How can we help you help your community?
Through the Community Foundation Support and Development Program, the Association for Community Relations (ARC) aims to transform trust in a vehicle of change for the better. Organizations can use mini-funding to cover their own needs, from creating a funding guide to strengthening the leadership structure or using data for greater efficiency.
By George Gurescu
In 2018, ARC began working with four groups in four counties to lay the groundwork for future community foundations. Among these groups was one of about 10 people who decided they wanted to give their children a stronger county. "I do this also because I am convinced that Robert and David, my sons, want and deserve to grow up beautifully in Valcea," said one of the founding members.
A community foundation appears, on average, after a year and a half of work in the middle of the community and raising the necessary funds for the establishment, during which the initiative group works with ARC to turn its passion into a work plan.
For the valcea group, there followed 18 months in which the ARC people offered them consultancy, support, know-how and inspiration to mobilize the local community. The group has evolved, new allies have appeared, the objectives have refined, and in the summer of 2018 on the community map appeared the 17th foundation: the Vâlcea Community Foundation. "As a result of this process, we raised 110,000 lei — more than half of the funds needed to set up, and we found people who believed in us and who supported us," says the organization's team.
Community Foundations quickly took root in communities in Romania. In eight years, ten such foundations appeared, so that at the end of 2019 almost 6 out of 10 Romanians had access to their programs (there were 18 community foundations in 17 counties). They have developed, built their own trust bridges and networks of allies At the same time, the non-governmental sector has also gone through numerous changes, and philanthropic behavior has developed greatly.
Through such grants, CRAs seek to achieve two objectives. The first is to create a framework in which organizations can explore their potential, and secondly to ensure that anything well done with their heads has the potential for multiplication. A local idea attracts more people from the area, who, by example, could create a critical mass.
Every journey starts the same way, but the road is different every time. That's because ARC is trying to calibrate its tools for the needs of each community or initiative group. In the organization's view, a grant must develop the organization, not strain it. And a funding is not the reward for a well-written application, but is proof of the trust that the funder has in the team and mission of the organization.
In Iasi, the idea of a foundation appeared in the virtual environment, when the members of the initiative group united around a cause related to the renovation of historical buildings in the city. Their goal was to unite their efforts and mobilize the community around them, in order to create a real renaissance of Iasi. After 2 years of deepening the concept of community foundation and efforts to raise funds, the group managed to have together 16 people, four educational and cultural institutions, as well as a company.
Făgăraș Country had a much faster journey. In just two months, this small community managed to start with an initiative group of 24 people and mobilize half of the funds needed to set up.
How you can develop through a strategic grant
As a support organization, ARC tried to respond to the new needs of the foundations and began working with them to develop a flexible funding package to help them in their weaknesses. Thus, in 2016, grants on strategic areas appeared. Identified together with the foundations, they provided financial support and consultancy for the board and the executive director, for the development of the thinking and practices of granting funding by community foundations, strategic communication, the efficiency of management systems, business models for financial sustainability, but also for the implementation of a complex data management system (Sales Force).
In addition, CRAs put in place a learning programme for the development of funding programmes by foundations and provided scholarships to participate in relevant large events (national and international). The nearly $100,000 made available to foundations turned into 27 grants.
"It has helped us and helps us the flexibility we had and the understanding and the opportunity to change and adapt to what we really are," says Ciprian Ciocan, executive director of the Sibiu Community Foundation. A big problem in the funding environment, he adds, is the rigidity that many organizations face in their relationship with funders. "You can meet the indicators of a project and the organization dies. And I think it happens very often in the world of NGO funding, when funders insist more on formalism and the fulfilment of certain indicators," he adds.
The value of the grants was not high: the submitted projects received between 6,000 and 16,000 lei. THE ARC has seen in these mini-funding rather a way to give confidence to the organizations it funds. They would identify the areas of development themselves in order for the organization to grow in a healthy way. This increases people's motivation to get out of operational projects and look at the organization as a whole, to be creative, by testing new approaches in the community and experimenting with new tools.
For example, the Odorheiu Secuiesc Community Foundation received a grant for the development of the board and had a team of consultants by its side. The three workshops organized helped the board members to internalize and understand the roles they can have within the organization and what impact they can have in the community. "The grant helped us to have an active board. The meetings helped the members a lot to understand their role, what responsibilities they have and how they can get more involved. So, for example, together with them we decided that they should become ambassadors for the foundation's programs. Now, those who are ambassadors for the Științescu Fund are really involved in attracting new donors. Those who are ambassadors for our running event get involved in the team of runners and have also done fundraising", says Rozália Csáki, executive director of FC Odorheiu Secuiesc.
It has helped us and helps us the flexibility we have had and the understanding and the possibility to change and adapt to what we really are
Ciprian Ciocan
Executive Director of the Sibiu Community Foundation
Also for the development of the board, the Community Foundations from Bacau, Cluj and Sibiu received grants. For example, the Cluj Community Foundation was at that time in the middle of an organizational crisis caused by the changes in the team (including the executive director), which put additional pressure on the board. However, with the direct support received from ARC and with the grant through which they hired an external expert, the FC Cluj board managed to take the organization to a stable area and overcome the turbulences that risked putting the organization on the stumps.
Three foundations won grants that allowed them both to progress with their own practices in the area of developing thinking and funding practices by community foundations, and to be an important source of inspiration and learning for the entire movement. Thus, the Bucharest Community Foundation has created a method that allows them to evaluate cross-programs, that is, to see what was the cumulative impact of all programs.
The team of the Sibiu Community Foundation wanted to see how it can ease the work inside the organization and how it brings added value in the relations with the other organizations. That's because the organization's goal is to develop local initiatives, not to provide a simple funding, says Ciprian Ciocan. "We do not want to leave behind some projects and some indicators, we want to leave behind some capacities, some cultural changes. We want to see some stuff that works after our funding runs out."
The Iasi Community Foundation has created a guide in which it illustrates every step in the life of a funding program, with very specific tools, case studies and practical examples: from how you design a funding program so as to make sure that all the relevant voices are present (so not only donors, but also organizations with the potential to be funded), how the related documents are created (launch of the program, forms related to the Application for Funding, selection procedures, etc.) and how you evaluate it.
For Doris Cojocariu, grantmaker FC Iasi and the author of the guide, the work she did for this product not only helped her create an institutional memory and a set of practices that support the foundation's standards, but also validate her own experience and gain confidence. "I wanted to create a textbook that would somehow complete not necessarily the history of funds, which was found in the annual reports, but effectively a kind of not exactly technical working procedure, which would also come with some appreciations of the man who went through these processes. (...) This is how I see this manual, as a grantmaking procedure, from the perspective of FC Iasi, which can be taken as a recommendation or as a source of research or documentation for other teams from other foundations", says Doris Cojocariu.
How the 14 foundations used these grants shows how diverse the organizations' visions can be and how they relate to the community. For example, the Bacau Community Foundation wanted to develop its own donor management system, to be integrated with grant management and accounting, and the Brasov Community Foundation wanted to demonstrate how a Strategic Fund in the community (on art and culture) can contribute to the financial sustainability of the organization, if it gathers a strong community around this Fund.
Seven other foundations studied the ways in which intelligent use of data can increase their efficiency, transparency, credibility, and asked for technical support and grants for the implementation of the data management system (Sales Force). "The grant received for Sales Force helped us a lot to allocate resources and time for the implementation of the system. We also brought the part of grants and scholarships that we offer on all programs and we managed to optimize the database", says Ciprian Păiuș from FC Iași.
The Timișoara Community Foundation, the youngest organization in the movement, saw in these grants a chance to strengthen its executive team, and Daniela Chesaru benefited from a grant for the development of the executive director. In other words, she chose a mentor from the move, namely Ciprian Păiuș from FC Iași. The discussions between them, for three months, helped Daniela to develop, validate or improve some of her theories and practices. Moreover, she says, Ciprian became a fulcrum, which gave her energy and courage to move forward.
"As he explained to me, he gave me confidence that I was doing things the right way. It matters a lot to have a supportive person who does that too. It's there as a personal psychologist, it's going through a difficult time in the foundation's life and also validating your work," she said.
6 out of 10 Romanians had access to community foundation programs in 2019 (there were 18 community foundations in 17 counties)
The effect of the snowball and the spread of trust
"It may be that these funds, even if they do not help the foundation overall, will help a man in the foundation who, in turn, will help the foundation. ARC thinks of the individual and not the association, and this seems to me to be a very nice principle," says Flavia Stamate, the way arc grants work. Flavia wanted to see on what infrastructure an Art and Culture Fund (FAC) could be built. For a year, she mapped the city's resources and saw what the potential was at the donor level, because "through FAC, we wanted to be an alternative to City Hall and Council."
Although the work of exploration did not materialize in the launch of such a fund, it left a different kind of legacy. He encouraged Flavia to launch Visssual, a cultural platform and a place for independent local artists. "The grant gave me the confidence to go and talk to everyone on this cultural level at a much more applied, more professional and more technical level, to figure out what the needs are and how it can develop. Growing up in this community and growing through this grant, I'm definitely going to help the community grow. And the foundation contributed to that," says Flavia. Meanwhile, Flavia left the Foundation precisely to launch Visssual.
For ARC, the courage flavia has acquired has a huge multiplier effect. It is a transfer of power that creates a new link in the infrastructure of the good. As Ciprian Ciocan mentions, changing a behavior at the local level is much more important than achieving goals that have no impact in the community. "ARC has invested in trust and in developing skills, without putting pressure on the final result," says Laura Popeea, executive director of FC Brașov.
In 2019, CRAs continued to provide flexible grants that meet the needs of the foundations, and in this funding session it sought to support projects based on the question "What would I need to change or experiment with to achieve my goal?". In other words, ARC has helped the foundations either to overcome a barrier that blocks the evolution of the organization or to create new opportunities to advance in the thinking and practice of the organization.
Seven projects in the community were funded, and among them are the Prahova Community Foundation's plan to build a new fund to meet the needs of the county, the creation of a manual for exploring, mapping and activating the community of a neighborhood of FC Sibiu or the initiative of the Galati Community Foundation to develop its capacity and tools to better enter the role of big player for the community.
These grants have also created an example of good practice among foundations, and many of them want to create funds to provide such funding to community initiatives as well. "I want to offer these kinds of grants – general purpose, matching funds ,but it's very hard to find that kind of flexibility at the sponsor level. Sponsors want immediate results and do not understand that by investing in the health of organizations, the impact is more sustainable", says Ciprian Păiuș, executive director of FC Iasi.
This infrastructure of good had behind it other partners and allies who found their own values in arc's vision. Mott Foundation, Romanian American Foundation or CEE Trust have given ARC not only financial resources, but also the confidence that foundations are a response to the needs of communities.
Since 2008, the C.S. Mott Foundation has been a strategic donor to the movement. He helped ARC in drawing up a long-term vision and strategy and made an important and flexible contribution that allowed the organization to provide advice and technical support to foundations. The Romanian-American Foundation has contributed significantly to the consolidation of this network, as a partner and funder of the program, by providing grants for the establishment of new foundations, for the organizational needs of existing foundations and for local programs through which they aim to mobilize financial resources in the community.
Over the years, other strategic partners who have supported the development program have been Raiffeisen Bank, Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, Partnership Foundation or Pact Foundation.
Through every program they run, community foundations show us that we are not alone, that there are many who want to do good, but they need tools and sometimes just a kind word. This trust that people gain becomes a capital for the future of the community. "It is a very important resource that can be multiplied", adds Ciprian Ciocan. "The change it generates is the confidence that one or two individuals who choose to change something around them manage to do that. The kind of trust that is generated as a result of the success of such a project, no matter how small, remains in the community."
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