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Civitas Status

Project initiator

Period

May 2023 – April 2024

Budget

75.000 EUR

Funder

Active Citizens Fund România

Project Partner

The Odorheiu Secuiesc Office of the Civitas Foundation for Civil Society

The project “Impact in the spotlight. Building trust in NGOs” comes as a response to the lack of recognition, visibility and trust in NGOs in Romania. The latest data available show that only 25% of the Romanian population has a lot of trust in civil society organizations, with a 31% increase among the young generation aged 18-35 (Research carried out by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy (IRES), January 2021), which is almost twice lower than the level of the European Union countries. Because we are part of the NGO’s world, we see the real impact of our colleagues in the sector every day. Their results, however, do not have enough visibility for those outside this world.

We decided to show people that NGOs deserve their trust! That’s how we came up with the idea to put their impact in the spotlight. When some things are not visible enough, we use the lens of a magnifying glass (or a Zoom on a photo) to get to see them better. We want the activities in this project to have the same effect. We want to zoom in on the positive changes generated by NGOs in our country. We put a magnifying glass on the positive impact of NGOs and encourage people to discover the change stories that NGOs write every day.

What do we want to achieve?

Our aim is to improve the general public’s perception of NGOs and increase their visibility through a series of coherent and interconnected communication actions. In other words, we aim to promote the results of non-governmental organizations and their role as actors in a democratic society. Our effort is centered on the idea that NGOs produce changes that matter and deserve to reach the public space.

What’s next?

In order to achieve our goal, we will carry out a series of 5 activities through which we aim to reach the following audience: young people, the business environment, public authorities. By April 2024, we will organize:

  1. Two NGO festivals, one in Cluj-Napoca and another in Odorheiu Secuiesc. NGOs are the agents of change that a community needs. This is the idea we want to convey to the visitors to the two festivals. 45 NGOs from Transylvania will be invited to participate with stands, publicize their work and encourage people to get involved through interactive activities.
  2. A contest of multimedia journalistic materials. We will challenge high school and college students to discover NGOs in their communities and document the work of an organization they appreciate. Three winning materials will be awarded and published in at least one mass media publication’s website.
  3. “Invest in your community!” campaign. A campaign through which we will bring to the attention of Romanian companies the possibility of redirecting their tax to NGOs. We want to encourage the business environment to invest in community and mediate the collaboration between the business sector and the NGOs.
  4. Civic Talks: debates with local authorities. Civic Talks is a series of 3 meetings, where NGOs and public authorities sit at the same table and discuss what and how they can change for the better in their community. The topics addressed will refer to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.
  5. A contest for NGO’s annual reports. The results of NGOs remain in the shadows also because many of them do not communicate publicly. In this context, we will encourage organizations to summarize their work and impact in an annual report, which, as we know, is the main communication tool through which an NGO shows transparency and credibility.

We will give you more details about each activity during the project. To learn more about the project and schedule, visit the project webpage! Also, you’ll be up to date with everything we’re going to announce about the project if you follow us on our Facebook page!

The project is implemented by Civitas Foundation for Civil Society and benefits from a 75.000 euros grant from Active Citizens Fund Romania, programme funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants Grants 2014 -2021. The content of this website does not necessarily reflect the official position of the EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021; for more information visit www.eeagrants.org. More details about Active Citizens Fund Romania are available at www.activecitizensfund.ro.

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