Being inspired by a quote from a community foundation member ‘First of all, in any field, we work with people, and we should remember this’ (Zhanna Solovyova, head of the board of the Zhytomyr Community Foundation), Daria Rybalchenko sat down with her team to discuss why it is so difficult for people from different institutions to cooperate. The result was the creation of a space for intersectoral dialogue – ‘Meeting for Change’, described by Daria, below.
When the National Network of Local Philanthropy Development team considered why it so difficult for people from different institutions to cooperate we soon realised that people do not know each other, and as they work in different fields, there are very limited spaces where they can meet. That is why we started the concept of “Meeting for Change” – a place to meet and get acquainted, to “devirtualise” and understand that institutions are primarily managed by people.
We decided to facilitate dialogue through meetings in neutral, safe territory for everyone. In October 2023, we gathered local organisations, community foundations, INGOs, and donors to discuss why it’s hard to work in partnership, why it’s hard to have an equal partnership, what the challenges are, and how to overcome them. There was huge positive feedback from this. What we learnt from the event:
- There should be intermediaries who could collect some small needs and go to business or to government to find resources;
- Businesses are ready to help, but they don’t know what are the requests;
- Local organisations should explore what businesses are doing already before approaching for resources;
- Sectors don’t know how other sectors work: Businesses don’t know how NGOs work, NGOs don’t know how the government works, etc.
Realising that the issues were the same at local level we decided to pilot Meeting for Change in other localities, inviting invite local governments, civil society organisations and businesses. The approach involves creating a space to facilitate conversation – networking, business games, workshops, etc. enabling people sit on the same level at the table, and to have an open conversation. We also demonstrate partnership in action with the event itself being organised in cooperation with other organisations from other fields.
Meeting for Change has three aims:
- Developing the leadership role of community foundations who can unite all actors and facilitate the dialogue;
- Promoting a model of community foundations for new communities;
- Promoting a culture of local philanthropy helps community foundations find new local donors.
In the future, we will test new formats, and seek new ways of developing partnerships between community foundations and local organisations with other sectors. Six Meetings for Change are planned in in different regions of Ukraine throughout 2024.
More information on the Network and Meeting for Change can be found here
