Research is incredibly important for NGOs in planning projects, writing proposals, finding donors, reporting, and many other instances as well. While research tools and transparency measures are making more and more information freely available, researching for NGOs can still be challenging.
Here are 9 common research mistakes for NGOs to avoid when conducting your own research.
Ideally, every research assignment begins with a detailed list of what exactly you need to uncover in your research. Want to research for a baseline study? There are many factors which may or may not affect a project, so make sure to decide on specific indicators for research. Need to research donors? There are millions of potential donors in the world, so decide if you want to focus on individual donors or institutional donors, in-kind donations or grants, application style, grant range, etc.
A vague or shallow understanding of your research subject may save time but may lead to mistakes or inaccurate conclusions. Research that is too broad often oversimplifies reality, leading to biased understanding. Shallow research can also hurt your credibility. Refer to your plan and make sure you have enough information to act upon.
It may seem like the more information you have the better, but too many details can be harder to read and understand. You may also be spending way too much time finding specific details which have little to no actual relevance. Do you actually need to know the exact number of beneficiaries in a community, or will an estimate do? Do you need details on every grant the German Embassy has ever awarded or just the grants in your field? If you have a good plan, you will know exactly how detailed your research needs to be.
Sometimes finding an entirely new or unexplored avenue of information can be the best part of the research. Other times, it is just a distraction that wastes time and pulls you away from your plan. Stick to your plan. If you see another possibly interesting path to research, write it down and save it for later. Complete your main goal first.
Save your research. Save your sources. Even if you think you will remember or that you will not need it again, keep your work organized. This is just a good practice to get into. You never know when you or someone else in your organization may need to refer back to the original information. This is also helpful for staying true to your plan, double-checking your work, and answering any follow-up questions that come up later.
It is important not to plagiarize other’s work, but when you take information out of its original source and summarize it in a new context, sometimes information is accidentally lost. This is particularly true with statistics. For example, you may come across the statistic that “child marriage in Nepal is 48.5%.” But what does this actually say? Does this mean that nearly 50% of children in Nepal are already married? No. The full context is “the percentage of women currently age 20-49 years who were first married or in union before the age of 18 is 48.5%.” Losing the detail here completely changes the meaning for this statistic.
Always check your work! Make sure your numbers are accurate, your summaries correctly reflect the original writing, citations are in order, and that your conclusions make logical sense. A minor research error may not seem like a big deal at the time, but research is very important for decision-making. Bad research leads to bad decisions, which leads to bad outcomes.
Research is often one of those things people do “when there’s time.” Understand right now that good research forms the basis of projects, proposals, NGO strategies, and much more. Estimate how much time you will need to complete accurate research and give yourself and your team at that time. And be generous – good research usually takes more time than just one keyword search.
Don’t get me wrong – Google can be a great resource to start off (and maybe finish) a research assignment. But there are so many other books, newspapers, videos, databases, networks, forums, and people you could find answers from as well. Try using multiple sources and mediums for your research and see how your results change.
Alta Alonzi is a writer and researcher focusing on international development funding and grassroots NGOs. She works with the fundraising consulting company Philantropia conducting research for clients ranging from small NGOs to UN organizations. She also works closely with FundsforNGOs running training webinars, contributing resource guides, and updating the Premium donor database.
