The European Youth Foundation’s study Learning from Donor Practices: Trends in Supporting Civil Society is now available online.
The study was commissioned by the European Youth Foundation in the framework of its reform process, aiming to identify trends and good practices of donors supporting civil society organisations, and presenting similar values and principles as the EYF.
Trends identified in the study point out that donors increasingly move towards building a trust-based partnership with grantees, developing models that balance administration and flexibility, with two-way interaction where donors are attentive and responsive to real-time needs and grantees feel empowered to voice their concerns. Simplicity of the application and reporting procedures are also important in building this trust-based relation, while providing cost-saving benefits (in time and resources) to the grantees and the donor organisation. Systems of grant governance increasingly involve the beneficiary communities of the grants, in more transparent and value-based approaches. Finally, the study also devotes attention to the support donor organisations need to ensure for grantees, in a genuine partnership-building fashion.
The study includes findings based on desk research that involved the analysis of 30 donors and 10 in-depth interviews with the donors whose practices are close to the approaches of the European Youth Foundation.
EYF Statute
