Across Germany there are over 400 community foundations which support or run a large variety of projects. Despite different local contexts, they have to deal with similar questions and challenges. The project database of the Alliance of Community Foundations in Germany intends to foster learning from peers and promote good projects.
Not reinventing the wheel again and again
The basic idea is that a community foundation can contact another if they are interested in adopting a specific concept. Then they can discuss whether the community foundation that originally set up the project is interested in participating in the elaboration of the new project or whether the project can simply be replicated. Some community foundations offer model documents like schedules or text modules that can be downloaded directly from the database.
The database offers different options of filters so that projects can easily be found. Projects can be filtered by federal state, funding objective, the target group and –that was particularly important to us- according to the 17 SDGs. Thus we want to raise more awareness about the goals because many community foundations are already working within the framework of the SDGs without being aware of it.
Joining in is simple
Every community foundation can contribute to the project data base with their projects. They only have to fill in the digital profile and send it to the Alliance together with some photos of the project and other material like model documents or information brochures. The information will be checked and then recorded in the database. In order to ensure that the projects are updated, the person in charge of the project will be contacted and asked to update the entry as the case may be.
Increase visibility
The project database gives visibility to good projects, facilitates scaling and contributes to professionalizing the work of volunteers. To potential donors, volunteers, and partners, the database offers the possibility of finding information on the work of community foundations quickly. The data base has started with a small selection of projects, the quality of the profiles being more important than the quantity. Yet the plan is to increase bit by bit the volume of projects so that soon there will be a considerable number available for the search.
December 2020
