Strengthening Regional / Community Foundations

• The Trust in the CR:

• Impacts and Achievements
  • Overall impacts
  • Meeting CEE Trust goals
• Program Map
• Program Components
  • Creating a Favorable Legislative, Fiscal and Philanthropic Environment
  • Creating a Favorable Environment for Advocacy and Public Policy
  • Institutional Support for Key Strategic NGOS
  • Knowledge Fund
  • The Consultants´ Guild
  • Strengthening Regional / Community Foundations
  • Non-Profit Organizations on the Threshold of the EU: Support for Model Regional and Community Projects
  • Ensuring Access to Information and Expertise Concerning EU funding
  • Increasing Support from the Private Sector
  • Increasing Support from Individuals
• Program In Spotlight
  • CEET in facts and figures
  • CEET in the eyes of grantees
  • CEET in stories
  • CEET in pics
• Annotated Summary of Grants( pdf 153 kB)

Part I: implemented by the Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation and the Jan Hus Educational Foundation, Part II: implemented by The VIA Foundation

Note regarding the design of this program component: upon the request of the CEE Trust, the work with regional foundations as recommended by VIA in its proposal was further extended by adding a similar program component targeted at smaller entities, that was recommended in a competitive proposal by the Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation and the Jan Hus Educational Foundation. For managerial purposes, and especially with regard to the educational part of the program, the target group - i.e. regional / community foundations - was divided according to their expected level of organizational development. Being a recipient of the NIF (FIF) state contribution was used as the dividing criterion. (To win a contribution from NIF - the Foundation Investment Fund - required a relatively high capacity and experience from the applicant.)

Two parts of the program worked with two different sets of foundations - assisting them to raise funds for grantmaking / operations from local donors and thus becoming a new funding source for local NGOs as well as reliable grantmaking partners for local governments, state institutions, private donors and international institutions.

Non-NIF foundations:

Although the program was originally intended exclusively for foundations, the lack of applications of appropriate quality led to the decision to open the program also to non-endowed funds. Nineteen selected organizations received technical assistance in the form of consultancy and 13 educational seminars on financial management, effective grantmaking, strategic planning and management, the role of the Board, the role of a foundation both domestically and internationally, fundraising, media work, EU funds etc. Based on an evaluation of the submitted developmental visions and plans, 8 grants of $10,200 were allocated to support the participants' organizational and regranting capacities. Seven challenge grants ranging from $1,758 to $3,906 were awarded to match their fundraising results. At the end of the program, 3 of the most successful participants received contributions to their endowment in amounts ranging from $54,688 to $109,375.

NIF foundations:

Twelve selected foundations gained access to a series of 7 educational seminars (on strategic planning, fundraising, marketing, communication, PR, management and grantmaking) and to the Technical Assistance Fund to cover the costs of expert consultancy. In addition, they received small grants of $660 each for their strategic planning process. Based on the submitted Institutional Development Plans, five applicants were selected for more intensive support. They were provided with 5 additional, need-tailored workshops dealing with their specific challenges in terms of organizational development and/or their role in the community, and were awarded two types of grants: a) institutional grants in the amount of $23,000, and b) two successive challenge grants in the amount of $15,385 to match their fundraising achievements for the given calendar year.

Both parts of this program component increased the capacity of community / regional foundations in numerous aspects. In addition to the organizational development itself, the programming strengthened their grantmaking skills and reputation as donors supporting local NGOs in a transparent, well-organized manner. This was especially important for those smaller entities that had no previous experience with organizing open grant rounds. Thanks to this way of regranting, dozens of local NGO projects were supported. Another important momentum were the challenge grants offered to participants in order to stimulate their fundraising efforts. These proved to be a strong motivation and led to noteable fundraising achievements. The participating foundations raised new individual and corporate donors, increased their endowments, diversified their sources of income, and expanded their portfolio of fundraising methods. The seminars and workshops not only broadened the participants' skills, but also helped them to develop links with expert consultants from both the NGO and corporate sectors. Last but not least, throughout the course of the program - despite the different stage of their development - the participants also created a well communicating, mutually supportive group and developed specific field-oriented networks (e.g. a network of regional ecological foundations and a network of emerging community foundations).

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