Open Call for the National Giving Day

On this year’s National Day of Giving, the Serbian Philanthropic Forum started the “Year of Kindness” and opened a competition to support civil society organizations to raise funds for initiatives aimed at improving the quality of education through the promotion of activism, solidarity and philanthropy.

Civil society organizations , together with partner primary or secondary schools , can apply for the competition, with whom they will work together on the implementation of activities that nurture and promote activism, empathy and solidarity, charity and bring together citizens and the business community to improve conditions for the education of children and young people.

The National Day of Giving enables organizations to implement actions to collect funds, goods or services that will be used for the implementation of specific activities related to the improvement of the quality of education through the promotion of activism, solidarity and philanthropy, with the involvement of citizens from the local community and the corporate sector. The Serbian Philanthropic Forum will help in promotion and fundraising, through contacts with companies and organizations, and other possible partners.

The place where the action is implemented must be on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

As part of the competition, we plan to support up to 15 partner initiatives, which will be carried out by civil society organizations and which will be implemented in partnership with primary or secondary schools in their local community.

What are the conditions of the competition?

• • The organization was registered as an association or foundation in the APR before 1/1/2020. year
  • The organization has conducted at least one successful fundraising campaign in the local community from citizens and/or the cooperative sector
  • In its statute, the organization has defined work on the improvement of education
  • The average annual budget of the organization in 2020, 2021 and 2022 is more than 2.5 million dinars
  • After the selection, the organization must provide a signed memorandum of cooperation with the school with which it will implement the project
  • The organization is registered in the same municipality, village or city on whose territory the partner school is also registered
  • The organization has experience in cooperation with local media

  Application documentation:

  • APR statement
  • Application form with:
    • An overview of the organization’s total budget for 2020, 2021 and 2022 (in US dollars), and a list of donors in those years;
    • A description of the fund-raising action(s) implemented, indicating the total amount of funds collected and the purpose of these funds, as well as information on the donor structure;
    • A description of the activities carried out with primary or secondary schools (preferably with a clip from a clipping or a screenshot of social media posts);
    • Description of the action that the organization plans to implement and the purpose of the action;
    • The expected results of the action proposed by the organization;
    • The framework budget, that is, the amount that the organization plans to collect through this action and the proposal of fundraising activities;
    • A description of promotional activities in the media and on social networks that the organization plans to implement as part of the promotion of the proposed activity.

The competition does not support:

• Projects that call for any form of violence and discrimination and promote the use of alcohol, psychoactive substances or unhealthy lifestyles;
• Projects that do not have the primary goal of collecting funds, goods or services and improving conditions for education;
• Projects that are not focused on the territorially determined local community in which the organization is registered;
• Projects that are exclusively focused on procurement: e.g. funds are collected from one company, without the involvement of citizens, for the purchase of equipment for the school.
• Applications from individuals, profit initiatives, state institutions and government bodies, local self-government bodies, public institutions, international organizations, political organizations and parties, as well as civil society organizations that do not carry out activities at the local level.

Until when and how can I apply?

• The contest for the application of organizations is open from October 20 to November 20, 2023 until 11:59 p.m. In the specified period, organizations submit the completed application form, i.e. the documentation prescribed by this competition via e-mail to the address office@filantropskiforum.com with the indication “For the Year of Kindness”. Only complete applications, which contain all prescribed documentation, submitted within the prescribed period, will be considered.
• Upon receipt of application forms and accompanying documentation, the executive office of the Serbian Philanthropic Forum selects up to 15 organizations and up to 15 partner schools, and selects projects that will participate in the campaign.

What are the competition criteria?

• organizational capacity to carry out the proposed activities;
• the significance of the organization’s previous results in the community in which it operates;
• past cooperation with educational institutions in the community where the organization operates;
• proposed project idea;
• estimated capacity of the organization to collect funds, with the support of the Serbian Philanthropic Forum, for the designed project.

The results of the competition will be known no later than November 30, 2023 and will be published on the website and social networks of the Serbian Philanthropic Forum and Trag Foundation as the project holder.

The proposed projects will be implemented from December 1, 2023 to May 1, 2024. , after which the organizations submit a report on their implementation to the office of the Serbian Philanthropic Forum.

With each selected organization, the office of the Serbian Philanthropic Forum will conduct a consultative conversation in order to maximally adapt its support to the needs of the successful implementation of the proposed activities and help the organization in collecting funds from citizens and companies for the implementation of the proposed projects and establishing contact with local donors.

Based on the submitted reports of the organizations, the office of the Serbian Philanthropic Forum will prepare a report on the implementation of fundraising campaigns and proposed projects, which will be published by May 31, 2024 on the website of the Serbian Philanthropic Forum.

All participants of realized projects (civil society organizations and partner schools) will be presented with awards for solidarity during the celebration of the National Day of Giving on October 9, 2024 in Belgrade.

The contest is conducted as part of the National Day of Giving, National, and within the Power of Activism project, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) , and implemented by the Trag Foundation and partner organizations , the Center for Research, Transparency and Responsibility (CRTA), the Umbrella Organization of the Youth of Serbia (KOMS), the Feminist Cultural Center BeFem, the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation (SĆF) and the Serbian Philanthropic Forum (SFF) .