Before you is a publication titled the Go-Ahead SIGN. It is produced as a collective effort of the SIGN Network members, aiming to present, in the most authentic manner, stories of 15 civil society organizations that have completed the Sustainability Academy program and successfully raised funds for various activities and causes within their communities. Stories about enthusiasm, solidarity, sustainability, and importance of constant empowerment of communities are gathered in this publication and represent the product of the SIGN Network, consisting of Trag Foundation from Serbia, Mozaik Foundation from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fund for Active Citizenship – fAKT from Montenegro, Forum for Civic Initiatives – FIQ from Kosovo, HORUS from North Macedonia and Catalyst Balkans from Serbia. These stories are harvested and published to spark local philanthropy and social responsibility development among relevant actors in their communities. In other words, through this publication, we tend to inspire and empower civil society organizations to return to their surroundings and rely on their local potential.
The Sustainability Academy is one of the programs designed to support non-profit organizations in their path of building long-term partnerships with new local donors, improving their long-term financial planning, and upgrading their sustainability through enhancing their visibility and impact in the communities where they live and work. The program is implemented in five SIGN countries, with the technical support of Catalyst Balkans.
The stories we have gathered represent the developmental paths of the Sustainability Academy participants throughout the years and the course of their fundraising campaigns. Within the past decade, more than 100 civil society organizations from 5 listed countries have gathered over 350,000 Euros from local companies, SMEs, distinguished individuals and citizens.
For over a decade, the work of the SIGN Network and the Sustainability Academy program has been supported by numerous donors, including the European Union, Balkan Trust for Democracy, Balkan Civil Society Development Network and the Swedish International Cooperation Agency, through projects “SIGN for Sustainability”, “SIGN Up for Impact: Philanthropy Development for Stronger Civil Society” and “SIGN for Philanthropy Education and Promotion”.
The idea behind the Go-Ahead SIGN collection of stories is to inspire and encourage all civil society organizations to mobilize their local resources. Even though there is no universal recipe for successful fundraising, these examples of best practices and advice from the source are written in the hope to encourage at least one organization to embark on this exciting and challenging adventure in its community and write the successful local story of its own.
You can download the publication HERE.
