MONEY FOR EARTH!Fundraising for Central and Eastern European Environmental NGOs
Jan Haverkamp
Marga Verheije
Daniel Swartz
East - West Organization and Management Project
Project coordinator: Jan Haverkamp
Credit for the picture on the front: "At the moment Western financial sources are still the most important ones for many Central and Eastern European
NGOs" (Jan Haverkamp, 1995)
MONEY FOR EARTH! Fundraising for Central and Eastern European Environmental NGOs
Jan Haverkamp, Marga Verheije and Daniel Swartz
Amsterdam: December, 1995
Over the years, the Organization and Management Project received financial support from:
the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment (VROM)
the PHARE Democracy Programme of the European Community
the European Community, DG XI
NOVIB
Stichting Dialoog
the Regional Environmentral Center
VARA's Vroege Vogels
ISAR
Milieukontakt Oost-Europa's private donors
Additional copies can be ordered from:
Milieukontakt Oost-Europa
P.O. Box 18185
NL - 1001 ZB Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel.: +31.20.6392716
fax: +31.20.6391379
e-mail: mkontakt@antenna.nl
© 1995 Milieukontakt Oost-Europa
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MONEY FOR EARTH! 1
Acknowledgements
This brochure on fundraising has been compiled from the experiences of seven years of cooperation with Central and
Eastern European NGOs. During the 7th Milieukontakt Consultation on Environmental Education in December, 1991
we focused on fundraising with Western foundations. The report from this workshop formed the basis of this brochure.
During the following years, several parts were expanded. For the second and third Appendix, I especially drew a lot from
texts written by Dan Swartz for his fundraising workshops for the Regional Environmental Centre's Junior Fellowship
Program and for the Milieukontakt Organization and Management Project in Albania. I also used the "Guide to the
Preparation of Project Proposals" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
(IUCN).
Money for Earth! is not meant to have a final form. It is printed in smaller quantities and it can be adapted quickly. Every
comment and criticism to improve it is welcome. In this way (trial and error), the form you see in front of you has also
been growing. Comments and suggestions came from many different sides. I especially want to thank:
Douwe Jan Joustra, Wam Kat, Paxus Adélova Calta, Marjolijn Sondorp, Dan Swartz, John Hontelez, Richard Liroff,
Marga Verheije, Judith Bucher, Jan Veuger, Anne-Marie Heemskerk, Mary Carpenter, Adéla Kubícková, Alexander
Juras, Nick Allen, Ani Varlan, Camelia Zamfir, Susan Cleveland, Jitka Klinkerová, Vašek Klinkera, Helena Marková Izbická,
Laura Dittelová, Larry Koskinen, Kaman Çipi, Adela Kola, Vesna Teršelic, Jasenka Kosanovic, Davor Vrdoljak,
Maria Rabb, the people from Vlk, hnutí DUHA, hnutí Brontosaurus, Grüne Liga, Eco Club Independent Odorheia
Secuiesc, Focus Eco Centre Târgu Mures, Prietenii Pamântului Galati, Ökolöwe Leipzig, UfU Halle and Berlin, the
Ukrainian Youth Environmental League, EcoPravo Lviv, Geya Sebastopol, the IUCN (Bulgaria), the Environmental Partnership
for Central and Eastern Europe, WWF-US, the REC, the Environmental Training Programme, the staff of
Milieukontakt Oost-Europa and last but not least the participants of the 7th Milieukontakt Consultation on Environmental
Education in December, 1991.
Also a large thank you to all I may have forgotten in this list.
Jan Haverkamp
16 November 1995
2 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
MONEY FOR EARTH! 3
Table of Contents
1 Money and Fundraising.......................................................................................................................................................... 5
2 Sell Something........................................................................................................................................................................ 6
3 Membership Fees and Donations.......................................................................................................................................... 8
4 Government Subsidies .......................................................................................................................................................... 10
5 Sponsorship by Industry and Trade....................................................................................................................................... 12
6 Funds and Foundations .......................................................................................................................................................... 14
7 Save Money............................................................................................................................................................................ 18
Appendix 1. Steps to be Considered in Fund Applications ............................................................................................. 22
Appendix 2. Basic Principles of Writing a Successful Project Proposal ..................................................................... 24
Appendix 3. Outline of a Project Proposal ...................................................................................................................... 25
Useful literature .......................................................................................................................................................................... 29
4 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
MONEY FOR EARTH! 5
1 Money and Fundraising
Environmental activities cost money. Since you are starting to read this brochure, the chance is pretty large that your
activities cost more money, than you have available. On one side, you could see this as a limitation of your possibilities.
Could you also reach your goals and target groups in a cheaper way? And how effective would that be? Some very active
groups work with hardly any money at all. On the other hand, it could mean that you cannot reach your target group as
effectively as is necessary. If you cannot afford your current activities, or future plans, you will have to start
fundraising. Fundraising simply means "getting money".
Basically there are 6 ways to deal with money problems:
a. Sell something (posters, brochures, T-shirts, etc.)
b. Membership-fees
c. Government subsidies
d. Sponsorship by Industry and Trade (corporate
sponsorship)
e. Funds and Foundations
f.Cut Your Expenses (Save Money)
Before we will take a more careful look at all of these
categories, here are a few general basic principles in
getting money:
Try to get money on the same level as the activity
You should try to find local money for local actions,
regional money for regional actions, national money
for national actions and international money for
international actions. The reason for this is that
national sources want to see effects with a national
impact. That is the level at which the people behind
these sources are thinking. Just after 1989, it was also
easy to get international money for local activities
since the funders expected a national impact from
these local activities. The funders hoped that these
examples would motivate others to do similar things,
using these activities as model projects that were
easily replicable. The more "normal" and numerous
environmental NGOs become, though, the more
conditions these international funds place on their
money.
The more money you are looking for, the longer it
will take to come in
This is true for all approaches in fundraising, but
especially for getting money from governments and
foundations. For example the difference between
doing a 20,000 ECU application at the European
Community and a 2,000 guilder application at Milieukontakt can be a year in waiting!
Working Group Schönberg
At the request of the East German environmental
NGOs Grüne Liga and Greenpeace Berlin, Milieukontakt
Oost-Europa and two environmental youth
organisations EYFA and A SEED started a working
group to stop Dutch toxic waste exports to
Schönberg, the largest East German toxic waste
dump.
This group has been working for more than three
years with a budget of almost zero. Half of its
members are students. Students can travel for free
in the Netherlands. The non-student members pay
for their travels themselves. Therefore, meetings are
held in the centre of the country. Members use
either their own money, university mail-service, or
the mail-service of their job and the same with telephone
calls. Photocopies are made at the working
spot or at the Milieukontakt office. Research is
done for free by students from several universities.
A report was published by an environmental faculty.
The Working Group has been quite successful in
mobilizing public opinion, cutting almost all the Dutch
waste exports to East Germany.
"We can work with hardly no money, so why waste
time on fundraising?" says Huub Scheele, one of
the members.
Box 1 Working with little money
6 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
2 Sell Something
Local activism started, way back in the Stone Age, with
selling something. You sell something and you operate
using the income you made. On the local level, you can
think of giving a party and selling drinks and snacks. If
it is a large party, the profit can be quite something! A
benefit-concert might also be a good money-maker,
because lots of people like music. Or you could sell
anything else. Don't forget for instance the possibility
of selling services, like setting up plans for energy
efficient households, advice to commercial firms,
making a waste management scheme for the city or
simply washing the dishes....
Selling things as a source of income is even used at the
international level. Organizations like Greenpeace and
WWF make a few hundred thousand US Dollars a year
by selling T-shirts, books, sweaters, posters, watches,
bicycles, shopping bags and other things!
"Washing dishes" is a method, which is widely used by scouting, all around the world. Young scouts go from door to
door and offer to do small jobs for a little payment. Global 2000, the largest national Austrian NGO, produces a pocket
calendar, sales from which pays for all operating
expenses each year. In Hungary, Magyar Madártani
és Természetvédelmi Egyesület (the Hungarian Bird
and Nature Protection Association) sells colouful
posters of endangered birds and reptiles, which can
now be found hanging on many Hungarian home's
toilet doors. Vinocito (Rainbow), an NGO in Štip,
Macedonia, collects paper, glass and other materials
and sells them to recycling companies.
However, there might be problems with the legislation
on non-profit organizations in your specific country.
An important thing to know is that it is possible that
you do not really make profits with what you sell in a
legal sense. The money you "earn" goes to your
environmental activities. "Profit" means earned money
for risk-carrying capital. Profit is made by commercial
organisations, and you are not commercial.
However, be careful with legislation! Getting into
trouble with the police for not having a license for
selling something for non-profit purposes in the street
is a bit of a pity, plus you will have to pay unexpected
fines.
Another possibility is that you do not ask a price for
what you offer, but a voluntary gift. Experience shows
that if you tell people how much the price normally
spoken would be, they in avarage give more than that!
These voluntary gifts can be booked as donations with
in most countries no repercussions in the form of
taxes. Of course you run the risk that people just take
your things and you end up with a loss.
More and more Central and Eastern European NGOs
are beginning to develop commercial activities to pay
for their non-commercial work. In some cases this
Bont voor Dieren
The Bont voor Dieren (Union/Fur for Animals) is a
Dutch NGO, campaigning against fur. BvD started to
sell t-shirts to finance their campaigns. They asked
well known (national and international) artists to give
them drawings of pictures against fur. These
pictures were printed on T-shirts. Together with
selling these T-shirts they also asked the buyers to
become regular donors of the Bont. This three year
campaign resulted in around 30.000 donors and an
income of several hundred thousand dollars.
Box 2 T-shirts against fur
ABIES
The Slovak environmental group Vlk ("Wolf") set up
the publishing firm ABIES. Through ABIES, Vlk is
able to publish translations of environmental books,
which otherwise would not be easily available for
Slovaks. In this way they do not only do some environmental
education, but they also plan to get some
money out of it in the long run. One year after the
start, ABIES already brings in some money in for
office equipment, in addition to the part received as
"over-head costs" in some project subsidies from
foundations.
Tiszta Levegöèrt (For Clean Air)
Anything you do for fun, you can do for money.
Concerts are a favourite fundraising event appealing
to youth. Bands and performers donate their time for
free, and all ticket sales go to the NGO and its
project(s). In 1993, a large concert was held in
Budapest in a large alternative club which donated
the space, and about 30 bands donated their time,
for the Tiszta Levegöèrt (For Clean Air) event. Two
trucks were parked outside the entrance, as each
person presented their ticket at the door, a tree was
moved from one truck to the other - each ticket
bought a tree for planting.
Box 3 Commercial activities and Music for trees
MONEY FOR EARTH! 7
functions, but in a lot of cases (as in the West) the commercial activities start to overshadow the non-commercial ones,
because commercial activities "pay" and therefore get top-priority.
Maybe it is a good idea to make a brainstorm on things you could do to earn money: sit together with your group and list
all the ideas you can think of both realistic and crazy. From crazy ideas, very often new realistic ones develop.
Macedonia
The following is the result of a brainstorm during a workshop on ways to save money, work with little money,
and raise money. The Democracy Network, one of the international funders in Macedonia, offered to
provide start-up money for many of the raised ideas...
(From Milieukontakt's Organization and Management workshops in Macedonia in July, 1995):
email in-kind contributions
government money from budget percentage from environmental fines
percentage from water bill church donations
asking for free postage from post office sponsorship
percent of car registration fees organizing concerts
foundations selling t-shirts
voluntary work environmental restaurant-shop
environmental garden selling training services
selling environmental education materials getting second-hand equipment
collecting fruits and selling them auction
selling ideas free photocopying from your members' offices
growing and selling flowers membership fees
recycling environmental whore-house
selling an eco-label establishing a sports team
selling milk and other healthy products punishing polluters
environmental tourism afforestation
collecting paper and bottles selling NGO logo
equipment from companies which close down renting bicycles
NGO gives bicycles to staff for use to / from office performances
being a guide in Skopje sell old stuff and get money e.g. clothes
establishing an eco-club selling clean water
energy efficient light bulbs selling NGO newspaper
use advertising space on electricity bills leave money or land in a will / testament
corporate sponsorship tax money to NGOs
advertising on local tv credit card % - "Working Assets"
holding nature tours or herb walks green ball - a fancy dress party / ball sponsored and proceeds go to bake
sales - baking food and selling it. NGOs
selling environmental impact assessment or education in your own company
telemarketing - calling people from telephone directories, mailing lists, from petitions gathered from actions, etc. and
asking them to join your NGO and / or donate money
lay-offs - when companies fire many people at once due to economics, their computers, desks, etc. are no longer
in use and you may be able to get them for free or very cheaply
fire sales - property damaged by fire, then sold or given away. Insurance will pay for new replacements.
decrease consumption / don't use so much
Box 4 Brainstorm for Money!
8 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
3 Membership Fees and Donations
In the environmental movement there is a saying: "Get active for the environment. And if you can't get active, pay us to
be active for you!" In the West it is common that organisations have a lot of members which only pay money to the
organisation, sometimes called passive members. These people have no time (or possibility) to be active, but they agree
with the aims of the organisation and want to support it. So, they pay the organisation to be active for them. Local
organisations can sometimes have a few hundred members (for example the Umweltbund Öklöwe in Leipzig, East
Germany), regional organisations a few thousand, national organisations in the Netherlands tens of thousands (the
National Society for the Preservation of the Waddensea has 60.000 members) and international organisations even
millions (Greenpeace has around 5 million members and donors). Using this principle of "pay us to be active for you",
you could even ask people to be a member of more organisations than one. Why not pay 15 different NGOs to be active
for you and be active in one yourself?
Membership fees do not have to cover all of the organisation's costs. You will also have other sources of income, but
the membership fee should be at least high enough that it can cover some of the costs. On the other hand, membership
fees should be payable by all the people you want to
join your organisation. The membership fee should be
adapted to what you think your target group is willing
and able to pay. In most Central and Eastern European
countries, people argue that membership fees are
impossible there, because people have no money at all.
Still, for example all Macedonian NGOs have
membership fees, but many are symbolic. It is not
such a bad idea to link the membership fee voluntarily
to income. Several western NGOs know this practice:
people with a minimum income (students, unemployed
people) pay a certain basic fee (comparable with
maybe the price of two beers a month); people with an
average income pay two times as much (maybe
comparable with the price of a book per month);
people with a higher income pay three to four times as
much. You do not have to know their income. People
can decide themselves how much they pay. Experience
shows that people tend to be quite honest in this.
Membership fees are considered to be the most stable
and independent source of income. They also are an
indication for your support in the population. If you do
the right things, the support of the population will
translate itself into more paying and active members.
If you do something which is not appreciated by the
people, you will loose paying members. Then you
know, that you either made a mistake, or that you
should explain more clearly why you did what you did.
In general in the West, organisations have a stable,
guaranteed membership of around 60% and a flowing
membership of around 40%. This means, that when
you loose 30% of your members in a certain year and
get the same amount of members back, you do quite
well.
You also can get money from donations or from
people that leave you money in their testament (will).
It is therefore important to make it known to people,
that they can spend their money in a clean and sensible
way. In an increasing amount of countries membership
The Grüne Liga
The Grüne Liga is the largest environmental
organisation in East Germany. It was founded by the
originally independent or dissident environmental
groups in the GDR. The first three years after the
changes, this organisation received heavy (projectand
unemployment-support-) subsidies from the
State. Due to these subsidies, Grüne Liga paid little
attention to membership. Therefore, the number of
paying members in most regions is very low. Now
the subsidies have almost stopped, and Grüne Liga
is experiencing heavy financial problems and a
number of their regional offices have had to close.
In two regions there have been different
developments: In Leipzig, the Grüne Liga member
organisation Ökolöwe directly after its establishment
in November, 1989 built up a steady membership of
several hundred. After the cut in subsidies in 1993,
they were able to maintain their strong position in
town on their own expenses. In Schwerin the
regional Grüne Liga branch started a membership
campaign in 1992, amongst many other activities
issuing a good- looking magazine Kerbholz, which
keeps the (new and old) members informed and
binds them to the organisation. "Interested people
get Kerbholz three months for free, after which they
are mostly so addicted to the information, that they
want to continue receiving it and become a member",
says Ute Kleindienst of Grüne Liga- Schwerin.
Box 5 Membership for financial security
MONEY FOR EARTH! 9
fees, donations and legacies (gifts in your testament)
are tax-deductible, so that the giver has also some
financial profit from giving. NGOs aquire buildings or
office space in this way, or even pieces of land which
they want protected or conserved.
When you have members and donors, you will have to
put some effort into keeping them. Keep them
informed! Regularly send them (every three months or
so) a newsletter. At the local level, a small copied
collection of newspaper clippings of your latest
actions and some smaller articles on what you do,
together with announcements of coming events will be
adequate. On the national level you could make it a bit
larger. By the way, this kind of information-spreading
is also a kind of environmental education with your
(paying) members as the target group.
4 Government Subsidies
Government subsidies are worldwide a very common
source of money. The government of a democratic
country is chosen to work for the well-being of the
citizens of that country. Environmental NGOs also do
that, so why shouldn't some of the tax-payers' money
go to NGOs? Besides that, the government can only
find the best solutions if it takes into account the
opinions and expertise of all of the population.
Citizens organize themselves amongst others in
environmental NGOs to act as a counter-part for
government expertise. Why shouldn't governments pay
for this expertise? And last but not least, in a
functioning democracy, government needs to hear
critical voices. Some governments therefore feel it
their democratic duty to finance their critics, in order
to create a fully functioning democracy.
Governmental subsidies can come in three forms:
a. core subsidies: money provided for
the ordinary running costs of an NGO: general
salaries, office costs, coordination costs,
etcetera.
b. project subsidies: money for certain projects.
It is limited in time and only for well described
purposes.
c. tenders: When government wants certain work to be done, for instance a piece of research or the
development of environmental educational material, it can issue a tender. A tender is an invitation to
(commercial) organizations to make an offer for how much money an how they think they can do this job. The
one who comes with the best offer gets the assignment (and the money to do it). In many cases also NGOs can
also compete for this money. In some countries, however, this is not possible without bringing the non-profit
status in danger.
An important thing to know is that some people in state-bodies might want to influence you by money, which is against
the principles of democracy, but it's human. So make sure that no-one puts any unacceptable conditions on the money
you receive. Of course conditions like proper bookkeeping and proper accounting for the money are logical, but NGOs
are not there to become an instrument of the State. Do not let them interfere in an unacceptable way with your strategies
The Recycling Group
The Recycling Group, in Prague, attempted what
many felt would be an impossible fundraising tactic
in Eastern Europe: a direct mailing. But to their
surprise, it worked. They identified a target group
from membership lists, a telephone directory, people
known to be sympathetic to its cause, mailing lists
from environmental magazines, etc. An "appeal"
(letter asking for money) was sent to the target
group with information about the NGO, and what the
money will be used for. If you would like to do it, do
not forget to include the bank account information!
Box 6 Direct Mailing - even in Central and Eastern Europe!
The Eco-Centre in Moldava nad Bodvou
Environmental Education in Moldava nad Bodvou in
East Slovakia was set up by members of the local
SZOPK branch in an old villa: the Eco-Centre. The
villa was bought and restored with money from the
state - the part SZOPK used to become, because it
was the former official nature protection
organisation. In 1993 this state money fell away.
To increase support in Moldava and to increase
chances for local funding, the Eco-Centre installed
an advisory board. In this there were also representatives
from the town. Not just a few people, but
important ones: from the town council, the local
school authorities, etcetera. Such a job of honour
made them feel even more important. It would cost
them only one meeting of 2 hours every two months.
These 4 or so important local people now feel also
responsible for the continuation of the centre and
lobby for local funding.
Box 7 PR for local support
10 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
and policies. And if they try... reconsider the use of their money! You might end up being part of the system causing the
environmental problem you are trying to solve. On the other hand, in a democratic country, government funds (taxpayer's
money!) form a clean source of money.
local
At the local level you could try to get money from the town. Maybe because you do educational work, which otherwise
would have to be done by schools. Maybe because you offer advise to the public, etc.. Find out what the local
environmental policy is. When there is a policy on paper, you can include quotes of this in your project proposal. If
there is no environmental policy, think of other fields like youth-policy, agriculture, industrial development, education.
Local departments in these fields might also have (some) money available for environmental projects. If there is no
local environmental policy, you could consider to start a project to write one with the local authorities.
Also think of the possibility to set up a project together with partner-towns in the West (twin-town). The partner-town
could , for instance, pay around 70% of the subsidy and your own town 30%. When the Western twin-town subsidizes
local environmental NGOs itself, this might have an especially good chance of success.
Be aware that for local subsidies you need to do a certain amount of PR (public relations work). You need to have
connections, and these connections will have to like you, even when you do disruptive actions.
national
At the national level, everyone knows the possibilities of asking money from the Ministry of the Environment. But what
about the Ministry of Education? Or Youth, or Transport, or Agriculture, or Sports and Recreation, or Tourism, or
Physical Planning, or Economic Affairs or maybe Foreign Affairs? There are a lot of examples of funding from these
Ministries throughout Europe. However, the amount of examples of interference with NGO policy is also somewhat
larger here. In the Netherlands, the Ministry of Environment sees NGOs as important partners in society and is quite
willing to subsidize good ideas. It does not interfere with the strategies of the ideas they are financing. Also, the former
Federal Committee on the Environment of the CSFR and the Czech Ministry had such a policy. These are very positive
exceptions. In Albania, Parlaiment gives a small annual fixed amount to all registered NGOs; but sometimes this has led
to people registrating an NGO just to receive money.
It is also a good idea to be informed about the official
policy of the ministry or ministries involved. All
countries in Central and Eastern Europe, for instance,
currently work on a National Environmental Action
Plan (NEAP) as a result of the Ministers Conferences
in Luzern (1994) and Sofia (1995). If, as an example,
there is an official policy (on paper) on environmental
education, see if your project fits in this policy and
point in your project proposal to the passages in the
policy paper. Quote the most important ones. The
same for international agreements and treaties with
other states. Think of World Bank reports,
international conventions like the Ramsar Convention
(on wetlands), the London Dumping Convention (on
sea pollution), the Paris Convention (on water pollution),
CITES (on the protection of rare species),
etcetera. In all these papers governments and ministries
make (sometimes concrete, sometimes vague)
promises. Show them in your proposal, that your
project can help them keeping this promise. Maybe
your government made official statements during the
UNCED conference in Rio de Janeiro (1992), or
signed the AGENDA 21 in Rio. You will probably also
be able to find quotes in these documents to point out that your project is helping to accomplish what your government
promised. Milieukontakt Oost-Europa's project on policy (the "NEAP" Project) can assist you in this.
EVA
The Foundation for Environmental Education (EVA)
established a few years ago the national centre for
environmental education, with financial support from
the Czech Ministry for the Environment. They won a
contest (in fact a tender) for this subsidy, pointing
out that they were already an essential part in the
National NGO Strategy on Environmental Education.
This strategy was worked out through an initiative of
WWF International, with participation by all NGOs in
the Czech Republic and Slovakia working on
environmental education. Because this strategy
paper was already recognized by the Ministry as
one of the best ways to develop environmental
education in the Czech Republic, EVA had much
better chances than other institutions trying to get
this money.
Box 8 A national strategy for national funds
MONEY FOR EARTH! 11
Göncöl Alliance and ÖkoProjekt ElbeRaum
With the reduction of foreign armed forces in Europe, and a de-escalation in general, many military bases
are closing - offering another fundraising opportunity. The Göncöl Alliance from Vàc, Hungary went to a
base closing in Germany. They came back with all sorts of equipment for free or very little money, even a
colour photocopy machine that needed minimal repair.
The ÖkoProjekt ElbeRaum, at that time a river project of the Grüne Liga Dresden, East Germany,
received a truck from the former-GDR army. They fitted it with a complete water testing laboratory from an
institute gone bankrupt. This mobile water laboritory was used during many campaigns in East Germany
and the Czech Republic.
Box 9 Military as a funding opportunity
12 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
5 Sponsorship by Industry and Trade(Corporate Sponsorship)
Industry and trade are profit-making ventures, and for several reasons (a good image, sympathy with your cause,
reduction of taxes) firms may be willing to support you. Some will support you with no questions asked, while others
will ask you to make clear that they supported you, as a
kind of advertisement. No matter what the reason,
proposals must be presented in a language they can
understand - "business is business." More often than
not, the firms will want to know what they get out of
their sponsorshhip, and you will have to be prepared to
tell them. Finding firms prepared to help you financially
costs a considerable amount of time. Also, the
firms that do not give you money after you have
approached them cost time. That means, you should
better not go unprepared; and to random firms. Do
some research beforehand, which firms might be
interested. Try to get tips from other people. Try to be
efficient with your own time and skip firms, with
which you do not have a reasonable chance.
You might be able to get sponsorship in the form of
money, but also in the form of "in-kind
contributions". This last category means, that a
company gives you certain goods or services. In-kind
contributions could be in the form of trees from a
local nursery for a tree planting action (Kalinka
Ecological Association, Macedonia), sandwiches for
protesters, a meeting place, office furniture, and paper.
Also resources (time from staff members) could be
donated: think of graphics, developing a poster or a
logo for you, or administrative staff, helping your
organization to set up a bookkeeping programme.
Clean and dirty money
There is clean money and there is dirty money. To
decide which is which is not an easy task. OK, hardly
any environmental NGO will accept money from a
well-known environmental sinner like the German
Bayer Chemicals; that is clearly dirty money. And
every organisation in Germany will accept money from
the Eco Bank; that's clean money. But what do you do,
when Tetra Pak (Europe's largest packaging firm, coresponsible
for kicking out reusable packaging in many
western and more and more Central and Eastern European
countries) offers to support an environmental
education project? Questions like these are very difficult
to answer. Money from certain firms or
companies (but also from certain foundations or
government bodies) may not be acceptable for you and
your organisation for several reasons:
tactical: The firm (or government) sets certain conditions, or you expect them to set these. Or maybe you are afraid that
others (members, public, other organisations...) will not like to see the name of your organisation connected with this
firm. Or maybe you would want to attack this firm soon and therefore you don't want to be dependent on their money.
Szentendrei Papìrgyàr
Many Hungarian NGOs and their publications
receive free 100% post-consumer recycled paper
from Szentendrei Papìrgyàr, the only such factory
in the country. In return, the factory gets its logo in
all the publications using the free paper, thus
gaining free advertising for the market to which the
company's products most appeal.
Zelena Akcija Zagreb
Knowing that every household in Zagreb receives an
electric bill, Zelena Akcija took advantage of the
extra space on each bill and asked the electric
company if they could advertise their NGO in the
space with a message about energy conservation.
The company agreed. Zelena Akcija was also
careful to place contact information for the group,
and the bank account information for donations and
membership.
Box 10 Free advertisement
Eco Club Independent
In Odorheiu Secuiesc, in the Transilvanian part of
Romania, the Eco Club Independent has been active
since the early 1980's.
Last year, they organized activities on Earth Day.
As they did before, they approached smaller and
larger firms in town for a small sponsorship of the
festivities. Around 20 firms responded with around
20.000 Lei (40 US$) per firm!
József Szabó: "We have already had contacts with
some of the firms for over 10 years, but the new
ones also responded well". Even under new
circumstances these firms continue their support!
Box 11 Many small sponsors make a big amount
MONEY FOR EARTH! 13
ethical: A lot of organisations don't agree with the slogan "money doesn't stink". They feel they cannot accept money
from for instance heavy polluting companies, or firms with a bad social policy. Generally a lot of environmental
organisations refuse money from the weapons industry and most of the chemical industry. But also from foundations of
former war criminals, or members of the mafia.
It is not easy to give general rules for what is clean and what is dirty money. I suggest, that when you have doubts about a
certain partner: consult other NGOs on it. In any case your most important partners within the NGO-world! So that you
prevent tensions arising because of accepting (assumed) dirty money.
But why wouldn't you ask a regional bank to sponsor a poster or a group of young people wanting to visit an international
meeting? Or at the national level, why wouldn't you write a letter to a computer firm asking whether they could sponsor
you with some computers?
Remember that if you do not try, you'll definitely get nothing! So put on your suit and tie and go speak to that director.
Do not forget to bring beautiful pictures of your work, leaflets and good looking project descriptions.
14 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
6 Funds and Foundations
Since the political changes in Central and Eastern Europe, funds and foundations have been, besides in some countries
government funding, the largest source of income for environmental NGOs. The reason for this is clear: it was difficult
to find other money and the West had promised to help the East, so there were high expectations. Several funds and
foundations started an active approach in supporting (in their eyes) good initiatives. But as already said in the
introduction: they mainly funded initiatives from which they expected spin-off effects and follow-up activities. In this
way, large international foundations even financed small local environmental libraries. They expected that from these
local examples, others would take over the idea and start such a library in their own town with other sources of money.
Because strong spin-off effects from local initiatives get smaller, the chance to get funding from an international
foundation for a local project also becomes smaller. But there are foundations, specialized in funding local initiatives,
and for larger (national or regional) campaigns it is still possible to get money from one of the large international funds.
Although the amount of money available through funds and foundations is not exactly growing at the moment, it will
remain one of the more important sources for the Central and Eastern European NGOs in the coming years. Be aware
that such world-wide polluters such as Waste Management Inc., Chevron, and others, have also established corporate
foundations for environmental activities.
General problems in fundraising for Central and Eastern European NGOs
Many Central and Eastern European NGOs tend to expect a lot from Western funds. This is very logical, because other
ways of getting money have their specific difficulties. Membership-fees are not very popular, because they remind
people of the compulsory membership of solidarity- movements, trade unions and other mass organizations during the
old days. Moreover, a lot of people have little to spend and/or rather spend their money on other things. Government
subsidies are often seen as a threat to the independence of the NGOs, and sometimes they truly are.
Western funds often can supply hard currency, which for the moment, in most Central and Eastern European countries
means a lot. Due to the extreme fluctuations in exchange rates, hard currency offers the possibility to buy Western
goods (computers, copiers, etc.).
Western funds seem to have a lot of money available.
However, this source also has its negative aspects:
- There is much less money available for NGOs than necessary to cover the actual need. Do not forget, that there are
hundreds of environmental NGOs in each country (including local ones), that all need or shortly will need money!
Some funds receive hundreds of applications. This means that they have to disappoint many applicants. Funds that are
heavily overestimated by Central and Eastern European NGOs include FoEI/CEAT, Milieukontakt Oost-Europa,
German Marshall Fund, several German funds, East-West Ltd., WWF, but to a certain extent also the Regional
Environmental Center.
- Western funds tend to put conditions to the money they give; they very often like to interfere with internal matters and
shape organizational structures in a Western way. This is not always a conscious policy. Even Milieukontakt sometimes
does this - completely unconscious; and we apologize for that, but we are also human. Other examples, which get
regularly mentioned in this respect are the Regional Environmental Center, ISAR, the European Union (EU) and
several Western governments.
- A lot of Western sources are only open for larger projects, because the administration involved with smaller projects
cannot be covered by them. Larger projects means projects of ten-thousands to hundred-thousands of dollars. This
goes for most of the larger international funds like the EU (PHARE and TACIS), Western governments, Council of
Europe, NATO, Global Environmental Facility (GEF), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),
World Bank, etc.
- Larger funds do not want to receive applications directly from local groups. They do not have the time and possibilities
to get to know the groups.
- Full dependency on western money by NGOs in Third World countries has led to a large distance between NGOs and
the population because of jealousy and because of loss of contact with the local population. Already in certain Central
and Eastern European countries there are examples of this.
- The bureaucracy involved sometimes is quite considerable, and requires a lot of time. You have to show the statutes of
your organization, a financial report of the last years, a chartered financial audit, registration as an NGO and a non-
MONEY FOR EARTH! 15
profit, etc. US foundations require an Internal Revenue Service (IRS, federal tax office) registration number for your
NGO signifying your tax-exempt/non-profit status, but acknowledge similar registration with documentation if
registered as an non-profit NGO abroad (reciprocal agreements).
- Not all the money is always given directly, but in fractions. This means, that the fund will give you a certain percentage
directly and the rest after you submitted a report on the activities, including a full financial account. So you get part of
the money only after your activity is completed and you can prove you have spent it according to the goals you asked it
for! You will have to find a credit to overcome the time-gap to the moment you receive your last part of the money.
This can be as much as 50% (e.g. with some EU subsidies), but more often 50% at the start, 40% halfway, and a final
10% after the final report.
- It is difficult to get core-funding (money for salaries, office costs and overhead).
It is therefore wise not to become fully dependent on Western money. Also try to develop financial independence by
building-up a steady membership, by collection of donations from the population and other forms.
How to deal with Western funds
Below are some important points to watch out for with
applications to Western funds.
Before you make an application for financial support,
you have to know what you want to do. Your plans
should be written down in a project description. In this
paper you should write down your background ideas,
your strategy, your detailed budget calculation and
your time-table. This project description is there to
help you in your own planning. It is far too detailed to
be used as a project proposal. You send a project
proposal to a fund or foundation.
The formal (written) application
The formal application has to fulfil certain standards
or guidelines. Before you start writing, you have to
find out the criteria of the fund and to know how they
want you to apply. So, make a telephone call to them
or ask their national offices (REC, the Soros
Foundation, the Environmental Training Project, ISAR,
the Partnership Project and Milieukontakt have
offices or representatives in several Central and
Eastern European countries). It has to contain a good
description of the project, a budget calculation and the
name of a responsible person. Besides that (in
appendices) there needs to be a description of the applying organization and proof of the organization's sound financial
background (when possible a financial account of the last year). This is more difficult than it looks! The EU refused a
majority of projects from East Germany in 1991 because of bad formulation!
Another thing is that the application should not be too long: write clear, short, concrete and to the point. The vaguer and
longer an application is, the longer it will take before it gets a priority for the one who is looking at it!
Some foundations ask for a "letter of intent" first, or a brief description - so for these, do not immediately send a full
project proposal. The letter should be only 1-2 pages, and be a concise and clear summary of your full proposal. This
must catch their attention enough for them to ask for your full proposal.
Ask the fund you want to approach for their most recent "annual report" to get a better idea of the kinds of projects they
like and the average amounts granted. This is public information which they are happy to provide. Sometimes funds have
their own standard application-forms. Ask for them. They print them for a reason - so use them.
What can be financed by Western funds
The UfU waste-mapping network
The East German NGO/Institute UfU (Independent
Institute for Environmental Concerns) in Halle set up
a successful campaign to map waste dumps and
other potential dangerous sites in the former GDR.
In 1993, they wanted to transfer the experience to
other Central and Eastern European countries.
What helped them a lot was that they had several
leaflets available:
- one stating what UfU is
- one about the waste-mapping project in East
Germany
On this basis they worked out in one day a leaflet on
their ideas for the transfer. With the three leaflets
together they started their first informal lobby. Later,
this was followed by official proposals.
"One of the strong things, when they approached
us, was, that they could show directly who they were
and what they wanted", said Ton van Eck, Poland
co-ordinator of Milieukontakt Oost-Europa.
Box 12 Making clear who you are
16 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Western funders all have their special peculiarities. However, generally things like over-head costs, general office costs
and salaries are not supported, or only to a certain maximum which usually lays between 6 and 20% of the total
project-budget. Milieukontakt does finance operational costs, but only for very small amounts of money (because we're
not rich...) as does the Environmental Partnership for Central and Eastern Europe. What most funds like to support (I
can't help the generalization, it's just the truth, though there are positive exceptions) are: meetings and seminars,
training, research, magazines, leaflets, brochures and other publications, travel costs, copiers and computers.
Cooperation
Most funds are very fond of projects in which there is a form of cooperation between different NGOs or between NGOs
and other third parties. Cooperation projects generally have a larger chance to be granted. The Regional Environmental
Center particularly likes to see cooperation between domestic NGOs, but among NGOs in the regiuon even better. But
beware: if you do not want to cooperate, don't. Don't let Western money tell you what you have to do!
The snow-ball effect
Some funds like multiplier effects. You start an activity and you take care that it spreads. Replicability is also a positive
selling point to a funder : can your project easily be used as a model project and copied by others in the region?
Target-groups
Be clear about your target-groups. Who do you want to reach? Some funds like to see involvement from for instance
local authorities. The EU particularly likes to see the multi-sectoral approach, especially with the business/industry
sector, including transport, energy, and others.
Lobbying
One of the largest problems of most (Western) foundations and other funds is that they do not have the faintest idea who
is who in Central and Eastern Europe, and that they get too many applications. Therefore, it is very important to lobby
for your application. Make a telephone call to the foundation or fund on beforehand, to ask what the conditions are and
who is responsible for handling applications of your kind. After the application is submitted you should phone to ask if
the application is received, if it is formulated right, if you have to change certain things. Afterward you should phone
regularly (but not every day! Every month is sufficient) to check how things are going. When your application comes in,
you must be remembered at the end of the day, and during the review process. Add a human voice or face to your paper.
This will all cost some money, but if you do not invest it, chances can get very small.
If you are a member of FoEI or the European Environmental Bureau (EEB in Brussels), the Brussels offices of these
organizations might be willing to do some personal lobbying for you in the case of EU-applications. Maybe some of the
major (Central and Eastern European!) NGOs could do some lobbying for you at the REC. People you know at the
national offices of WWF might be willing to lobby for you at their international office. See to it that you make the right
friends!
Cooperation with a Western NGO or a larger network might also help you to overcome the fund's innocence about your
existence and importance. For instance a letter of support from Milieukontakt, FoEI/CEAT or GREENWAY could
enlarge your chances, because the funds know these organizations. For instance we as Milieukontakt will not support
everything; but when it looks good, we are certainly willing to support you.
Your reputation/Credibility
When your organization has already existed for a long time, it is good to point out shortly in your application, how long
you have already been active, what successes you have had, with whom you have been cooperating, successful previous
grants from funders, and what kind of special knowledge and interests you have. Do not be modest in this. You
succeeded in what you have set out to do and others just might not know this. Remember that the people of the fund or
foundation working on your application might not know you at all, even if you had contact with the fund before. There
might be different people working on your issue or application now. A short list will do even better than a long brochure.
Remember these people only have only little time available per money-request.
Honesty
Most foundations want to help you, when you are open and honest. When they cannot give you the money, they might
help you to find other sources. If you make an application to two funds, tell them. When they know (you can also give
them the phone/fax number of the contact person of the other fund), these different funds might try to make an
arrangement between them to finance the project.
MONEY FOR EARTH! 17
Do not ask for too much deliberately. If you establish a name for asking more money than you need, you will definitely
always get less than you need. If you have a name for honesty, your chance to get exactly what you need is much larger.
People who give money are not stupid. They quickly notice when you do ask for too much money.
The amount of money
Some funds grant large sums (more than $ 100.000), others only small ones (Milieukontakt grants only up to $ 2.500).
Some funds only grant part of the project (e.g. the EU only grants up to 25% or 80% of the total sum, depending on the
budget it comes from), and in this case you have to find other sources as well; some only fund 100%, so they can claim
it as their project, their success. Also here: ask beforehand what the fund wants to see and is willing to do.
A general tip for fund applications is: do not hesitate to ask the fund itself what they want you to do to improve your
chances. And do it personally or by telephone. You are NOT a beggar and these people are not there to make your life
difficult. In our experience, they are almost always very happy to be of help.
Keep your contact persons at your fund informed. Send them the reports of your activities and your publications. Invite
them to attend a conference they sponsored, when you are sure that this will not disturb the meeting and is good for your
credibility.
When you do not get the money, it is a wise thing to get into contact with the fund or foundation to figure out why. Funds
and foundations are used to this, so they will not feel embarrassed to tell you. In addition, you can learn from your
mistakes for your next application.
A last warning: a bad project will harm your organization in the future! Even when it is formulated well, the lobbying
is super and there is a lot of cooperation in it. You must be able to carry out what you promised. You first have to know
WHAT you want, WHY you want it, WHEN and HOW you are going to do it and WHO is going to do it. Fundraising is
80% investment in a good idea and good planning and only 20% investment in the actual act of application and lobbying.
When you get funds with a badly planned project... then you really are in trouble: it is more difficult to spend $ 100.000,
when you haven't figured out on what, than to apply for it.
If you begin to abuse the money... problems might get even worse. You will damage your relation with most funds (and
of course we and all those other wonderful environmentalists will never want to talk to you again).
Finally, if you don't get money on the first try, but you think your plans are good: NEVER GIVE UP!
18 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
7 Save Money
In the introduction we already stressed it: working cheaper is also a possibility. When you have too little money
available and possible sponsors put too many conditions to their money, you have a choice of three: accept the
conditions (which means you start to be fund-driven),
drop your plans, or... cut expenses. There are many
ways in which you can work cheaper. But why would
you?
A few good reasons, not to use available sources of
money, can be:
- High budgets are very motivating for paid staff, but
for volunteers they give the impression that
everything can be paid for. This is bad for the
volunteers' motivation to do things themselves,
which in turn is bad for their over-all motivation to
be active in your NGO.
The East German NGO Grüne Liga once had 450
people working on a paid basis. The money came
from the Ministry of Social Affairs to fight
unemployment. As a result most of the active
volunteers left the work to the "professionals" and
disappeared from the organization. Nowadays,
Grüne Liga does not use these employment support
measurements to such a large extend anymore. They
prefer activities to be run by volunteers, whereas
the paid people have a stimulating and
coordinating role.
- High budgets may destroy your image of a modest
organization.
The youth NGO hnutí Brontosaurus in the Czech
Republic holds its Annual Members Meetings in
school buildings. The participants also sleep there.
It is felt that this is more in accordance with the
message they want to spread than having meetings
in expensive hotels.
- High budgets may give you an image of "people that
want to look important."
One of our partner-groups sometimes receives
criticism from other NGOs, because it is very
successful in fundraising. Besides that, it maintains
a high level of public relations work. They say
themselves that their expensive dinners and
excursions are part of their successful strategy.
Some others, however, feel that this organization is
only working for money. As a reaction to that, these
critical groups have become more careful in their
own budgeting.
There can be more reasons to work with less money,
like:
- You may have better purposes for the money
- There may be too many conditions on the available
sources.
- Available sources may be "dirty money."
- It may be just plainly impossible to find any money
and you still don't want to give up your plans.
- Why spend money if you do not need to?
Fund-driven organizations versus project-driven
fundraising
One of our partner-organizations is very good in
getting funds. They run a lot of important projects,
mainly financed by Western foundations. They also
need to run enough projects to be able to let the
organization function and pay its staff. They could
be called a typical fund-driven organization: the
funding conditions have a very large influence on the
organization's policy.
Some NGOs form several entities of itself under
different names and registrations, for example an
NGO, foundation, and institute. This allows the NGO
to be eligible for many kinds of funds, however, it is
a strong sign of being fund-driven as well.
Fund-driven also means applying for grants or
tenders for projects just because money is available
- regardless of the NGO's interests, specialties, or
capacity. Once offered a signifigant sum to
coordinate a regional campaign for sustainable
packaging, Hnutí DUHA declined because they were
already doing too much - even though the
organization could have used the money.
PERLA in Albania wanted to keep its Annual General
Meeting in the neighbourhood of a national park in
the south of the country. They wanted to do some
environmental education for their members together
with the more formal part of the programme.
However, it was difficult to find enough money mainly
because PERLA refused to meet some of the criteria
put on the money by some possible funders. They
almost relocated their meeting to the capital, Tirana,
to save money. Only a few weeks before the event,
intensive lobbying and a good public relations policy
secured funds, without having to compromise on the
programme. This was an example of project-driven
fundraising.
Box 9 Getting priorities straight
MONEY FOR EARTH! 19
There are many ways to save money. The examples below are the result of a short brainstorm we once had in an NGO
while looking for ways to save money on organizing a large Annual Members Meeting:
- Use people who refuse to serve in the army (conscientious objectors or c.o.'s) or students who need to do a
traineeship instead of paid people for certain tasks.
- Use telephones and mail-services of your working place for communication.
- Send mass-mail (for instance invitations) for discount prices (contact your local post-office for details).
- Use second hand furniture, computers, etcetera.
- Share equipment (especially very expensive things like computers for Desk Top Publishing) with more organizations.
In Miskolc, Hungary, the Ecological Institute for Sustainable Development, Green Action, and Holocene all
share computers and office space. The Regional Environmental Center in Budapest has an "open
day" once a week for all Hungarian NGOs to use some computers and photocopiers for free.
- Use the backside of already used paper to write upon (saves money and the environment).
- Use electronic mail instead of fax for international communication and fax instead of mail for local communication.
- Have the office in the house of one of the members of the organization.
- Have meetings in the house of one of the members of the organization.
- Keep meetings in a central place to avoid long distance travel.
- Let people hitch-hike instead of taking public transport or car.
- Let people stay as a guest at the homes of members and friends instead of a hotel.
- Serve vegetarian meals during the meeting (also better for the environment).
- Make a small but very visible action during the meeting instead of a large one.
- Reduce 2 pages onto one and do double-sided copying on recycled paper.
- Energy efficiency. Using insulation, energy efficient light bulbs, etc.
Also a lot of very creative (and sometimes illegal) ways to save money were mentioned. One example:
- Soak stamps in soap, before putting them on the envelope. The recipient takes off the stamp and can wash off the ink of
the post-office stamp, and the stamp can be used once more.
20 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Milieukontakt Oost-Europa has helped a lot of Central- and East-European NGOs with their fundraising. If you
have good plans, we are also willing to help you. We will help you on the basis of mutual trust. Hereby our
criticism will not mean, that we don't like you, but merely, that we want to improve your chances on doing a
good project. Creative criticism is meant to help you grow.
Milieukontakt can help in different cases:
- with setting up a project description
Especially the first time, it is not so easy to write down your plans. We are willing to help you in this.
Try to make an appointment with one of the people of Milieukontakt to visit you. You can also send us
proposals for comment.
- ideas for fundraising
When you have a nice project and you would like to hear other opinions on how you can get the money
for this, we are prepared to help you setting up a fundraising strategy. Write us your plans and we will write or
fax back our ideas as soon as possible. Another possibility is to discuss your plans with people from
Milieukontakt when you meet them.
- ideas for funds
Milieukontakt has many contacts with funds and foundations active in Central and Eastern Europe. You
can call on us to get suggestions on whom you could ask for money. We need a copy of your project
description to be able to think of ideas.
- comments on proposals
If you have written a proposal to a certain fund or foundation, we are willing to advise you on how to
improve this proposal. You can send it to us together with the project description and we will send or fax you
our comment as soon as possible.
- letters of support for good projects
When you are applying to a fund or foundation, which does not know your organization, you can ask us
to include a letter of recommendation in your proposal. Send us your proposal and project description, and if
we think it is a good project, we will send or fax you a letter of recommendation as soon as possible.
- ideas for connections of your projects with international agreements, treaties and reports
Milieukontakt has a project on policy and the process around the Environmental Action Plan for
Europe. The project coordinator Ewout van der Weij has a lot of knowledge about the contents of
international agreements. He is willing to give you tips in which international agreements and reports you may
find texts, which you might be able to use for your project proposal.
- money
In Milieukontakt's country projects there is money available for grants. These are small funds,
however, giving grants of up to around DM 2.500 (around $ 2.000). They can help you covering travel-costs,
materials (like office equipment), overhead costs, costs for networking projects, campaigns, pilot projects,
publications, etcetera. Sometimes there is also money available for travel-costs for countries with which
there is no country project. Ask for a copy of our latest annual report to get examples.
You can best contact the coordinator of the country project of your country or the Milieukontakt consultant in
your country. If there is no country project with your country or you are working on an international project,
contact Marga Verheije (general coordination) or Jan Haverkamp (Organization and Management Project).
Box 10 How Milieukontakt Oost-Europa can help you.
MONEY FOR EARTH! 21
Country coordinators, consultants and contact persons
Albania - no country project; contact persons: Marga Verheije and Jan Haverkamp
Belarus - no country project; contact person: Anne-Marie Heemskerk
Bulgaria - no country project; contact person: Ewout van der Weij
Central Asia - Jackeline Mekkes (coordinator), vacancy (consultant)
Czech Republic - Sybe Visser (coordinator), Zuzana Stroufová (consultant)
Hungary - Paul Kosterink (coordinator), Vera Mora (consultant)
Moldava - no country project; contact persons: Math Noortman and Anne-Marie
Heemskerk
Poland - Ton can Eck (coordinator), Przem Czajkowski (consultant)
Romania - Math Noortman (coordinator), Simona Hentia and Zoltan Hajdu
(consultants)
Russia - Anne-Marie Heemskerk (coordinator), vacancy (consultant)
Slovakia - Sybe Visser (coordinator), Oto Makys (consultant)
Ukraina - Anne-Marie Heemskerk (coordinator), Andrej Glazovoj (consultant)
all ex-Yugoslav Republics - no country projects; contact person: Jan Haverkamp
all not mentioned CIS countries - no country project; contact person: Anne-Marie Heemskerk
All employees of Milieukontakt Oost-Europa are reachable by post, telephone, fax or electronic mail:
Milieukontakt Oost-Europa
P.O. Box 18185
NL - 1001 ZB AMSTERDAM
The Netherlands
tel.: +31.20.6392716
fax: +31.20.6391379
e-mail: mkontakt@antenna.nl
Box 10 (continued) How Milieukontakt Oost-Europa can help you
22 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Appendix 1. Steps to be Considered in Fund Applications
?= personnel requirements/people in your group
1. Making a plan
Before making an application
? Make a detailed project description, including:
- the goals of the project
- the ideas behind the project
- the target group(s) of the project
- the organisational structure of the project
- the instruments being used in the project
- a timetable for the project
? Make a detailed calculation of the costs of the project, in which do not forget:
- overhead costs: costs for the coordination of the project made by your NGO (up to, for example, 15% of
the total; depending on the funds you apply to)
- salary costs
- costs for administrative work: postage, telephone, etc.
- costs for administrative equipment (computers, copy-machines, etc.): Some funds don't pay for a full
computer, but only for 33% of the computer price per year of the project!
? The start of this process can best be done in a group, when possible, on the basis of a worked out idea
of one of the group members. Working this out in detail is a task for a small committee (two to four
people). The budget can be worked out best by one person who must receive comments from the one
in your organization who is responsible for finances. Developed plans can be discussed in the group
again.
2. Choosing a fund
When looking for the funds to which you want to apply:
? also look for other sources to keep you independent. Sources for money are:
1. Selling something (posters, brochures, T-shirts, services, etc.)
2. Membership-fees
3. Government subsidies
4. Sponsorship by industry and trade
5. Funds
6. Save money (work cheaper)
? have a look in directories of funds and foundations and talk with other NGOs, who might be interested in
funding your project
? make a telephone call to the funds you want to address and:
- ask them to send you documentation about the fund
- ask for the conditions for funding, including:
- if they fund projects in your country
- to send you their written guidelines (read them carefully!)
- to send you standard application forms
- if they grant 100% or only part of projects
- if they grant on an over-all description or only on parts of the project (equipment or seminars or travel
costs or literature, etc.)
- if they grant salaries and overhead costs, and when so, to what extent
- what their priorities are (cooperation-projects, environmental education, etc.)
- to what amount of money they grant (maybe you should only apply to them for a part of the project or
a smaller project, which is part of something larger)
- ask for regulations concerning the formulation of the application
- make yourself and your NGO known to the fund
? check with other NGOs what kind of experiences they have had with this fund:
- for special peculiarities
- if it is a "clean" source of money
? Start creating the first ideas in a brainstorm by the group. Then divide tasks, who is going to work out
MONEY FOR EARTH! 23
which way of funding. The approach of funds is a one-person thing: have one steady contact person for
that task. Let more people ask around for experiences.
3. Making the application
(see also Appendix 2 and 3)
? Write a short, clear and to-the-point project description
? Write shortly about your own organisation, how long it has existed, its successes, with whom you
cooperate and which experience you have concerning the topic you are asking money for
? Add a clear timetable, cost-calculation and c.v. (curriculum vitae = a short life-description) of the main
people responsible for the project
? Mention which other funds you are applying to, and to other sources of income
? DON'T FORGET:
* to mention a responsible person
* to mention your address, telephone, fax number and e-mail address
* to mention the bank account on which the money should be transferred
? When you apply for first time: ask other experienced NGOs for advice on the formulation
? Let one person make a draft of the project proposal and let it be reviewed by a few others, eventually
be discussed in the group.
4. After sending the application
? make telephone call to find out:
- if the application arrived
- if it is formulated well
- what the rest of the procedure will be
? call regularly to find out how things are standing (but not too often)
? keep a record of how the contacts with different funds develop. You can use that for future fundraising
? The contact person for the project in your group is usually the one responsible for this.
5. After being rejected or having received the money (during and after the project)
? if you don't get the money, find out what the reason is
? if the fund gave the money, sign the contract(s)
? if the fund gave the money, send a thank-you letter
? keep the funds informed about what you are doing with the money (especially when you change plans),
to keep them feeling positive about your NGO. When the fund gave you guidelines for reporting, keep
close to them
? mention the fund in your publications, when they appreciate this
? after the project, send the funds a detailed account of your expenses, when they want to see this
(forgetting this might strongly influence next applications); return the money that is left (doing so improves
your credibility and chances with a next application)
? keep a record of how the fund application went (on paper), so you can use this experience for later
applications
? evaluate these experiences
? send any products developed during the project, and a mid-term report - even if not required
6. Finally
In some cases you will notice that the fund which is interested in your project, asks you to re-write the proposal.
That does not really have to be a problem. It probably just wants to make it fit into their guidelines, so that your
chances on a positive decision will increase. Watch out during this process that the project still fits your needs
and not only their's.
These are not all the things, you have to think of, when you are applying for funds, however, these are the most
important things. We cannot guarantee that you will be successful if you follow this scheme, but we wish you
success with all good ideas.
24 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Appendix 2. Basic Principles of Writing a Successful Project
Proposal
The Ten Commandments of Daniel Swartz (September, 1993)
1. Catch Their Attention - and keep it!: Donors sometimes see hundreds of proposals a week, they must
remember you. The places to grab them are the title page and the summary.
2. Use the Language of the Donor: Be sure to use the same terms that they do. Confusion often results
from different working definitions of the same terms or phrases.
3. Be Positive: Never use "would", "could", "should", "might" or "may". Always use "will". If you do not
have confidence in yourself and your project, they won't.
4. Understandability: Your proposal should have a good organizational structure so that everything flows
smoothly. And have a native speaker proof-read for grammar and spelling. Do not rely on a computer
spell-checker.
5. Manageable Size / Realistic: Do not try and do too much. The best project is small with measurable
results which can be pointed to as a success. Show the proposal to others for a "reality check."
6. Chicken McNugget Theory: Everything in the proposal should be in bite-size pieces: containing all
necessary information, but small enough to swallow in one bite and not so big that the reader will choke.
Use this especially in your strategy part and the expected results section.
7. Use the Donor's Guidelines: The donor wrote them for a reason - follow them closely. If the guidelines
say that they only fund nature conservation projects, don't submit an alternative energy proposal. Utilize
the organizational structure of the proposal they outline.
8. Focus, Focus, Focus: If you are doing an alternative energy project, don't start writing about saving the
whales. Again, remember manageable size.
9. Credibility: Can be emphasized in the background sections (description of your organization, c.v.'s of
project staff, letters of support from other NGOs, institutions or people) and the appearance of the
proposal.
10. Completeness: If they ask for three copies, provide three copies, etcetera.
MONEY FOR EARTH! 25
Appendix 3. Outline of a Project Proposal
By Jan Haverkamp on the basis of "A Guide to the Preparation of Project Proposals" (IUCN)
and "Basic Principles of Writing a Successful Project Proposal" (Daniel Swartz)
Although some foundations, governments and
other funding institutions have their own forms,
many do not. In these cases you could follow the
outline given here. It is a general framework yours
can, of course, be different from it in
details. This outline also indicates what you can
expect from the forms of funders using a
standard format.
1. Cover Page
A potential donor will at first probably only look
at three pieces of your project proposal: cover
page, summary, and budget. The cover page
provides an opportunity to catch the donor's
attention from the start. Be sure to include the
title of your project, and your organization's
name. A quote from an important person on a
subject relevant to your proposal is a good eyecatcher,
and can set the tone for the rest of the
proposal. For example, a proposal to raise public
awareness in Ukraina over nuclear power might
use a quote from Greenpeace's Shutdown book,
or from John Hontelez (Chair of FoEInternational)
in his Russian Roulette. Ensure
that they remember your proposal at the end of
the day on the basis of the cover page!
The cover page should give all the information
for the potential funder on one page.
Name of the organization proposing the project.
Title of the project. Make it clear and eyecatching.
Be short and use the latest terminology.
Implementing organization - The names of the
organizations carrying out the project. This can
be the same as the organization proposing the
project, but can be more specific (branch,
department). When more organizations are
responsible for the project, include all names.
Also when specialists take part. Only give the
address of the contact person. You may include
other addresses in an appendix to the proposal.
Contact person - the name of the person who
can give more information when needed and is
the responsible person for the project. In case
these are different people, mention both.
The Eco Group
Project Proposal
to the Foundation for Good Eco Projects
"We only will be able to fight the Climate Catastrophe when the whole
population will be involved." (Speech of the Prime Minister of East Xustan
mr. Xuvinitch during the Climate Top in Berlin, March 1995)
Project Title: Climate Change Action Days
Implementing The Eco Group
Organization Industry Road 14
XU - 329 00 NEWTOWN
East Xustan
tel./fax: +999.91.29301
e-mail: ecogroup@susnet.xu
bank account: 30495 2093 59
bank: Xustan Savings Bank, Newtown
Contact Person: Yuan Xuvanitch
Date of Submission: April 1996
Duration of the Project: Two Months
Cost of the Project: US$ 13,250
Amount asked from
the Foundation: US$ 5,000
Summary:
Forty years of communist industrial policy did not pay much attention to
energy use and energy efficiency. Still, there are a few possibilities to
improve this, although Xustan is, after the United States and Russia, one
of the largest emitters of CO2 in the World. During five Climate Action
Days around World Climate Day (15 November), the Eco Group will make
the effects of high energy use known to the population of Xustan. They
will organize street-actions, accompanied by a television programme and
a travelling exhibition, showing alternatives. After this, volunteers of the
Eco Group will form Clean Energy Brigades. These will help people to
reduce their energy use through simple and cheap technical means. After
the project, the government of Xustan will have a broad basis in the
population to fight energy wastage.
26 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
The date of submission is mentioned to indicate to the donor how current the project is, and often functions as a record
of projects submitted. Sometimes projects are not accepted for funding for months, or even years. In that case, the
donor can see that the budget will need revision for instance.
The duration of the project is mostly given in months or years. Include all needed time in this period: preparation, the
time of the activities and the evaluation. Projects for more than two years are very unusual. In case your project runs
longer, it might be advisable to cut it into phases and try to find funding for each of the phases.
Cost of the project - the total amount of money needed for the project. Details will be on the budget page. Give the
total of costs in the currency which is most recognizable to the potential funder. US dollar is a widely used unit. For EUfunding
the normal currency is the XEU (Currency of the European Union, also called ECU (European Currency Unit)).
In case of doubt, use US dollar and the local currency calculations.
The amount asked from the potential funder gives a clue about how much money actually is involved for the funder.
Here the potential donor can see whether the project is not too large or too small for her/him.
The project summary is the most vital part of the proposal, and is very often the only part read by many people involved
in processing your request. The summary can be part of the cover page, but you can also put it on a separate page. Never
make it longer than half a page, however! This is not a project description or a project plan. It is concise, hard-hitting and
informative, describing who, what, where, when, why and how (the 6 w's). It also gives the expected results. You can set
it up in the form: short description background; goal/objectives; strategy summary.
2. The project proposal
The proposal will be read by the possible funder to find the answers to detailed questions. Usuallly, the staff-person
responsible for dealing with your proposal will be the only one reading this part. Still, it is important: it enables her/him
to answer the questions from those who have to decide on your application.
1 Goals / objectives - this part describes in a few sentences, what you want to achieve. One sentence or maximally
one paragraph. Do not confuse goals with strategies or methods. A strategy is how you will achieve your goal. If in
doubt, keep asking yourself "why?" until you find the goal. "Make an exhibition on energy efficiency" is not a goal. It is a
strategy, a means. In this case the goal should be: "After the project the majority of the population of Xustan will know
how high energy use influences the climate". You can include this in the general project proposal, but also in the
summary.
2 Introduction - a description of the general backgrounds.
Include here: - why is your project relevant;
- what is your motivation to do this project;
- a description of what would happen, if your project would not take place;
- how your project links to broader issues;
- how did you get the idea;
- how does it fit into larger projects;
- what are the backgrounds of choosing this particular strategy;
- why and how are you cooperating with which partners.
3 Project plan - the description of how you are going to achieve your goals: your strategy and methodology.
It describes your planned activities and how they fit into a general strategy. To be clear you can:
- Divide your plan / strategy into clear phases (don't forget to argue how these phases are linked)
- Give a clear time-line. You can do this in a descriptive way (dividing your plans into weekly, monthly or three-monthly
periods). You can illustrate this with a graphic time-line.
- Make clearly indicated separate paragraphs (publications, research, energy brigades, training, etcetera).
- Indicate clearly on which levels you operate (local, regional, national, international).
Remember the chicken McNugget theory in Appendix 2: be short and clear. Let the reader be able to swallow one bit at
the time!
MONEY FOR EARTH! 27
4 Expected results and products - the outcome of the project.
Describe the outcome first in general terms (using action words like 'increasing, reducing, maximizing, saving,
decreasing, assisting'). Then mention concrete results (publications, amount of people trained in certain skills,
organization structures established, amount of people reached, reports, etcetera). Use the "Chicken McNugget Theory".
5 Project evaluation and follow-up - to indicate how you will know you have achived success and how this will last.
Outline, how you plan to find out (measure), whether you succeeded in reaching your goals. Furthermore, indicate what
will happen afterward because of your project: mention multiplier effect, mention who is going to take over parts of
your project, additional meetings, phases and projects.
3. The budget
The budget has two sides: an expenses side and an income side. Many people forget to mention the second part.
Forgetting this might influence your credibility in the eyes of the funder. In some cases they may decide to wait until
they have some kind of overview of what your income will be. It also indicates a measurement of self-sustainability.
When you outline your budget in the same manner in which you will do your accounting, you save a lot of time and
energy later.
Expenses - indicate what costs you expect to make.
The budget can be too detailed or not detailed enough. Each funder is different here, and it will be good to check in
advance. You will have to make a very detailed budget for your own calculations anyway. Then summarize that in such a
way that it is clear to the funder you did not just pick numbers out of a hat. This mostly means, you still will have to be
quite detailed in your final budget. You don't have to indicate how many stamps you expect to buy, but it will have to be
clear how much you are going to spend on communication.
Make clear sections. You can either do this according to the phases you indicated in your project plan (certainly when
you plan to ask funding for only one or two of the phases), or to items like:
- personnel costs (staff salaries, consultant fees)
Don't forget to include taxes, social insurances and other personnel costs!
- communication (telephone, fax, e-mail, mail)
- equipment (computers, copy-facilities, furniture)
In some cases you will not be allowed to give the price of a full computer or copy-machine here, but only the usevalue.
For one year of use, this mostly will be one-third of the purchase value (funders generally expect you to use a
computer for a three year period). Also, do not forget the little things like repairs, regular checking of the copy
machine, etc..
- office supplies
- operational costs / coordination / overhead costs
The amount of these kinds of costs a funder is willing to pay, differs strongly from one donor to another. Because you
need to keep your organization running to be able to do these kinds of projects, you don't have to be so modest as not
to ask some money for these kind of costs. Most funders agree on paying a sum between 6% and 20% of the total sum
of the budget.
- publications
- training/workshops
- actions
- etcetera...
When you decide to describe these items with little detail, be sure you have a detailed calculation ready at your desk in
case the possible funder will ask you for them. Be honest in the amounts, but don't be too modest. Ask the amount of
money things really cost.
In case of an unpredictable inflation or in case you are not so well informed about prices, indicate a realistic price which
is at least not too low. An example: In Ukraina the average travel-expenses of a participant to a workshop at this moment
will be about US$ 25. When you organize a workshop in half a year from now, you could indicate an expected average
travel-expenses of US$ 35 per participant. This is still realistic - but it will not be too low in half a year from now.
Remember that you can always give back money to the fund, if you spent less - it will be a lot harder to find extra money
if you have to spend more than you indicated!
A proposal will not be rejected because of the budget involved, it will be rejected because it is viewed as a bad
investment / project.
28 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Income/Co-financing - indicates where you expect the necessary money to come from.
Include all sources of income, including yourself in case your organization also invests money, equipment or people in
the project. Express all these income sources in money. For instance, if your organization offers free use of office
space, secretary, computer and fax machine, make an estimation of these costs (say, US$ 3.000) and incorporate that as
expenses in your budget. On the income side you mention as "in kind" support: -organization name- (in kind): US$
3.000.
4 Appendices
Background materials - the description of the organizations involved.
Many believe this to be one of the most important parts of the description. In fact, it is one of the least important parts,
but it does help you to built credibility as a successful organization to whom donors can entrust their money. It is good
to mention previous successful projects and their funders, and current on-going projects. If your proposal fits into a
larger overall strategy or goal, demonstrate this. Some funders require you to include a copy of your legal registration as
a non-profit organization. In case of doubt, include them.
Curriculum vitae (cv's) / Resumes - short life-descriptions of the most important / responsible people involved.
This section is also to built credibility, to show you have the capacity to deal with the job. Don't be too extensive (you
don't have to indicate where you did high-school, nor whether you are married or not (unless you have a reason for
wanting to make a solid impression)). Mention both paid jobs and voluntary work. Mention principally everything that
supports your credibility. Ensure that it looks realistic, but do not be too modest either.
Letters of support - from cooperating institutions, previous partners or funders, well-known figures, international
organizations. These can built confidence and credibility. But choose them carefully: a letter of support from an
organization such as Greenpeace might be considered too radical by some possible funders, whereas a letter from a well
known politician or political party might cause trouble because it might signal political ties.
MONEY FOR EARTH! 29
Useful literature
CAF Russia, ????? ? ?????? ????????????. Moscow (1995) Charities Aid Foundation Russia. Russian. An overview
of sources of finance in Russia, examples from Russian practice and juridical backgrounds. 30 pages. Can be ordered
from CAF Russia, ul. Elizarovoy 10, RUS - 103064 Moscow; tel.: +7.095.9280557, fax: +7.0959752190,
e-mail: lenay@glas.apc.org
Elan Garonzik, ed., European Foundation Center, International Guide to Funders Interested in Central and Eastern
Europe. Brussels (1993) Orpheus Programme Publication.
English. No 1994 edition. Seventy-five profiles of foundations, corporate community investment programmes
and European Institution Programmes with Interests in Central and Eastern Europe, the Newly Independent States and the
Baltic States. 194 pages. Can be ordered from European Foundation Centre (EFC), 51 rue de la Concorde, B-1050
Brussels, Belgium; tel.: +32.2.5128938, fax: +32.2.5123265. ISBN: 29600051 04
Environmental Grantmakers Association, The Environmental Grantmakers Association Directory. New York (1994)
English. Approx. 200 pages. Describes US funds, from which some also fund internationally. Reasonable profiles. Cost
$ 20. Updated annually. Can be ordered from the Environmental Grantmakers Association, 1290 Avenue of the
Americas, Suite 3450, New York, NY 10104, USA; tel.: +1.212.3734260, fax: +1.212.3150996.
Also available on two e-mail conferences on APC networks: ega.directory and ega.grants
Patrick Francis (ed.), National Environmental Protection Funds in Central and Eastern Europe; Case studies of
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic. Budapest (1994) Regional Environmental
Center. English. Overview of official government funds for environmental protection. Obtainable at the REC, Miklós
Tér 1, H - 1035 Budapest; tel.: +36.1.2503401, fax: +36.1.2503403, e-mail: rec-info@rec.hu
Gwendolyn Hallsmith, How to Write Grants and Get Funding: A Workshop for NGOs. South Royalton (n.y.) Institute
for Sustainable Communities. English. Approx. 100 pages. Materials for a workshop in Warsaw with EMTC. Includes a
list of funds in Poland. Can be ordered from ISC, 56 College Street, Montpelier VT 05602, USA; tel.: +1.802.2292900,
fax: +1.802.2292919, e-mail: isc@together.org
Helena Izbická, Finance; Financování neziskového sektoru - sport pro profesionály aneb jak získat peníze na
uskutecnení našich ekologických snu. Praha (1994) Asociace Brontosaura. Czech. Gives an overview of funds in the
Czech Republic and Slovakia and a good description of different forms of fundraising. Can be ordered from: Asociace
Brontosaura, Soukenická 30, 110 00 Praha 1; tel.: +42.2.2313057
International Clearinghouse on the Environment. List of Funds for Russian NGOs. Moscow (1994). Russian and
English. Obtainable from the Social Ecological Union, P.O. Box 211, RUS - 121019 Moscow; tel.: +7.095.9287608;
e-mail:clearh@glas.apc.org
IUCN, A Guide to the Preparation of Project Proposals. n.p. (n.y.). English. This guide can help you, when you, after
reading this brochure, still feel uncomfortable about how a project proposal exactly should look like. Photocopies are
obtainable from the Organization and Management Project of Milieukontakt Oost-Europa.
Nicolas Johnson (ed.), Government and Environment; a directory for Central and Eastern Europe. Budapest (1994)
Regional Environmental Center. English. Overview of official government structures in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Czech Republic, Hungary, FYR Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Can give ideas which local, regional
and national authorities could be approached for (financial) support. Obtainable at the REC, Miklós Tér 1,
H - 1035 Budapest; tel.: +36.1.2503401, fax: +36.1.2503403, e-mail: rec-info@rec.hu
Regional Environmental Centre, How to Write a REC Project Proposal. Budapest (1994) Regional Environmental
Centre. English. A step to step guide. Gives a good impression of how a big funder would like to see its proposals
formatted. Obtainable at the REC, Miklós Tér 1, H - 1035 Budapest; tel.: +36.1.2503401, fax: +36.1.2503403, e-mail:
rec-info@rec.hu
Nick Allen and Dave Hensen, Building Local Financial and Community Support (Obtinerea Sprijinului Comunitatii
Si Crearea Unei Baze De Finantare Locale). Balea Cascade, Romania (April, 1995), Environmental Training Project.
30 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
English and Romanian editions. 39 pages. Good advice on why people give and how to ask people for money, as well as
two detailed examples of independent fundraising: house parties and a raffle. Available from Nick Allen & Associates,
849 York Street, Oakland, CA 94610, USA. Tel: 1-510-763-6156, Fax: 1-510-763-4280. Email: nallen@igc.apc.org
Social Ecological Union, ??? ??????? ??????. Moscow (1994) RADUGA. Russian. A guide to writing project
proposals. Obtainable from the Social Ecological Union / Biodiversity Conservation Centre, P.O. Box 211, RUS -
121019 Moscow; tel.: +7.095.9217161; e-mail: biodivers@glas.apc.org; or from the publisher RADUGA,
3-ya Fruzenskaya 1-73, RUS - 119270 Moscow; tel.: +7.095.2684035
TACIS NGO Support Unit, List of Funds Based in Moscow. Moscow (1994) TACIS NGO Support Unit
Russian. Obtainable from the TACIS NGO Support Unit, ul. Yelizarovoj 10, komn. 25, RUS - 119270 Moscow; e-mail:
caftacis@glas.apc.org
Tony Venables, The EC's Most Colourful Flowers; A Guide to EC Funding for NGOs; the European Citizens' Guide /
1993. Brussels (1993) Euro Citizen Action Service. English. A (dated) overview of EC funding possibilities. Obtainable
from Euro Citizen Action Service, Rue Defacqz 1, B - 1050 Brussels; tel.: +32.2.5345166, fax: +32.2.5345275.
WWF, A Guide to Designing Effective Proposals. Washington D.C. (1992). WWF, A Guide to Financial Resource
Development. Washington D.C. (1993). English. WWF-US has worked out two working books, which are more or less a
training in making a project proposal and developing financial strategies. You can work with them as a kind of do-ityour-self
seminar. Orders can be directed to WWF Publications, P.O. Box 4866, Hampden Post Office, Baltimore, MD
21211, USA.
Jan Haverkamp and Green Dossier, Denge rady Planeti Zemlja. Kiev (1994)
Jan Haverkamp and Green Dossier, Fundraising = Zhar za Zhagom. Kiev (1994)
Russian. Two worksheets on requesting money from foundations prepared for a fundraising workshop. Based on an
earlier version of "Money for Earth!". Issued by the Charity Information Centre "Green Dossier", P.O.Box 295, Kiev 25,
Ukraina.
Addresses of NGO support organizations
Union Of Bulgarian Foundations, 1505 Sofia, 44 Oborsihte, P.O. Box 615 Central Post 1000 Sofia, BULGARIA.
Telephone/Fax: +359.2.44 38 14 or 46 72 41. E-mail: ubf@cserv.mgu.bg
An association of foundations established in 1992. Provides information including a directory of NGOs, an NGO
database, and publications, such as a handbook for Bulgarian NGOs.
Information Center For Foundations & Other Not For Profit Organizations, Karoliny Svatla 4, 110 00 Prague 1
CZECH REPUBLIC. Telephone: +42.2.267 23 033 Fax: +42.2.26 23 18. E-mail: ment@cspguk 11.bitnet
A resource center for NGOs and private voluntary organizations is publishing a compendium of funding sources for its
library of funding and other resources.
Hungarian Foundation Center, Bathori u. 20, H-1054 Budapest; Post Office Box 285, H-1364 Budapest, HUNGARY.
Telephone: +36.1.131 01 00, Fax: +31.1.18 13 13.
Established in 1989 and currently comprised of 1300 member foundations. Publishes a Foundation Directory (in its 3rd
edition). Cooperates with the European Foundation Centre's Orpheus Project, United Way International, Fondation de
France, Spanish Foundation Centro, the Soros network, and PHARE.
Centrum Informacji dla Organizacji Pozarzadowych (BORDO), ul. Pickna 24/26, 00-549 Warszawa , POLAND.
Telephone/Fax: +48.2.625 09 56.
Established in 1993 and supported by the PHARE Civic Dialogue Programme Cooperation Fund, BORDO serves as a
national information and resource center for NGOs, and publishes a Directory of grants, funds and program assistance
for Polish NGOs - all of these are a part of BORDO's developing resource library. Information is available in Polish and
English; all BORDO services are free of charge. BORDO cooperates with the European Foundation Centre's Orpheus
Programme and the Civil Society Development Project.
MONEY FOR EARTH! 31
BORIS is one of five Regional Service Offices in Poland which serve primarily to provide technical support for NGOs
applying to or participating in PHARE's 022 Programme. Services and activities of the Regional Support Centers vary.
-Wielkodolskie Centrum Informacji i Wspomagania Organizacji, Pozarz~dowich, 61-728 Poznan, ul. 3 Majo 46, Vp.
-Regionalne Centrum Informacji i Wspomagania Organizacji Pozarz~dowych, 80-207 Gdansk, Al. Zwiyciestwa 51.
-Fundacja Gniazdo, 40-129 Katowice, ul. Misjonarzy Oblatow 24.
-"LOS" - Lubelski O~rodek Samopomocy 20-074 Lublin, ul. Lubomelska 1/3, p.124.
Slovak Academic Information Agency (SAIA), Hviezdoslavovo nam. 14, P.O.Box 108, 810 00 Bratislava 1 SLOVAKIA.
Telephone: +42.7.333 010 Fax: +42.7.332 192. E-mail: kostal@saia.sk
NGO information services include a database of NGOs and nonprofit voluntary organizations in Slovakia and a directory
of foundations and other organizations in both Slovak and English. Other offices in: Nitra, Zilina, Kosice, Banska
Bystric, Poprad.
32 MILIEUKONTAKT OOST-EUROPA, EAST-WEST ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PROJECT
MONEY FOR EARTH! 33
About this brochure
Environmental activities cost money. On one side, you could see this as a limitation of your possibilities. Could
you also reach your goals and target groups in a cheaper way? And how effective will that be? Some very active
groups work with hardly any money. But in other cases, it could mean, that you cannot reach your target group
as effectively as is necessary. If you can't afford that, you will have to start fundraising. Basically there are 5
ways to get money: a. Sell something; b. Membership-fees; c.Government subsidies; d. Sponsoring by industry
and trade; e. Funds and Foundations. This brochure gives ideas on how to get money in an effective way. It is
especially written for environmental NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe and is based on eight years of
experience with fundraising in that region as well as Western material on the subject.
About Milieukontakt Oost-Europa
Milieukontakt Oost-Europa was officially established in 1988 by the Dutch environmental movement with support
from the Dutch Ministry for the Environment. Its task was to facilitate and develop contacts and cooperation
between environmental organizations in the Netherlands and the independent environmental movement in Central
and Eastern Europe. Since then the organization has grown to the largest West European organization
specialized in cooperation between the environmental movements in East and West. It has bilateral programmes
with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Ukraine, and Romania. Until 1992 Milieukontakt
Oost-Europa also maintained a bilateral programme on East Germany. Furthermore, it has an East-West project
in which more thematic and methodologically specialized issues are covered. Milieukontakt Oost-Europa now
has 14 staff in Amsterdam and 8 consultants in Central and Eastern Europe.
About the authors
After studying Chemistry at Leiden University, Jan Haverkamp graduated from Wageningen Agricultural
University (both in the Netherlands) in environmental communication sciences. In his spare time, he has worked
as a voluntary information officer for Greenpeace Netherlands since 1981. After his studies he was campaign
coordinator at the National Society for the Preservation of the Waddensea. From 1987 to 1992 he coordinated
the East Germany Project of Milieukontakt Oost-Europa. In 1992 he started as project coordinator for
Milieukontakt's East-West Organization and Management Project. For this project he worked in Czecho-Slovakia
(1992/1993), in Romania (1993/1994), Croatia (1993), Albania (1994) and Ukraina (1995/1996). He was born in
1959 and lives part-time in Wageningen, Netherlands, part-time in Cheb, Czech Republic.
Marga Verheije studied human geography at the University of Amsterdam and communication sciences at the
Agricultural University in Wageningen. After working as campaign coordinator for Vereniging Milieudefensie
(Friends of the Earth Netherlands) and the World Information Service on Energy (WISE) she became the first
coordinator for Milieukontakt Oost-Europa. Until 1991 she coordinated the Poland Project. Since that time, she
has been the General Coordinator of Milieukontakt Oost-Europa and in that function also responsible for its
fundraising policy. She was born in 1959 and lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Daniel Swartz studied international relations, history, and Chinese Language at Bates College in the United
States. Since 1990, he has been working for and with Central and Eastern European environmental NGOs, local
and national governments, and businesses on various environmental issues. Some of the organizations he has
worked for include Greenway (CEE region), Greenpeace, the Environmental Partnership for Central and Eastern
Europe (Hungary), Ecological Institute for Sustainable Development (Hungary), REFLEX and BME Zöld Kör
(Green Circle, Hungary), Green Action Zagreb (Croatia), Global 2000 (Austria) and Vereniging Milieudefensie
(FoE NL). For the Milieukontakt Oost-Europa Organization and Management Project he worked in Albania
(1994), Macedonia (1995) and Lithuania (1995/1996). Until recently, he worked for the Regional Environmental
Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) as coordinator of its Junior Fellowship Programme, and still works
for Friends of the Earth for the Central and Eastern European Sustainable Packaging Campaign. He was born in
1967 and currently lives in Budapest, Hungary.