Introduction: Coordination is one of the highest recommended factors by many studies, which intensifies successful humanitarian assistance in disasters. In spite of the fundamental role, coordination is almost difficult to achieve by all players especially NGOs who have significant role in both developed and developing countries in disasters in recent years. The aim of this paper is to review the main characteristics of coordination among NGOs based on the online and available sources. Method: PubMed, Web of Science, ProQuest Research library and Scopus, were searched in December 2016. Original articles that provided characteristics for NGOs coordination in humanitarian assistance settings in natural hazards were included. Non-English documents as well as articles, which were irrelevant to the NGOs coordination of humanitarian assistance were excluded. Analysis of selected studies was done separately by descriptive and thematic analyses. Results: By reviewing eight articles from total of 110 documents, which met the study’s criteria, the two main categories including organizational and managerial factors and five subcategories consisting of structural, strategic, program, leadership and information factors, were extracted. Discussion: Most studies have indicated that the coordination could be considered as a turning point to disaster response, facilitating successful humanitarian assistance. However, more research is needed to expand the characteristics and utilize indices which harmonize and coordinate all humanitarian efforts to promote coordination among all the players. The proposed combination of factors could be helpful for managers of NGOs to provide coordinated assistance in disaster.
