December 2011 Archives

Ten predictions for philanthropy in the Balkans in 2012

Last week, colleague from London sent an article titled Top 10 predictions for Global Philanthropy in 2012 (http://www.cofinteract.org/rephilanthropy/?p=3748). Posted by John Harvey from The Council on Foundations, article gave an insight into The Council on Foundations leading members views on philanthropy developments in 2012.

Some frantic emailing to colleagues from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia followed; thanks to famous Balkan solidarity, my colleagues – amidst hectic end-of-the-year activities and on extremely short notice (another Balkan specialty) – found time and energy to think and write about philanthropy in 2012 and beyond in their countries and the region:

December 23, 2011

The Funding Network – give and have fun!

Lisa K. 100! Rosalind A. 250! Fred M. 500!…

… and in just half an hour, an amount of over 50,000GBP was raised for five projects through unique giving circle called The Funding Network. I first heard of The Funding Network (TFN) through colleagues based in London; other colleague wrote more about it in a mail ending the message with In summary, I think TFN is fab! Repeatedly, people who I met and were engaged in TFN were saying – it is such fun!

So what exactly is this fab and fun TFN? Described as ‘a marketplace for donors and charities, as the UK’s 1st public, open giving circle, and as the ‘Dragons’ Den’ for charities’, TFN ‘enables individuals to join together to fund social change projects’. And with remarkable results, too: since 2002, TFN raised over 4 million GBP for variety of different causes and over 450 local, national and international projects.

December 14, 2011

Everything is possible, just be persistent

Last week, I read the amazing story of a great joint philanthropic initiative in Kosovo that raised more than 400.000 euro in about 2 1/2 hours. It is an example how people from different sectors can work together and achieve great things. The fundraising event was for the NGO Mother Theresa from Germany with proceeds going to provide needed medical treatments for sick children in Kosovo. The event involved both a traditional gala dinner and a simultaneous live televised broadcast of the event on the public broadcaster RTK that solicited donations via SMS. This event was completely supported by media partners.

December 7, 2011

Philanthropy – alive and kicking!

I know that we (civil society I mean) are in various ways trying to develop philanthropy, but this whole business with media monitoring confirmed what I started to suspect for some time already: philanthropy in the region is alive and kicking and it’s been developed by many, many actors, thank you very much!

What do I mean by that? Well, media, companies, PR agencies, SMEs, law firms, celebrities, sportspersons, politicians, church, teachers, doctors, local choruses, cafe owners, rich and those not so rich… when you read media reports it seems that everybody is doing something!

Now, one of the questions – for me at least – might be what is civil society place in all that development; but this time, I would just like to invite you to take a quick glance at how philanthropy – developed by so many diverse people and groups – looks like in these four countries?

December 1, 2011