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About the Foundation

Annual Report 2003

Civil Society Program

This Program has the objective of initiating and supporting undertakings geared at promoting positive models of civic activity and improving the operation of civic organisations in Poland. It is our goal to encourage different organisations labouring towards the public good to coordinate their efforts and to reach out to other social partners (local government, the business community, volunteers); we strive to ensure that these organisations are well managed and that they put their resources to good use.

Institutional Grants

In the year 2003, institutional grants were extended to 32 organisations demonstrating good records of achievement in the area of their activity (culture, social aid, health care, international cooperation etc). The grants were aimed to assist the recipient organisations in the implementation of changes necessary for their sustained development and stabilization, the formulation of long-term operating strategies, introducing some diversity to their sources of funding, and for increasing the effectiveness of their resource management.

The ProBonus Fund

On the initiative of the Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Batory Foundation, a three-year fund was set up with an aim to increase capacity and efficiency of infrastructure orga-nisations acting in the field of support and development of NGO sector in Poland. The Civil Society Development Foundation was selected to manage the Fund.

Acting Together

In 2003 we launched the fourth edition of the Acting Together project addressed to NGOs combining financial, human, and infrastructural resources with a view of a better achievement towards socially beneficial ends. In the fourth edition we subsidised projects aimed to develop and implement joint operating strategies for the identification and successful resolution of speci-fic social problems arising in the given community, the devising of principles and forms for continuous cooperation with the local government, state institutions, private business, and with the mass media, and for building effective representation of the NGOs to carry out advocacy efforts on the behalf and in the interest of the organisations and the beneficiaries of their aid. Our grants financed 22 projects.

Greenhouse

The year 2003 saw also the fifth edition of the Greenhouse project, aimed at fostering the deve-lopment of local non-governmental organisations. In 2003 we focused on small and recently established organisations specialising in social aid and health care from the provinces of: Lower Silesia, Lubuskie, Mazovia, Opolskie, and Wielkopolskie. The Greenhouse was implemented in cooperation with local partner organisations, i.e. with the Regional Non-Governmental Initiatives Support Centre from Wałbrzych, the Lubuskie Training Center of the Foundation for Support of Local Democracy from Zielona Góra, the Warsaw-based Social Initiative Service Office – BORIS, the Opole Local Democracy Centre of the Foundation for Support of Local Democracy, and the Civic Initiative Promotion and Development Centre Association from Leszno. Our partners were charged with the task of advertising grant opportunities, assisting local organisations in the preparation of applications, assessing incoming proposals, and monitoring undertakings pursued by grant recipients. With the help of our partners 130 grants (up to PLN 3,000 each) were distributed. They were devoted to purposes such as the retaining of an expert, participation in trainings aimed to enhance organisation’s management skills (accountancy, public relations etc.) or the purchase of software or professional literature.

Liaison Officers – Experts on Social Development and EU Funding

With a view to help the NGO sector get involved in planning, monitoring and utilizing structural funds, we initiated a program in 2002 to build a network of liaison officers/experts on social development and EU funding. The role of liaison officers is to assist NGOs in competently and pro-actively participating in all structural fund processes. The first task was to develop a formula for cooperation with NGOs, government offices and public institutions (such as local and regional government, Provincial Labour Offices, World Bank project offices, agricultural extension services, regional development agencies etc.) and the media and business. Liaison officers take on more responsibilities as the project develops: develop a regular relationship with Marshall’s Offices, ensure the transparency of recruitment into regional steering and mo-nitoring committees, review regional developing strategies and operational programs, monitor procurement procedures, inform NGOs on existing EU funding opportunities, assist in writing applications, help to build coalition around projects. Liaison officers have institutional support from local NGOs, which provide office facilities. Each organisation received a grant from the Batory Foundation to cover the expenses while developing a regional cooperation network (e.g. meetings, report development and travel). We provide further support to liaison officer by keeping them informed and organizing regular meeting and training, sharing reports and assessment papers, promoting their position and facilitating their approach towards government admini-stration, and by funding specific selected activities. The project is implemented in close colla-boration with the International Cooperation Program of the Batory Foundation and the Representative Office of Polish NGOs in Brussels.

Regional Debates

For many years now, we have been organising public debates at the Foundation, to discuss current political and public policy topics. This year, we decided to invite selected organisations to hold similar debates in different Polish regions around the theme of transparency in public life. A closed competition was organised, with participants including regional chapters of the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy members of the Non-governmental Organisations’ Support Network – SPLOT, selected local organisations co-operating with the School for Leaders Association, and leaders of Local Civic Groups trained as part of the Anti-Corruption Program. Twelve debates took place in June: in Opole, Katowice, Oława, Szczecin, Kielce, Cracow, Elbląg, Poznań, Gdańsk, Sopot, Wrocław, and Bydgoszcz (comments offered in regional debates were later publicised during the 2nd press conference entitled Monitoring of election promises 2001 organised in September by the Anti-Corruption Program).

Moreover, we provided the School for Leaders Association with a grant to hold a competition for organisers of local debates on What state? What education? theme. The competition targeted non-governmental and student organisations, local authorities, and other institutions interested in organising open debates in their own locations, chiefly from the Lublin and Podkarpackie provinces. During the period of October 1st 2003 through January 20th 2004 25 meetings were organised throughout Poland to discuss education-related issues including such topics as: Do integration schools have a future? Do rural areas need kindergartens? Should public universities charge tuition? The organisers of the debates attended free of charge training sessions on issues connected with organising and holding debates, and received small grants to cover organisational expenses.

You Have a Vote, You Have a Choice. Local Government Is Yours!

You Have a Vote, You Have a Choice project is designed to strengthen public interest in elections and build a sense of shared responsibility of the electoral constituency and the elected representatives. We want to send out a message that a ballot can make a difference and ordinary citizens, and not just powerful pressure groups, can influence public life. In the autumn of 2002 i.e. just before the elections, we launched an outreach campaign together with Gazeta Wyborcza and the Local Newspapers Association to encourage the public to take part in the local elections.

In the fall of 2003 – in cooperation with chapters of the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy and NGOs affiliated in the SPLOT network – we monitored more than one hundred boroughs to find out how elected mayors and presidents deliver on promises made during their pre-election campaigns.

The Beata Pawlak Award

From a named Fund established at the Foundation by the last will of a deceased Beata Pawlak, journalist and writer, who died on October 12th 2002 in a terrorist attack on Indonesian Bali, an award is presented annually to an author of an article or series of articles dealing with other cultures, religions, or civilisations.

On October 13th 2003, the Beata Pawlak Award was presented for the first time at the Stefan Batory Foundation. It went to Anna Fostakowska, author of an article Cast your Eyes Down and Cry, published in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. The awarded article described the fate of refugees arriving to Poland.

An award presentation was accompanied by a debate on Codes and White Noise – Today’s Obstacles to Communication between Cultures moderated by the chair of the award jury, Adam Szost-kiewicz. Max Cegielski, Hatif Janabi, Olga Stanisławska, and Joanna Tokarska-Bakir participated in the panel discussion. The session was also an opportunity to display photographs taken by Beata Pawlak during her final six-month journey across Asia.

In 2003 the Program was co-funded by Ford Foundation (PLN 167,441.40), Beata Pawlak Fund (PLN 10,000) and Open Society Institute network program (PLN 4,255).

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