Partners: Slovak Fundraising Center (Slovakia)

Granted amount: 149 975,28 Eur

Summary: 

Lithuanian NGOs are still relying on public sector grants and funding, do not prioritize fundraising as a strategic goal of the organization even, though at the same time, the huge potential of fundraising from individual or business donors is not being exploited. The NGO sector is particularly weak in terms of fundraising and diversification of funding resources: organizations do not have sufficient fundraising competencies and are not allocating needed resources for high-quality fundraising activities. There is no ongoing training programme for fundraisers in the country. NGO staff is lacking trainings provided by international experts, platform dedicated for transferring and disseminating the best practices and ethical standards adopted sector-wide. Small/regional NGOs have no opportunities to take over effective fundraising practices that have been successfully implemented with limited resources.

Responding to the needs of NGOs, Geros valios projektai together with partner Slovenské centrum fundraisingu initiates project FUNDRAISING.LT, aiming to strengthen the financial sustainability of the Lithuanian NGO sector by creating a model for developing the fundraisers’ competencies and forming community of professionals. During the project, lasting 27 months, first extended fundraisers’ competency development program will be created and implemented in Lithuania. Also, a unique portal Fundraising.lt will be launched as well as national and international networking activities for fundraisers from Lithuanian NGOs. The project is targeted to the current fundraisers, decision makers in NGOs, volunteers and employees of small/regional NGOs and prospective fundraisers who at the moment are exploring opportunities to work in the sector.

Long-term project result – qualitative improvement of NGO fundraising processes, that will contribute to the significant growth of giving, diversification of funding resources, and development of philanthropic culture in Lithuania. This is one of the most important factors for building capacity and increasing sustainability of civil society organizations.

Implementation period: 01/10/2020 - 31/12/2022-12-31

Partners: Public institution vocational school “Sodžiaus meistrai”

Granted amount: 121 680,00 Eur

Summary: 

This project is intended for strengthening the competences of employees and leaders of the NGO sector and for supporting the cooperation among them. 

When working in the NGO field we are confronted by those main challenges of the chosen outcome area: 

- lack of skills of the NGO workers in field of advocacy of their target groups in the process of decision-making in public policy.

- lack of skills of NGO leaders in leadership of developing long-term strategies, organizational goals, negotiating with those, who are developing social services. 

- Many workers in the NGO field lack competences in cooperation and advocacy.

- Insufficient cooperation between NGO working in the same geographical territory with similar target groups. 

- Lack of dissemination of information about the innovations in NVO field. 

The main objective of the project is strengthening small and middle size NGOs that work with vulnerable target groups. We plan to strengthen the skills in management and to support development of common and specific competences of the professionals working there. The main target groups are the workers and leaders of those NGOs. 

We plan to reach following outcomes:

- stronger skills and sustainability of civil society: development in management skills of the NGOs working with vulnerable target groups, increasing quality of their work. 

Indicators: 13 NGOs will regularly inform society about their activities.

6 organizations will evaluate their management procedures and develop effective schemes of management procedures. 

- activities to develop NGO abilities and skills: there will be offered a long-term qualification development program for leaders, employees, who work directly with vulnerable groups, volunteers. During this program we plan to raise common and specific professional competences through trainings, supervision, internships, mentoring programs. 

Indicators: 16 organizations will participate in the long-term qualification development program. 

24 highest and medium chain leaders and 54 employees, working with vulnerable groups will participate in the long-term qualification development program.

Implementation period: 04/01/2021 - 03/03/2023

Partners: JCI Šiauliai

Granted amount: 118 827,00 Eur

Summary: 

Due to emigration, young member age, the failure to fully comprehend and adopt the concept (and benefits) of “active citizenship”, the fear of being a leader, CSO often suffer from frequent changes of members and leaders, their activities have low-impact, and are often focused only on their members. CSO often do not make use of available resources and do not cooperate with each other. It is expedient to provide targeted assistance for Siauliai County CSO from the outside.

Experience Transfer and Leadership Skills Development Program for Regions “Active Citizenship Framework” aims to strengthen the CSO of Siauliai County, enabling them to work together, manage long-term strategic planning, using modern leadership development methods, including the active citizenship framework.

With this Project we will invite the youth of Siauliai region to join the CSO, to be active citizens and participate in the projects led by CSO.

Project target groups: a) members (especially decision-makers) of youth CSO or CSO working with young people, who are active in Siauliai County; b) youth in Siauliai county, potential CSO members. Indirect beneficiaries will be Siauliai county communities CSO work with because the implementation of this project is likely to increase the quality of ongoing projects, contribute to a more accurate long-term strategic planning and an overall joint CSO operations strategy, improve communication and development of more sustainable solutions at the local level.

Interactive training cycle and mentoring sessions will be organized – experience workshop transfer with Lithuanian and foreign trainers, mentors and facilitators. These are necessary to strengthen the management of the organization, operational strategy, membership policy and other capacities. The project will end with presentations of joint Siauliai County CSO activity strategies as well as individual CSO presentations at the final Leadership Forum - Networking Day. After the project, the implementation process of the strategy will be monitored and consultations will be provided to CSO that committed to cooperate.

Implementation period: 01/12/2020 - 30/05/2023

Granted amount: 90 868,61 Eur

Summary: 

There is a limited number of NGOs based in the regions of Lithuania outside the big cities, and research shows that civic involvement is stagnating and the desire to be involved in the local NGOs is declining. There is a lack of innovation in the activities of the NGOs. While there is a number of ongoing initiatives and trainings for NGO capacity building in remote regions, they are usually one-off and limited to short-term effects.

The NGO accelerator is a pilot NGO capacity building program based on the best organisational development practices most employed to grow start-ups (young innovative businesses). This is a long-term impact-oriented initiative, the pilot project of which would be implemented in 7 regional municipalities in Lithuania. The accelerator aims to encourage regional NGOs not only to be more creative in their areas of activity, funding sources and community involvement, but also to work based on the principles of a sustainable business model in order to create long-term positive impact in Lithuanian regions.

The proposed accelerator will operate in two stages: the “sprint” and the “marathon.” During the sprint, 10 NGOs will strengthen their basic organizational development skills, culminating in a presentation of the prepared innovative solutions to a panel of experts at the end of the sprint and competing for entry to the second stage - the marathon. The 5 NGOs selected for the marathon stage will grow further through advanced entrepreneurship and organizational sustainability capacity building activities: workshops with experts, one-to-one consultations, prototyping and “live” solution testing, personal mentors from other NGOs and experts from the private and public sectors. Since one of the key ingredients for the success of traditional start-up accelerators is a strong ecosystem of partners, other similar organizations, experts and a knowledge-sharing community, the marathon phase will be accompanied by networking and community introduction events in the newly created collaborative spaces in the regions. 

Throughout the accelerator, its impact will be monitored and a final model of an NGO accelerator will be developed for implementation at the national level.

Implementation period: 16/11/2020 - 15/11/2022