Description
The project is focused on promoting enabling environment for the protection and promotion of human rights, through building CSO capacities for communication with citizens and business sector, increased understanding of human rights, development of innovative communication channels, and mobilisation of social support and resources for the promotion and protection of human rights. The main project outcome is the creation of an applied model of sustainable CSO development on promotion and protection of human rights: a new foundation, which will ensure long-term application of new knowledge, cooperation and tools on efficient philanthropic work on the protection of human rights. The project combines methods of comparative analysis of best practices and stakeholder analysis with the participatory planning, piloting new fundraising tools, communication between CSOs, citizens and the business sector, and targeted education and technical assistance of business sector, CSOs and media. The project directly responds to the problems identified: CSO dependence on public financing, underdeveloped local philanthropy and lack of CSO capacities for efficient public communication of the effects of CSOs' work on the protection of human rights.
Summary of project results
The main reason for the project was a major dependence on public funding sources of human rights organizations and underdeveloped social environment for donor contributions of citizens and businesses for protection of human rights. This does not exploit the full potential of social support for protection of human rights and the structurally limits the full autonomy and the potential of civil society organizations (CSOs) and citizens' initiatives, particularly for social innovations and ad hoc advocacy reactions and direct actions. The project Philanthropy for Human Rights through a wide variety of educations, public meetings, public consultations, publications and film programmes, three pilot crowdfunding campaigns and the establishment of organizational and communication infrastructure of the new foundation SOLIDARNA managed to increase the understanding of the problems of development of philanthropy in Croatia aimed at the protection of human rights, but also start a new practice of mobilizing private sector resources for the protection of human rights (through collaborative donor campaigns and action plans of individual organizations. During the project there have been 18 education and 19 public meetings organized and directly trained 256 active members of civil society organizations, 80 representatives of the business sector and 46 journalists, a total of informational materials on the importance and practice of human rights in the business sector reach even 6,461 managers and companies. The most important result of the project is the operationalization of SOLIDARNA- the first domestic private foundation for human rights and solidarity, which has in the first year of its existence managed to collect 230,000 Kn of donations of citizens and the business sector, to create a primary supporters and their campaigns and cooperation with the business sector to become recognizable in the public as a new channel for the mobilization of resources for progressive social actions that contribute to the quality of human rights protection, but also for their affirmation in the public discourse.
Summary of bilateral results