Grantmakers East Forum

Event Grantmakers East Forum: Engage
Date 8-10 October
Venue Dubrovnik, Croatia

In October, the resort of Dubrovnik usually welcomes American and British tourists. This year it also played host to the155 participants of the GEF conference representing local foundations, international donors, corporate funders – 155 out of 166 who registered for the conference. My guess is that the missing 11 ended up at the beach as the weather was gorgeous. But, yes, back to the conference.

‘Engage’ was the title and main focus of the conference and it is one of the critical issues for philanthropy and civil society in the CEE/NIS countries. After many years of intensive work on building local philanthropic resources and cultures, we are currently facing some new and important questions such as: do civil society organizations get engaged with the rest of society or do we in some cases just follow state priorities? Do we engage enough with new donors? Are we able to keep up with trends in society?

Yes, the CEE/NIS countries do sometimes suffer from a lack of public engagement. This can have an impact on public policy, governmental relations, and the position of civil society organizations and also on donors and on developing local philanthropy. Compared to some other countries like the USA or the UK, we tend sometimes not to be able to translate our own visions and values to ‘normal’ people. Such differences were discussed in connection with new and old philanthropy, for example the business approach to philanthropy known as philanthrocapitalism, evident in the US and the UK but hardly known in our region.

This lack of engagement is partly historical, a result of always having the ‘institution’ as the translator and intermediary in the public arena. The Austro-Hungarian humility in front of institutions has left its mark on our attitudes and can lead to a damaged relationship between civil society organizations and the public. Yet, in times of disillusion with the transformation in our region, with people slowly losing their expectations of the state, civil society organizations should be ready to play a new role. There are also trends that we should capture such as changes in lifestyle and people’s expectations in the area of environmental protection, the cross-cultural role of culture, and the potential of new philanthropists. Though 50 per cent of GEF participants apparently think that social inclusion cannot be accomplished, we should give it a try nevertheless.
 
There is a new era ahead of us, in which joint topics for the CEE/NIS region give way to more country-based approaches as bigger and bigger differences become apparent within the region. This was documented in respect of the Visegrad 4 countries, which were contrasted with Russia and Balkan countries. Topics like the demand for a new contract between the state and civil society organizations and donors were discussed. The new position of donors is one that should be looked at more closely.

This and other topics talked about at GEF should be the themes for future conferences. Looking back is important, but the only way we can really get engaged is through looking forward while breaking some of our stereotypes in thinking, for example by engaging new groups in dialogue. Our answers should be deeper than the one we were offered in the conference voting options – yes, no, I don’t know.

Stakeholder dialogue is a trend in the corporate sector. Governments are starting to wake up to it and the non-profits should follow suit. We can get inspired by the internet. If you google ‘engage’ you get to the web page on social dating, which is something for civil society organizations and donors to look into – dating with groups across society. You never know who you might meet. Maybe this will be the partner for a new life.

Pavlina Kalousova is Executive Director of the Czech Donors Forum. Email kalousova@donorsforum.cz

For more information www.gef.efc.be