Standards and Good Practices for Public Funding of Civil Society Organisations Report

Prepared within the scope of Monitoring and Enhancing the Enabling Environment for Civil Society Project financed by the European Union, Standards and Good Practices for Public Funding of Civil Society Organisations Report is published. Authored by Vanja Skoric, who is the Program Director at European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL), the report presents public funding for CSOs includes government implemented measures to support CSO development, including their sustainability or their ability to fulfil their vision and mission, through a variety of financial or in-kind mechanisms.

The report is based on desktop research, review of examples, forms and documents related to the process of public funding and discussions with partners.

The report starts by providing an overview of effects of public funding on both the policy development and civil society, existing public funding models and established good practice principles, examining the planning and programming process as well as various forms of public funding. It then turns to analysing five countries, Croatia, Germany, Czech Republic, Ireland and Estonia, and their public funding models, including a detailed example from each country that showcases a variety of potential mechanisms for allocating funding. Finally, the report offers a set of recommendations for developing an effective public funding model and hopes to provide stakeholders (respective policy makers on national and local level as well as CSOs) with directions for further improvement of the legal framework.