Funding for women’s organizations, especially those working at a local level, has become increasingly difficult to be obtained in Kosovo. Therefore, today, on 3 June, the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) organized a workshop on fundraising and identifying other manners for fundraising, besides the traditional international donors.

  Igballe Rogova, Executive Director of KWN, spoke about the manner of communication with donors, the cooperation with them, the best practices during project implementation, based on continuous experience and solidarity among women’s organizations. She talked about the current situation of donors comparing it to the one before the time when KWN began to operate as a self-funded network. In order to be considered as more serious by donors, the organizations must pay attention to accountability, accurate and timely reporting, and publication of financial reports, so that the transparency is made available to the community. On top of that, in order to create opportunities for other projects in the future, the organizations must accurately carry out the planned activities as presented in the draft-proposal.

    To identify other manners for fund-raising, Nicole Farnsworth, Program Manager and Research Head in KWN talked more specifically about the donors who currently provide donations and the concrete alternative manners. To make it easier for members to access the donors, they were given the following list:

 

They discussed broadly together about current donors, how they operate, and what they may offer based on the demands of each organization. In addition to the list of donors, she shared with the members the Alternative Manners for Fundraising, such as organizing gala dinner events, selling hand-made products, organizing fairs or auctions, among other numerous alternatives.

     Furthermore, with support from KWN, the present member organizations created a plan for fundraising within their organizations. The KWN tried to provide suggestions about the donors who would be interested in supporting concrete activities.

In the last part of the workshop, Marta Drury from Heart and Hand Foundation, came to meet the representatives of women’s organizations and share with them her experience as donor.

      “I decided to support the issues related to women’s rights in order to make a social change so that we have a better world for ourselves”.

Based on her experience, compared to other donors, she showed finds herself in various situations, as she is also the person who raises funds, but also the person who donates such funds to others who need them. When she raises funds, she tries to report to donors, sending them a summary and photo of cases and stories where she has helped with such funds. Meanwhile, when she donates funds, she requests only a simple report from the recipient of funds, because she considers that the funds she donated do not belong to her anymore but to those who received them, and they know very well how to spend them – it is sufficient to work and achieve social change.

      All those present shared their experiences with donors in Kosovo and received concrete advice on how to act in cases when they want to obtain funds. Additionally, it was discussed about the fact that in the United States of America, good-willed persons and businesses that donate money, benefit from tax exemption by the state, which does not happen in Kosovo. Therefore, considering this as part of the KWN strategy, it was decided to advocate in the near future at both central and local level for exemption from taxes in Kosovo as well.