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Description
The issue of air pollution in the cities of Romania cannot find solutions for over 10 years and in May 2020 the European Court of Justice issued a ruling against Romania for its incapacity of tackling the deadly issue of pollution. For the purpose of generating real conversation about pollution with Romanian authorities the independent network for pollution monitoring aerlive.ro was created by our association and its partners at the end of 2019 and it proved to be an important tool that brings people, experts and authorities together. Building capacity against pollution is a project that aims to develop and build capacity for our organization in order to create a strategy and products to support aerlive.ro programme - the first participative platform for air quality measurements in Romania, presently functional in Bucharest only, but also for raising visibility and performance for the NGO. One of the goals of the project is to develop the financial sustainability of the organization. This will be achieved through the implementation of a fundraising campaign, the creation of a training package for local administrations, and the development of an air quality monitoring package for citizens, which proposes piloting two new funding mechanisms for the aerlive.ro platform. The other objective of the project is to increase the visibility of the association by at least 20%. To achieve this objective, the visual identity of the organization will be improved, the website will be redesigned, a monthly newsletter will be created, public events will be organized, and an activity report will be produced. The Bucharest Community Foundation will be the project partner and will support the promoter by working closely on developing the fundraising strategy.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to enhance the organizational capacity of the applicant, the Center for Sustainable Policies Ecopolis, with the goal of creating a strategy and developing specific products to support the aerlive.ro program—Romania''s first participatory air quality monitoring network. Additionally, the project sought to increase the visibility and performance of the organization.
The project was structured around two objectives and five activities.
The communication component included:
- Developing a new visual identity for the organization,
- Launching a new website,
- Publishing the annual report,
- Setting up a newsletter platform to reach over 750 followers, through which 12 newsletters were sent during the project,
- Organizing two public events attended by 100 people.
These efforts led to 78 media appearances for the organization, with over 300,000 views.
The visibility campaign was conducted in parallel with efforts to enhance the organization''s financial sustainability by developing and implementing a fundraising strategy aimed at supporting its core activities, as well as creating specific products to achieve this strategy.
As a result, three fundraising campaigns were conducted:
- Direct fundraising from individuals through Swimathon Bucharest, raising approximately 20,000 RON to expand Aerlive campaigns to 10 schools in Bucharest.
- The "Adopt a Sensor" campaign for Aerlive, which raised over 36,000 RON through direct donations.
- A campaign to expand Aerlive services, which secured funding of over 120,000 RON.
Thus, the organization''s funding sources have significantly diversified as a result of the project.
Other important outcomes include the development of a training course for public officials, which also led to the accreditation of two team members as certified trainers, and of a fundraising training module specifically designed for NGOs.