The Sustainable NGO Financing Project

The Sustainable NGO Financing Project (SNFP) for Central and Eastern Europe is an international effort to encourage and assist non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the region to develop longer-term financial resources to ensure sustainability of their activities. It is a response to the problem that local public and private philanthropic resources in CEE remain insufficient to meet the needs of a growing NGO sector. Also, many NGOs are heavily dependent on international donor support which leaves their future sustainability uncertain. These gaps in funding illustrate the great necessity of diversifying NGO financial sources and identifying additional local alternatives.

The ultimate goal of the SNFP is to help NGOs develop alternative sources of financing through income-generating activities. "Self-financing" refers to a number of "entrepreneurial" strategies, including: membership dues, fees for services, product sales, licensing agreements, rental of hard assets, investments and other business ventures. The SNFP is not intended to commercialize NGOs, rather to increase their awareness and capacity to use self-financing strategies effectively and responsibly.

The CSDF Hungary has experienced through its regular work with NGOs in Hungary that these organizations are both nationally and locally highly dependent on government sources and in order to diversify their funding base they need to develop own income generating activities. Therefore the CSDF decided to join this international project in 1997. Other partners in the project are:

• LOTOS Foundation (Czech Republic),
• Center for Nonprofit Management (Slovenia),
• Partners for Democratic Change (Slovakia)
• Regional Environmental Center for CEE (active in 15 countries), and the
• Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (USA) as the project coordinator.

The CSDF Hungary has conducted a research and identified five local case studies of successful entrepreneurial undertakings of NGOs. We have also compiled a guide for the legal and regulatory environment for economic activities performed by nonprofit organizations and identified the existing infrastructure offering expert help to NGOs in this area. In December 1998 we organized a national forum on Self-financing Possibilities for NGOs in Hungary. In 1999, in the second year of the project, in accordance with the regional project objectives, we issue publications and develop training and consultation services for NGOs in this subject.

csdf@mail.c3.hu.