Managing social projects

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges for the third sector is the development of an appropriate management structure. It is interesting to observe the relative small amount of intellectual and academic production about it, in contrast to the economic and social projection that this sector has gained lately. Thispaper is based on the case-project Pra não Dizer que não Falei das Flores and presents some ideas regarding the managerial action adapted to non-profitorganizations.The project was developed by students of the UniversidadeFederal do Rio Grande do Sul and implemented in an organization that supports poor children and e1ders in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The paper concludes that projects are the best way to deal with these organizations. These projects must transform the organization's reality and also be educational and formative, not merely an act of charity. The organizational development should be harmonic, developing the political, economical and cultural dimensions ofthose organizations, making an evolution and never a revolution. The development of sustainable systems for non-profit-organizations is a long-term process of change and it begins by an efficient training of its managers.