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This article looks at the adoption of management tools in NGOs in general and at cost accounting in particular. Originally designed for businesses in the market economy, it is now required in the non-market economy under pressure from donors. We thus seek to examine the possibilities of adapting this tool to NGOs and the conditions for successful appropriation of the “effective usage” type, based on the theoretical corpus linked to the appropriation of management tools (De Vaujany 2006). This article is based on empirical research and focuses on the first phase of exploratory analysis, understanding of the context and of challenges. Revealing a rather worrying state of affairs in accounting practice and in view of the related managerial implications, it proposes that NGOs adopt a flexible cost accounting model such as analytical budgetary accounting (ABA).