The explanation of the term by ngo.org (the non-governmental organizations associated with the United Nations) is ambivalent. It first says an NGO is any non-profit, voluntary citizens' group which is organized on a local, national or international level, but then goes on to restrict the meaning in the sense used by most English speakers and the media: Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions, bring citizen concerns to Governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political participation through provision of information. NGOs are accountable to their communities, good governance is a basic form of accountability, good governance has a formal structure, good governance involves the separation of governance and government, NGOs are mission-based organisations, NGOs promote the highest professional and ethical standards, NGOs exercise responsible resource management and mobilisation and NGOs are responsive to the communities they serve. Produced by the International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law, the handbook serves as a guide to good governance no matter what stage of maturity the organisation or its country’s NGO sector. The wide variety and complexity working on different themes, at different levels, or targeting different audiences, make it extremely difficult to create a generic outline of an organizational structure.. Note that this organizational structure, or its adaptations, is in fact a part of the NGO's by-laws .

Priyanka Bisht is Senior Adviser at the Institute for Human Rights and adviser to the Delegation to the World Summit on the Information Society. She is on the boards of Digital Rights and member of Human Rights.