Building Networks and Partnerships:

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Building Networks and Partnerships the 1st
Year of the CIIF, Sharing Forum, Hong Kong,
October 9th 2003 BRIDGING COMMUNITIES Jana
Kunická, Head of European Foundation Centre's
Community Philanthropy Initiative as part of
Europe in the World, Brussels, Belgium
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Contents

• 1. context European community philanthropy field
  in the Europe in the World
• 2. community philanthropy definitions and forms
• 3. realities of community philanthropy field
  Europe, Asia, world
• 4. community foundations essentials and key
  features
• 5. roles, partnerships and cooperation of
  community foundation
• 6. final comments

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1. context europeintheworld.info

• Europe in the Wold is a project developed by the
  Network of European Foundations for Innovative
  Cooperation (NEF) and managed by the EFC.
• Europe in the World encourages European donors to
  increase their engagement internationally.
• Europe in the World aims at advocating and
  mobilising more leadership, collaboration and
  resources for global development by building on
  and stimulating foundations' collaboration and
  knowledge-generating efforts.

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Goals of the EITW

• Goal 1 Increase resources available for public
  good and international development in the context
  of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
• Goal 2 shaping consensus around ethics public
  policies to advocate for achieving the Millennium
  Development Goals.

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Community Philanthropy Organisations and the EITW

• CPOs are important in showing how CPOs contribute
  to the global development agenda (on local level)
  by supporting community action uniting resources
  (financial, human, etc.) in achieving common
  goals.
• European donors are looking at opportunities to
  make investments beyond Europe often using
  intermediary organisations (CPOs) EITW offers
  excellent platform to be the broker between donor
  community and the global development agenda and
  actors.

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2. community philanthropy definitions and forms

• Community philanthropy is the act of individual
  citizens and local institutions contributing
  money or goods, along with their time and skills,
  to promote the well-being of others and the
  betterment of the community in which they live
  and work. It can be expressed both in formal and
  informal ways.
• Community philanthropy can be expressed in
  informal and spontaneous ways such as citizens
  and local businesses helping other residents in
  times of crisis.
• It can also be expressed in formal and organised
  ways whereby citizens give contributions to local
  organisations which in turn use these funds to
  support projects that improve the quality of life
  in the local community on a permanent, long-term
  basis. CPI focuses on the latter type of
  community philanthropy.

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Community Philanthropy Organisations

• Organisations active in the development of
  community philanthropy collect, manage and
  redistribute donations from a wide range of local
  donors to meet critical needs and improve the
  quality of life in a specific geographic area,
  typically a town or a city.
• We encounter broad range of organisational forms
  among community philanthropy organisations,
  including
• Community Foundations
• Community Funds, e.g. regional or corporate
• Philanthropic Civic Groups, e.g. Open Society
  Clubs in Central and Eastern Europe
• Community Giving Campaigns, e.g. United Way and
  Rotary Clubs

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3. realities of community philanthropy field
Europe, Asia, world
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Development in Asia

• Bangladesh
• The Bangladesh Freedom Foundation (BFF) 1999
• India
• The Bombay Community Public Trust (BPCT), Mumbai
  1990
• The Ahmedabad Community Foundation, Ahmedabad
• Japan
• The Osaka Community Foundation 1991
• The Citizens Fund Kobe
• Philippines
• The Kabalaka (Concern) Development Foundation of
  Negros Occidental.

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4. community foundations essentials and key
features

• 1)      Independent not-for-profit organisation
• 2)     Grantmaking institution
• 3)     Defined geographic area community
• 4)     Representative and independent governing
  body
• 5)     Permanent and unrestricted endowment
• 6)     Services to donors
• 7) Catalyst in the community

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1) Independent not-for-profit organisation

• independent from control or influence by other
  organisations, government or donors
• legally recognised nature
• makes decisions autonomously via a board of
  citizens broadly reflective of community it
  serves
• established exclusively for charitable purposes
  (not a commercial entity)
• accountable and transparent operations opened
  for public inspection

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2) Grantmaking institution

• uses flow-though grants and interests from
  investment to make grants and operate programmes
  which respond to community needs
• supports wide variety of projects (not single
  field of interest)
• major interest in improving the life and
  environment in community

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3) Defined geographic area community

• the community foundation's concept of
  'community' is defined in geographic terms
• existing CFs cover different sizes of territory
  'communities' range from small-scale, rural
  areas, to middle sized cities, and to whole
  regions or states
• CFs fundraise for donations within their
  community and these are to be used locally

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4) Representative and independent governing body

• governing body represents community in its
  diversity
• inclusive attitude when involving community
• transparent about policies
• accountability

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5) Permanent and unrestricted endowment -
existence in perpetuity

• collection of funds created to generate income
• sustainable development (long term local
  development strategy)
• guarantees for donors their gifts have lasting
  value
• flexibility to operate
• freedom and independency

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6) Services to donors

• cultivation of relations with potential donors
  in community
• creating tools for giving
• linking those with resources (financial) to
  those with resources human
• educate on philanthropy
• wide variety of income (pyramid)

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7) Catalyst in the community

• catalysing positive change by creating bridges
  in community
• connecting people
• responding to needs, challenges and
  opportunities

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5. roles, partnerships and cooperation of
community foundation

• Roles
• supporting growth of social capital in
  community by allowing wide spectrum of citizens
  to actively participate on development
• transforming social capital into financial
  capital and then back to social capital
• neutral platform to bring opposing groups
  bringing together people from various backgrounds
  
• bridging those with time, ideas and volunteer
  capacities and those who share same interest and
  have resources
• facilitating civic action connecting donors
  and activists with variety of interests
• networking with partners uniting resources in
  community
• building trust by creating fair and
  transparent mechanisms
• creating sense of co-ownership assist to turn
  ideas into reality
• strengthening civil society re-introducing
  democratic values and civic participation

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Partnerships and Cooperation

• Community foundation model proves to be
  significant tool in involving citizens into
  creating a positive change in communities they
  live in. On the other hand, community foundations
  are key institutions to cooperate with other
  players and stakeholders involved in their
  communities in various forms, i.e. from private,
  public and non-for-profit sectors.
• 1) individuals
• 2) non-profit sector
• 3) government
• 4) business

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1) individuals

• donors providing services tailored to donor's
  needs, personalised form
• activists providing platform for involvement
• groups, committees as part of CF

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2) non-profit sector

• other foundations use CFs as mechanism to get
  funds to grassroots groups
• other NPOs networking for betterment of
  community
• other CFs for betterment of performance
• national and international networks of CFs

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3) government

• valuable partnership to complement or add
  resources
• funding partnership
• assist where there are limitations (legal)
• ! neutrality, non-partisan standpoint
• ! autonomy, financial independence
• ! bureaucracy

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4) business

• CSR integration of companies in their local
  setting
• companies depend on the health, stability and
  prosperity of community
• reputation and image influence competitiveness
• involvement in local causes
• accumulation of social capital (development of
  positive relations with community) supports
  integration

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6. Final Comments

• complement role of community foundations is
  not to replace State intervention but in many
  ways to complement it by developing a range of
  practices dedicated to increasing the strength
  and effectiveness of community life, improving
  local conditions, especially for people in
  disadvantaged situations, and enabling citizens
  to participate in public decision-making and
  debate
• social capital community activity nurtures
  human bonds and forms of social capital (e.g.
  relations of trust between individuals) which
  neither the State nor the market alone can
  provide
• own choice it is be up to every community to
  decide in what areas intervention is needed and
  to respond to it by raising the funds and
  mustering the good will of its local citizens.
  Communities need all the resources they can count
  on, and they need to be given the chance to help
  themselves to improve

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• community foundations "build communities
  through local giving
• challenge community foundations can also be a
  basis from which to challenge the State, to
  advocate for services that the State fails to
  deliver, to create a base from which alternatives
  to State-supported programmes can be mounted
• innovation community foundations can thus be
  innovative and take the lead in a number of
  issues and approaches, testing their feasibility
  and impact without the fear of failing
• independence having a permanent, unrestricted
  endowment helps community foundations in this
  approach because it makes them free of
  third-party financial restrictions

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• Thank you!
• Please use following links to continue
  discussions
• http//www.efc.be/projects/philanthropy/
• Jana_at_efc.be