At the end of March, we finished a two-year project called TRANSFORM – strengthening the activities of EUROTOPIA.CZ, o.p.s., which was supported by the OSF Foundation within the Active Citizens Fund program, which aims to support civil society and strengthen the capacity of non-profit organizations. The programme is funded by the EEA and Norway Grants.
The aim of this project was to strengthen the organisation’s activities in the area of competences and readiness to work in the online environment.
Within the project we implemented several activities:
1. Strategy
One of the outputs of the strategic planning that this project followed up on was the absence of important strategic documents, so we focused on developing the missing strategies and updating some internal guidelines. In October 2023, the Fundraising Strategy developed for the period 2023 – 2025 saw the light of day, followed by the Communication and PR Strategy in March 2024. Both documents are based on an initial SWOT analysis and we worked with external experts in the field to develop them. In addition, the Communications Strategy is based on two questionnaire surveys aimed at assessing the organisation’s communications, which were carried out in November and December 2023.
2. Education
The second project activity aimed at strengthening the management of the organization by increasing the skills and abilities of the managers through training and strengthening the internal culture and the belonging of the staff to the organization through a team building event.
A total of 8 staff members from the management team, the newly formed fundraising and PR team and the economic department participated in 18 training sessions on management skills, fundraising, financial management and PR.
An important part of the project was the implementation of the first ever organisation-wide teambuilding event for tribal staff, which we ended up organising twice. In May 2023, the first teambuilding event was held with 30 employees participating, and the second one was held at the end of March this year with 34 employees attending. Organising an organisation-wide teambuilding event has been a long-time wish of the organisation’s employees and we are very happy that we were able to give them this event thanks to the TRANSFORM project. We firmly believe that organization-wide teambuilding will become a regular annual activity where employees from all 5 regions in which we operate can network.
Following on from the first teambuilding event, which was well received, and in an effort to promote the internal culture of the organisation, we decided to organise the first Family Day for employees and their families, which took place in a typically autumnal setting on 15 October 2023 in the beautiful Jeseníky Mountains.
3. Fundraising
One of the important goals of the project was to start a systematic fundraising in the organization, mainly by securing funds for the job. We managed to fill the position of fundraiser, who would also be in charge of the project agenda, with a female employee right at the beginning of the project. Gradually, two more colleagues joined her and by September 2023 our fundraising and PR team was in place and currently has four members, is firmly anchored in the structure of the organisation and is delivering its tasks.
We have already seen partial successes in fundraising and have seen the first results of our work. During the duration of the project, we have established cooperation with 10 companies that have provided us with financial donations and 27 regional companies that have supported us with in-kind donations for specific events (the “UKAŽ, WHAT YOU CAN DO!” talent competition in 2022 and 2023, summer adventure stays, children’s days, creative workshops, etc.). We have also implemented 4 fundraising campaigns aimed at individual donors on the Darujme.cz portal. In total, we attracted 37 individual donors.
4. Communication
Newly set steps and processes in the field of communication and PR of the organization were implemented in practice during the project. The communication and PR team started using a communication plan as a tool for their work, which helps them to ensure a smooth and targeted implementation of the organisation’s Facebook page. A new website of the organisation was created and its content gradually renewed, and we also developed new regional leaflets of the organisation for promotion in the regions. All these steps and their effect were evaluated in a questionnaire survey that was part of a communication audit as part of the development of the organisation’s Communication and PR Strategy. The questionnaire survey was aimed both internally at the organisation’s employees and at the public – cooperating organisations, institutions and the target group of clients. The questionnaire survey involved 43 employees of the organisation and 54 persons from among the cooperating institutions and clients.
As part of the project, we also entered into a partnership agreement with three NGOs and one school, which provided us with a more detailed assessment of the organisation’s communication and PR strategy, for which we are very grateful.
5. Online space
The last, but no less important, activity of the project was rather technical, as it provided the necessary software and software products for the staff to use for working in the online space, working with data and external and internal communication, as well as hardware equipment. The aim of this activity was to help staff to make their work more efficient and easier. The main tasks, but not the only ones we were able to accomplish, were securing a new email provider for the organization’s staff and a new shared storage facility. The answer for us was the services of the Google Workspace platform, which also offers a number of useful applications.
At the end of the project, a review of the successful implementation of the strategies and an evaluation of the project was conducted.
Although this particular project has now ended, the activities and processes that we were able to start thanks to it will continue. There are still many challenges and tasks ahead. And if we want to be an organization that is modern, works transparently and has a good name that is known by a wider environment than just our collaborators and our clients, it is a never-ending journey of improvement for all those behind the name “EUROTOPIA.CZ”.
