As lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists, we share the goal of making our human rights work more effective. Our substantive work, however, has institutional implications: we have to create and maintain democratically and effectively working organizations. In order to carry out the important objectives of protecting and promoting human rights, more than knowledgeable, committed people are needed. This part, therefore, is designed to look at the components of effective NGO-management.

By NGO-management, we are referring to the construction and maintenance of the basic underlying framework - structural, informational and psychological - of an organization: things such as its mandate, bylaws / statutes, composition, division of labor and internal procedures; ongoing issues relating to sustaining the group: the working environment, the organization's credibility, public relations, and the group's capacity to network, fundraise and evaluate its work.

Many groups composed of committed people nonetheless become paralyzed in their second or third year. This can be caused by many factors: a hostile environment, burning out, inner fights, debates over goals or procedures, not enough attention to infrastructure, an inadequate assessment of the needs of the community a group is designed to serve and the lack of responsiveness that follows from it, lacking clear and coherent procedures regulating the organization's internal day-to-day work, for example if each leader follows his or her own individual system for filing, case management, maintenance of financial records, unclear lines of responsibility, ad hoc or arbitrary decision-making procedures, etc.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender NGOs function on a broad range of levels. Some are grassroots and/or single issue organizations, organizing a campaign or a series of community events. Others operate nationally, regionally or internationally, with broad mandates and a number of programs. Recognizing this wide range of experience and mandates, the intention of this part of the website is not to teach one "right way," but rather to pose a range of questions that any group might find helpful in its early deliberations, when its structure is being formed.