Writing project applications, preparing a fundraising strategy, and getting to know the available funding for CSOs are the topics of the last two trainings organised by the Civil Society Resource Centre.
Seventeen CSOs’ representatives actively participated in the two-day training “Writing project proposals – from project idea to successful project application” held on 12-13 November 2019 in the premises of the Resource Centre in Stip. The participants rated the training as very useful and of high quality and asked for such practical trainings to be organised more often and with longer duration. They identified the preparation of a logical framework; defining problems, goals, indicators; as well as budget preparation as the most useful topics of the training.
The trainer Suncica Sazdovska put focused on analysing the open calls, using a specific call for CSOs and encouraged organisations to think analytically when reading the calls. The participants assessed whether and to what extent the call is relevant to their organisation, understood the evaluation criteria, identified what they should pay particular attention to when writing the application, and also prepared it. Most of the participants stated that they will apply the knowledge gained from the training immediately to prepare a project application on the first open call.
The fundraising training was held in Skopje on 20-21 November and assisted17 CSOs to get acquainted with the concept of sustainability, with a range of forms for CSO funding and several methods of mobilizing funds.
“CSOs’ sustainability depends directly from the policies and programs of international development agencies and donors,” said trainer Liljana Alcheva. She pointed out that CSOs in our country have limited funding opportunities and therefore face poor sustainability. They focus on funds from international development agencies and partly on domestic funds, neglecting other forms of fundraising. She recommended that organisations should strive for different sources of funds, although this would require additional efforts of the staff due to uneven work distribution, with “peak” workloads at certain times.
Participants had opportunity to do a mapping of potential donors in the area of operation of their organisation, as well as to set strategic goals and success indicators related to fundraising.
