to influence its practice. An NGO that runs a school may be very good at what it does but may be an inappropriate partner for this agency.
As a consequency, this NGO’s staff, who will typically be educationists, will probably not have the skills and competence for advocacy and working at scale, which are critical for success as the agency defines it. I can’t think of any rating system that can capture this.
In the light of this, it is impossible for me to say who are the outstanding NGOs (or indeed who are not outstanding) in Mumbai. If you tell me what you are looking for, I may be able to suggest some names for you to consider.
Shankar Venkateswaran
American India Foundation
15/11 Sarva Priya Vihar
New Delhi 110 017
American India Foundation
15/11 Sarva Priya Vihar
New Delhi 110 017
E : shankar.venkateswaran@aifoundation.org
W : www.aifoundation.org