World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations
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The World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO) is a general purpose, international membership organization for NGOs (nonprofits, charities, civil society organizations with the stated mission to serve its member organizations, strength and encourage the nongovernmental sectors as a whole, increase public understanding of the non-governmental community, and provide the mechanism and support for NGOs to connect, partner, and multiply their contributions to solve humanity's basic problems.[1] It holds 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in the United States.
WANGO was founded in 2000 by a number of leaders of nongovernmental organizations, several of whom are affiliated with the United Nations. It has since expanded to the point where it claims a membership of NGOs from 120 nations, with over 50,000 members and subscribers, and has chapters in seven nations. Recent financial disclosures indicate financial support has been provided by a variety of organizations, including the International and Interreligious Federation for World Peace, which was founded by Sun Myung Moon.
In 2006, WANGO worked with other NGOs to provide housing for impoverished families in Indonesia who had lost their entire village due to an earthquake. It also founded the Play Football Make Peace project that has conducted programs in over 40 nations. The Code of Ethics and Conduct for NGOs was developed under the auspices of WANGO and was formulated by an international committee of NGO leaders from all regions of the world. WANGO has provided awards to numerous prominent organizations and individuals.
Although Rev. Moon is not considered by WANGO to be the founder of the organization, apparently because of such support, it has come under strong criticism of the Global Policy Forum, and two writers for an article in WEED magazine produced a strongly critical paper on WANGO. This paper lumped WANGO in with numerous other organizations affiliated in some way with Rev. Moon, including business corporations, as one "Moon organization" that they maintained was not nonprofit and that had conducted unethical practices. WANGO has since produced a 24-point response detailing what they felt was a deceptive agenda-driven article, with misleading and inaccurate information, and that it was unethical to critique WANGO on the basis of other organizations lumped into this hypothetical Moon organization.
