Give Programmes, Field Offices and the Board a Structure They Can Follow
An NGO chart often grows grant by grant until nobody can say who answers to whom. We help you draw a structure where shared functions stand on their own, programmes sit on top of them, field and district offices know what they may decide, and the board knows where oversight ends. We then write the approval limits so the structure works in daily use and not only on paper. Choices about roles and lines stay with you and your trustees.
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Share your requirementsThe starting point
Does Your Structure Fall Apart When a Grant Closes?
When the structure is built around projects, a closing grant takes pieces of the chart with it. People are left reporting to a role that no longer exists, and the work that mattered to the whole organisation has no home.
We help you set out a structure where authority is written down and survives changes in funding.
You may be experiencing:
- Each programme running its own coordinator, small administration and reporting, with shared teams starved.
- Staff funded by two grants answering to two programme heads who want different things.
- District or state offices unsure what they can approve without calling head office.
- A founder or executive director drawn into every purchase, hire and travel request.
- Trustees pulled into daily management, or left out of decisions that belong to them.
- Approval routes that differ between programmes for the same type of expense.
- Nobody named to cover when the programme head or the finance lead is on leave or in the field.
What we can help with
Our Organisation Design Services for NGOs and Social Enterprises
Structure Review
Redraw the chart as it really works: head office, programmes, state and district offices, partner-run sites and volunteers. We mark where lines are unclear, doubled or kept alive only by personal relationships.
Core and Programme Separation
Design a chart that shows shared functions such as finance, grants, HR, communications and administration as a stable base, with programmes attached to it. A closing grant then removes a programme and leaves the base intact.
Single Line Manager Rule
Settle who manages each person for leave, review and development, and who directs the work for each grant a person is funded from. Split-funded staff stop serving two managers with no tie-break.
Delegation and Approval Limits
Write a short matrix of who approves purchases, travel, hiring, short contracts, budget movements between lines and exceptions, with a limit and a named deputy for each. Limits are your decision; we help you set them out.
Board and Executive Interface
Describe what trustees approve, what they are told and what stays with the executive director. We help you set the reporting that lets the board oversee the work without running it.
Field and District Office Design
Decide what each field office decides, what it reports and to whom. This includes local purchases, short-term hires, community-level commitments and what must always go up to head office.
Role Accountability Definitions
Write each key role as a short page: what it answers for, which decisions it takes and who it hands to. These are used in hiring, review and when a role is moved from one programme to another.
Partner and Social Enterprise Interfaces
Draw the line between your own staff and those of implementing partners, franchise-style units or trading arms, so it is clear who manages the work and who manages the people.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the agreed scope, you will have:
- A current-state chart with unclear lines marked.
- A proposed organisation structure with core functions and programmes separated.
- A reporting chart showing one line manager for each role.
- A delegation of authority matrix with limits and deputies.
- A one-page statement of board and executive responsibilities.
- Field and district office decision guides.
- Role accountability definitions for key positions.
- A transition plan with communication points and a review date.
Step by step
How We Work
Trace How Decisions Travel
We follow a few recent decisions, such as a field purchase or a short contract, from request to approval, and note who was involved and how long it took.
Hear From Head Office and the Field
We talk to the executive, programme heads, finance, and staff in district offices, because each sees a different organisation.
Draw Options
We put two or three structures in front of leadership, with what each means for cost, supervision and flexibility when funding changes.
Write the Rules
Once you choose, we write the chart, the approval matrix and the role pages, and test them on a few live situations.
Introduce and Review
We help you tell staff and trustees what is changing and why. A review is set against the baseline we recorded, so the effect can be seen.
The difference
Let the Structure Carry Weight Through Funding Changes
A designed structure helps your organisation:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering the number of approval steps for a standard purchase, the number of staff with more than one manager and the roles with no named deputy, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Show every person who their manager is and who directs their project work.
- Keep shared functions alive when a programme ends.
- Let district teams act within clear limits instead of calling head office.
- Take routine approvals away from the executive director.
- Clarify what the board decides and what it only reviews.
- Name a deputy for each critical decision.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Founder-Led NGOs Growing Past the Founder
Hand routine decisions to named roles without losing oversight.
NGOs Running Many Programmes
Reduce duplicated administration and stop programmes competing for shared staff.
Organisations With State and District Offices
Define local authority and the line back to head office.
Foundations Working Through Partners
Separate your own staff roles from those of implementing partners.
Boards Reviewing Executive Authority
Agree in writing what is delegated, to whom and up to what limit.
How it usually shows up in ngos and social enterprises
The structure of many NGOs and social enterprises follows the grants more than any design. Each programme gets its own coordinator, its own field officers and often its own small administration, and the chart grows by accretion. Staff funded from more than one project may report to one manager for the work and another for the grant. Decisions that look simple, such as approving a field purchase, a change of location or a short contract, travel up through different routes depending on the programme. The board and the founder or executive director sit above, sometimes with unclear lines between oversight and day-to-day decisions. Field offices in districts or states report to head office in ways that were agreed informally. What is usually missing is a written statement of who decides what, up to what limit, and who covers when that person is away.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in ngos and social enterprises
Programme silos duplicate work
Each project builds its own admin and reporting, and shared functions are starved.
Split-funded staff have two bosses
A person funded by two grants is asked to answer to two programme heads with different priorities.
Board and executive lines blur
Trustees are drawn into operating decisions, or the executive is left without clear authority.
Field offices run on custom
District teams do not know what they may approve locally and what must go to head office.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Draw core and project roles separately
The chart shows shared functions first, then programmes, so the structure survives when a grant closes. The organisation design work begins with this view.
- 02
Name one line manager
Every person has one manager for performance and leave, and a separate programme lead for the work if funding is split.
- 03
Write the approval limits
A short matrix of who approves purchases, travel, contracts, hiring and exceptions, with the limit and the deputy.
- 04
Define the board interface
A page stating what the board approves, what it is informed of, and what stays with the executive.
- 05
Set field reporting lines
State what district and field offices decide, what they report, and to whom.
What to check this week
- Pick three staff funded from two grants and ask who their manager is.
- Find out who approves a field purchase in each programme.
- Ask what the district office may decide without calling head office.
- Check whether a written approval matrix exists and is current.
- Look for any shared function that reports into a single programme.
What this looks like in ngos and social enterprises
The parts of organisation design that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Structuring Around Programmes and Funding
Where the org chart follows the grants.
What this coversHide
Structuring Around Programmes and Funding
Where the org chart follows the grants.
What this coversHideSector organisations are shaped by funding as much as by design, which means the structure can drift into something nobody would have chosen - programme silos that duplicate functions and share nothing.
Programme structure
- Programme and project leadership
- Field teams and community-level staff
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Partner and community liaison
Organisational functions
- Finance, grants and donor compliance
- HR and administration
- Fundraising and communications
- Governance and board interface
- Core versus project-funded roles distinguished in the structure
- Reporting lines where staff are split across projects
- Decision rights between programme and organisational leadership
- Shared functions protected from project funding cycles
- Field to head office reporting and accountability
- Board and executive interface defined
- Succession for programme and organisational leadership
Protecting shared functions from project funding cycles is the structural choice that most determines whether an organisation can operate between grants.
Questions on this, in ngos and social enterprises
One line manager should own leave, review and development. Each grant can have a programme lead who directs the work for that share, with the split written down so both leads and the person can see it.
Offer shared finance, HR and grants support that is reliable enough to use, and show its cost across projects openly. Duplication usually grows where the shared service is slow or its cost is hidden.
Purchases, travel, hiring, contract extensions, movements between budget lines and exceptions, each with a limit and a named deputy. Keep it to a page or two so that it is actually used in district offices.
Agree in writing what needs board approval, what is shared for information and what the executive decides alone. Review the page once a year as the organisation grows. Governance duties of trustees are for your own advisers to confirm.
Not by itself. Many changes move responsibilities between roles, clarify who manages whom or create a shared function. If a change affects someone's terms of employment, confirm the position with a qualified professional first.
Yes. We help you set out which roles belong to which entity, who manages shared staff and how decisions are approved across both. How the entities must be structured is a question for your legal advisers, not for us.
Offer shared finance, HR and grants support that is good enough to use, and charge the cost across projects openly. Duplication usually grows where the shared service is slow.
Purchases, travel, hiring, contract extensions, grant spending changes and exceptions, with a limit and a named deputy for each. Keep it to a page or two so it is actually used.
Build a Structure That Outlasts Any Single Grant
If lines of reporting and approval depend on who is in the room, write them down. Tell us how your organisation is arranged today and where decisions get stuck.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Book an Organisation Design Consultation
Tell us about your programmes, offices and the decisions that slow you down.
The general method — what organisation design covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the organisation design page. What is above is the part that differs for ngos and social enterprises.
Other HR topics for ngos and social enterprises
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for ngos and social enterprises, or another industry.