NGOs are not only the fields of activity for active citizens in democratic societies, but also out-of-school learning environment in citizenship education. Social studies helps students to be activie citizens through developing their political and social participation skills. The aim of this study is to understand social studies teachers’ and students’ perceptions about NGO and active citizenship and their experiences in social studies courses. 24 primary school students from different socio-economic levels and 11 social studies teachers who were selected by maximum divertsity sampling were participated this study which is conducted as basic qualitative research approaches. According to results of the study, while students and teachers percieve active citizensihp mostly as being aware of rights and responsbilities, they do not mention about social and political aspects. Teachers and students percieve NGOs mostly as self-help groups. It is revealed that teachers and students’ experiences about NGOs are considerably limited and teachers heavily focus on teaching solely informations about NGOs. Teachers can organize activities in cooperation with NGOs. These activities can be arranged as informative about citizenship education and developing active citizenship perception. Informations about NGOs can be given more detailed in social studies curriculum and textbooks and practical examples about NGOs can be shown for social studies teachers in the curriculum.