Youth NGO Guide

Youth NGO Brainstorming Tool

This quick resource was created by partners for the project's workshop on NGO creation.

The "Brainstorming guidelines for the creation of an NGO" is a comprehensive, youth-oriented resource developed during our project to empower young people in designing and launching their own NGOs. This step-by-step guide walks you through every stage of NGO creation—from choosing a meaningful name and defining a clear mission, to identifying social problems and crafting effective solutions.

The resource supports users in articulating their vision, setting actionable goals, and designing a functional team structure. It also addresses essential elements such as defining the target group, building a sustainable funding strategy (with a focus on EU opportunities), communication planning, and impact evaluation.

Already used successfully by youth participants to come up with their project youth NGO ideas, this tool is available in English, French and Danish for young people to sketch and develop their business/initiatives ideas, as well as for youth workers to deliver a session on youth entrepreneurship.

Guides For Youth NGO Set-Up Process

Management Tools

Starting an NGO is not an easy task, thus having the help of management tools that will overlook and streamline the flow of information and resources is important for easier management. 

Starting small, keeping in mind the funding (or its lack of), even using and having proper knowledge about the G Suite can be extremely useful for a new NGO. 

However, tools and software like STRATWS One, ArtSoft ERP (enterprise resource planning) allow one to track key metrics, look after human resource activities and planning, keep a track of goals and task management (most similar softwares can also be used to handle basic financial management and planning if needed). 

Trello and Notion are other apps that can be used to track productivity and task delegation and management as well. 

For people and culture management - communication and collaboration, apps and website like Slack, Teams (or even Gmail) allow colleagues to be in touch while allowing easier access to previous history by keeping a  track of prior communication.

Financial Tools

There are many tools that can be used to make financial management easier and avoid miscalculations and misunderstandings. We split some of the best user-friendly tools into 4 categories. Which one would be best depends on personal preference, goals, and the size of the NGO.

• Accounting (Wave, Zoho Books, Xero, QuickBooks)

• Expense tracking & Management (Expensify, Freshbooks, Wally, Approve.com)

• Budgeting, Financial planning (FinancialForce, Mint, Xero, Emma)

• Expense splitting and shared finance (Splitwise, Tricount, Venmo)