Types of NGOs

Apart from ‘NGO‘, often alternative terms are used as for example independent sector, volunteer sector, civil society, grassroots organizations, transnational social movement organizations, private voluntary organizations, self-help organizations and non-state actors (NSA’s).

 

Nongovernmental organizations are a heterogeneous group. A long list of acronyms has developed around the term ‘NGO‘.

 

These include:

1. BINGO is short for business-oriented international NGO, or big international NGO;
2. CSO, short for civil society organization;
3. DONGO, Donor Organized NGO;
4. ENGO, short for environmental NGO, such as Global 2000;
5. GONGOs are government-operated NGOs, which may have been set up by governments to look like NGOs in order to qualify for outside aid or promote the interests of the government in question;
6. INGO stands for international NGO;
7. QUANGOs are quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). (The ISO is actually not purely an NGO, since its membership is by nation, and each nation is represented by what the ISO Council determines to be the ‘most broadly representative’ standardization body of a nation. That body might itself be a nongovernmental organization; for example, the United States is represented in ISO by the American National Standards Institute, which is independent of the federal government. However, other countries can be represented by national governmental agencies; this is the trend in Europe.)
8. TANGO, short for technical assistance NGO