The Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has caused significant damage to infrastructure, communities, and institutions, creating unprecedented challenges for civil society. At the same time, civil society organizations play a key role in supporting the population, promoting reforms, and driving the recovery processes.

To strengthen their capacity, East Europe Foundation and International Renaissance Foundation implement a three-year Impulse project with the support of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), in partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida — Styrelsen för Internationellt Utvecklingssamarbete).

Its goal is to enhance the resilience and effectiveness of civil society organizations in the most affected regions of Ukraine, to promote their involvement in early recovery, democratic reforms, and human rights protection.

International Renaissance Foundation will focus on grant support. As part of the project, over 100 small grants will be provided to local and regional organizations that contribute to recovery, inclusivity, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. Additionally, 30 institutional grants will be offered to analytical and resource centres working on the development of local democracy and citizen participation.

The competition geographic scope includes the following regions: Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv.

For more information, visit https://www.irf.ua.

In addition, International Renaissance Foundation will organize networking events to share experiences and strengthen cooperation between civil society organizations (CSOs), and will launch an internship program for young professionals in the field of civil society.

In turn, East Europe Foundation will be responsible for:

• Researching the state of civil society. The Foundation will conduct a comprehensive analysis of CSOs’ capacity, their involvement in recovery processes, and the needs for further development.
• Assessing and developing the organizational capacity of grantees. We will conduct an Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) — a comprehensive assessment of the institutional development of organizations to identify their strengths and areas for improvement. Based on this, individualized mentoring support will be provided, and personalized development plans will be drawn up.
• Training program for organizations, which will include workshops, consultations, and mentoring support on financial management, communications, project management, and more.
• Development of online education: We will create eight new courses on Zrozumilo! platform, covering topics relevant to civil society organizations.
• Organizing networking and experience-sharing events, including regional meetings to foster partnerships and collaboration among grantees.

Through the joint efforts of project partners, this initiative will be an important step toward strengthening civil society, its active participation in the country’s recovery, and ensuring sustainable democratic development.

Together, we will provide the necessary “Impulse” to strengthen local organizations in Ukraine!

The project will run from 2024 to 2027.