I have a persistent sense of déjà vu. The language and reasoning of parts of today’s political representation increasingly remind me of the 1980s. For many of us, that is a period we either did not experience or remember only vaguely. Yet it is worth recalling – especially when old patterns of thinking about civil society are resurfacing in new forms.

Pre-1989 – the reality of living under a totalitarian regime

Before 1989, there was essentially only one official space in Czechoslovakia where civic initiatives and associations could operate: the National Front. Access, however, was limited to organisations that shared and actively promoted the values of the socialist regime. Everything else was pushed into a grey zone or outright dissent – a small, forbidden, and constantly threatened space.

The backbone of the “civil society” at that time was formed by mass organisations controlled by the state: Pioneers for children, the Socialist Youth Union for young people, and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia for adults. Participation was de facto a prerequisite for civic engagement and often for professional advancement. Alongside these were numerous other associations – firefighters, hikers, amateur theatre groups, nature conservation groups, associations for people with disabilities, and many more. On the surface, the array of associations appeared vibrant and diverse, yet all operated under constant supervision. Secret collaborators were present in every organisation, and each association had to regularly demonstrate that it fulfilled “socialist goals and commitments.”

The totalitarian regime thus created the illusion of freedom of association. People could collaborate, strengthen local communities, maintain traditions, care for the environment, or educate younger generations – but only within strictly defined ideological boundaries. Freedom was permitted, but only insofar as it served propaganda and control.

Images from events of the association Tereza in the 1980s (https://terezanet.cz/english/)

Post-1989 – space for an independent nonprofit sector to thrive

Paradoxically, it was from this environment that a strong and dynamic civil society emerged after 1989. Suddenly, space opened for a truly independent nonprofit sector that could professionally contribute to the development of society. It became clear that nonprofit organisations were neither appendages of the state nor the market, but independent pillars of a democratic system. They can counterbalance centralising tendencies of state power, respond flexibly to people’s needs, and complement the market where it fails.

A fundamental turning point was the ability to finance activities not only from public but primarily from private sources. Fundraising brought nonprofits real freedom – the ability to decide their own direction, professionalise, and grow according to their own vision. Today, tens of thousands of nonprofit organisations demonstrate that civil society can function voluntarily and professionally, with responsibility, enthusiasm, and creativity. It has become a natural, indispensable, and often joyful part of our daily lives.

Now – an insidiously turning tide

It is all the more worrying when the current government starts systematically making life difficult for nonprofits. Proposals to introduce central registers, limit funding for so-called “political nonprofits,” mandatory transparent accounts, and other administrative hurdles strikingly echo the past.

Vaguely defined terms and deliberate ambiguity about who these measures apply to raise fears that the real aim is to silence critical voices and eliminate those who hold views different from those in power. This process is subtle and creeping. It is presented as an effort to save money, maintain order, or increase efficiency so that the public will accept it without resistance. That is precisely why it is dangerous.

This is not only about nonprofits themselves – it is about the level of freedom in society as a whole.

A time for vigilance & active defence

We must not be deceived by the “boiling frog” method. Once we become accustomed to small infringements on freedom of association, it may be too late to resist larger ones. History teaches us where the attempt to confine civil society to a single, centrally controlled ideology leads. We must not allow this path to be repeated.

Jana Ledvinová

Wave photo by Marie Pankova on Pexels

“The site has strengthened public confidence in giving online and helped to build understanding of the vital role of NGOs in civil society.

“As the concept of philanthropy becomes more familiar to the nation, we are now looking at other ways to build on this, including the continued collaborative legacy campaign organised by the Czech Coalition for Easy Giving.”
 

[1] Estimate of the Czech Fundraising Center based on Czech Internal Revenue Service evidence of tax deducted giving.

Figures from the Public Opinion Research Centre show that declining trust levels have been particularly apparent since 2015/6, with 47% of people overall saying they mistrusted NGOs in 2015, rising to 51% in 2017 and 53% in 2018.

According to the For Easy Giving coalition, which focuses on developing relationship fundraising to address this issue, charities are starting to change their approach to better engage donors, moving away from the traditional ask for support to a greater focus on relationship building.

For Easy Giving’s Jan Gregor said:

“Non-profits have become aware of the benefit of change from the classic fundraising approach of “help us” to the new, modern one of “join us”. By engaging people, they not only get donors, but they also increase public trust, so a developing trend appears to be the integration of programme, fundraising and communication activities and searching for activities with mutual value.”

“Although only a few Czech NGOs are truly adopting this integrated way of thinking so far, such as Friends of the Earth Czech Republic, Greenpeace, and those connected through our coalition, we are seeing NGOs becoming more willing to work on their accountability and communications to increase the public’s trust in them.”

A 2017-18 campaign by Friends of the Earth CZ, entitled ‘In every heart is a piece of wilderness’ and asking people to pledge to save areas of wilderness in the Czech Republic, saw 50,000 sign ups and 770 new donors in three weeks, resulting in 360 new direct debits after seven months. 2018 also saw the country’s first Charitable Will Month (pictured) take place across September and October to encourage more people to leave legacies.

As a result, donations are growing, both from individuals – particularly online – and corporations, while charitable wills are also starting to rise.

There is also an increasing willingness to cooperate among organisations, with the For Easy Giving coalition saw an increase in membership last year. In addition, For Easy Giving and Foundation Nonprofits.cz initiated a network of PR and communication professionals to share best practice in dealing with lack of public trust in NGOs, while a number of other groups including Glopolis “Měj se k světu”, a coalition of non-profit platforms and organisations, also joined forces to form a network that aims to raise the profile of the sector.

The POINT Network, which stands for Platform for Opportunities and Ideas in Non-profit Training, offers a range of services including training and consultancy. Initial planning for the network began two years ago when over 40 trainers and consultants committed to building the sustainability of non-profits in their nine respective countries came together to share their expertise and experiences. The POINT Network has now launched to share their knowledge and training with civil society organisations in the CEE region and the post-Soviet area, and to provide them with inspiration from around the world as well as opportunities to grow.

The POINT Network also promotes sustainability and resource mobilisation as a way for civil society organisations to achieve independence and develop civil society in the CEE region and in countries of transition through research and the provision of information about resource mobilisation. New members are welcome, and anyone interested in joining the network is invited to contact the team at team@fundraising.cz.

Jan Kroupa, of the Czech Fundraising Center, said:

“We all have many ideas and answers to what “better fundraising” in the CEE region and beyond needs. Our answers would range from a more developed culture of philanthropy, more economic power, more skills among non-profits, better fundraisers, more fundraisers, better information, more trust, more self-confidence, and better projects.

“With nearly 20 years of experience in building better fundraising in our own region, the Czech Fundraising Center tried to find a way to scale this throughout the CEE region and beyond, and recognised that this requires an international network of fundraising consultants and trainers to provide a leadership role in all of the above. This idea resonated with the International Visegrad Fund and so we invited trainers and consultants to come together and share their experiences and expertise, and the POINT Network was born.”

Developed by the Centres in collaboration with Kay Sprinkel Grace (USA) and Tony Myers (CAN), the 12-month programme aims to address a critical need in leadership development. Through experiential learning and teaching from experts it focuses on development of personal, organisational, community and professional leadership qualities. It also offers participants the opportunity to explore their own leadership style and principles. An important part of the programme will also be leadership in fundraising.

CEE Leaders of Tomorrow 2017 will begin with an orientation session and a four-day intensive experiential learning workshop delivered by Kay and Tony together with Jan Kroupa and Jana Ledvinová (CZE) and Eduard Marček (SVK). It will be held in the vicinity of Bratislava, Slovakia, and this year takes place from 22-27 October 2017.

The participants will then progress through their own individualised leadership programme with the support of dedicated mentors. Each participant will develop a personal leadership development plan to help them reach the next level of achievement whether they are aspiring to be leaders or have already attained a leadership role. The culmination of the programme includes a leadership summit, which is conducted one year after the initial leadership training.

Previous participants have described the programme as the ‘most amazing and life changing experience ever’, as a great restart and as the best investment they could have made.

More information is available at: www.ceeleadership.org.

The case studies document campaigns from Czech humanitarian and development aid organisations, and are supplemented by other interesting examples of campaigns from around the world.

Six Czech campaigns from lesser-known charities that inspired a wide range of people to donate have been selected to demonstrate a variety of fundraising methods and organisations. To complement the Czech campaigns, a further five from abroad have been included that use ideas additional to those utilised in the Czech Republic.

The case study collection was created with the support of the Czech Development agency.

FRIN, which stands for fundraising INnovation, INsight, INitiation, INspiration, and Information, is a training and mentorship programme that will test campaigns and ideas for campaigns in the marketplace with the aim of boosting fundraising.

Over six months, the programme will work with 10 fundraising and development teams, combining training with mentoring and P2P sharing, to prototype and test new fundraising campaigns and/or products in the market.

At the end of the six-month programme, an evaluation board from the bank, the program staff, mentors, PR/media agency professionals and fundraising/marketing experts will choose the best campaign and give its team the opportunity to work pro-bono with a top advertisement agency to develop it further.

The winning team will then be offered the opportunity to use Česká spořitelna´s ATMs and LCDs at customer counters to promote their campaign and to ask for a donation.

Following this initial pilot, the programme is intended to continue once a year on a long-term basis.

According to the Czech Fundraising Center, the new iReporter tool bypasses the requirement for news outlets to attend charity events and record their own footage, enabling nonprofits to provide their own amateur footage to national TV channel ČT1 news for consideration.

The service is accessed via the Czech Fundraising Center’s website. Nonprofit users must register on the site and can then upload and submit their videos directly to the TV channel, putting control of the messaging into charities’ hands.

The video tool launched in the first week of January. Although, it is currently in a test phase, it is expected to become a permanent fixture, providing long-term access to the news channel.