Midnight Sounds

Its a little after midnight. Can't fall asleep so I sit outside on my balcony. The weathers actually kinda nice. Very breezy on the 11th floor. I look all round absorbing how peaceful the city seems at this time. I peep inside people's windows (the little that I can see from far away!) Nothing interesting. I then close my eyes and listen. I hear the cars whizzing by. Thankfully there's not too many cars so the honking is minimal. I can hear hindi music playing from somewhere across the street. I guess its some wedding or puja (ya even for a puja, the music of choice is Bollywood many times). AND I hear a goat from somewhere below - a goat "meehhhing"

Lists... Lists... Lists...

Forbes recently published the Top 30 social entrepreneurs. I'm not sure about the print version of this issue, but reading the articles online on Forbes.com, I really didn't understand the criteria used for selecting the 30. They are of course doing amazing work - but why those 30?

By biggest reason for wondering that is that I find it surprising that almost all of the organizations on that list have been founded by Americans (though many of them do work globally). They really didn't find any outstanding organization in one of the 100+ developing countries worthy of making it on the list? Maybe they couldn't which is fair. And I'm not suggesting that there needs to be some sort of a "quota" or "reservation" system while creating the list and make sure that at least a certain % of organization listed on it have to be founded by a native of a developing country.

I'm just curious because working in the social sector, there are definitely some organizations that come to mind that I feel should have been on there.

The article can be found here: http://www.forbes.com/impact-30/list.html

Your Posh Office over My Salary

I've been working in the social sector for a couple of years. Right now I'm working at an educational NGO - which I joined about 7 months ago. So far, it's been an amazing place to work. The work is enriching and the people are great. There's a set of people who've been there for 10, 15, 20 years... and have no plans of leaving. There's another set of people who come, work for 1-2 years, and move on. And there is the third set - those that have "worked in the corporate sector, left the cushy jobs and joined an NGO to try to make a difference."

Within a the first 2 months of me joining, 2 people in this third set decided to leave after working at the NGO for less than a year. Dealing with the pay cut was a lot harder than they expected. I understand their point of view. It's just really sad to see them leave - because they were extremely sincere, passionate and qualified. This is what they want to do - but idealism doesn't pay the bills.

These people from the third set don't want huge salaries - they just need a salary that helps them live a good life and be able to save some for the future. There definition of a good life isn't unreasonable.

What I find troublesome is that many of the donors that fund us aren't quite willing to fund overhead costs (which includes management salaries, office space, etc.) - which I guess is fair. BUT if you go into the donor's offices, you'll see that they're located in the most expensive of locations and the interiors of their offices are comparable to any corporate sector office. Maybe if they could just move to a less expensive part of town, the savings from that alone could pay the more reasonable annual salaries for a couple of very passionate (and very much needed) management at NGOs.

Being able to pay higher salaries and getting qualified and professional people definitely makes an impact on the quality of the programs a NGO runs. But I guess that's asking for too much.