"The NGO Fund of the EEA/Norwegian Financial Mechanism in Hungary closed in April 2011."

The Fund opened with a main event on the 10th April 2008, the ceremonial closing event was held on 6th December 2010.

 
The Hungarian NGO Fund was managed by a consortium of 4 grantmaking foundations: Ökotárs (Hungarian Environmental Partnership) Foundation, Autonomia Foundation, DemNet (Foundation for the Development of Democratic Rights) and Carpathian Foundation-Hungary. Since the Fund provided grants in 4 main thematic areas, the division of tasks was self-evident: each foundation was responsible for one area, including providing helpdesk to applicants, organizing the evaluation process, monitoring and audits, as follows:
-         Environment and sustainable development: Ökotárs Foundation
-         Civil liberties and capacity building: DemNet
-         Social cohesion, health and child care: Autonómia Foundation,
-         Cultural heritage protection: Carpathian Foundation-Hungary
 
Main overall achievement in the NGO Fund
At the time of its launch, the NGO Fund has been awaited by Hungarian NGOs, thus, surrounding expectations were high, many organizations hoped it would solve their financial problems in one way or the other. While of course the Fund couldn’t fulfill these all, over the course of its operation achieved important results and brought significant lessons.
The most direct and concrete achievement of the Fund is the fact that it has financially supported 238, largely successful projects by civil society organizations all around the country with a total amount of app. 6.3 million €, which was the second largest source dedicated to NGOs after the National Civil Fund over the last 3 years. This contributed to reaching out and providing services to various target groups, to increase awareness and public knowledge around such pressing issues as the ecological crisis or the need to protect our cultural heritage, but also helped increase the profile and public image of the NGOs supported.
 

Summary of calls for proposals
According to the original plans, the Hungarian NGO Fund was to be distributed in two grant rounds in 2008(deadline: 9th June, extended with one day due to a server collapse) and 2009 (deadline: 1st April), in 4 the thematic areas defined by the FMO. During the first round, NGOs could apply for macro (25-80,000 €) and micro-grants (5-25,000 €) with project proposals no longer than 24 months; in the second one only micro projects up to 12 months long were eligible. Besides, during spring 2009 the FMO offered additional resources to the fund, and this – together with remaining amounts from the first two rounds allowed for announcing an ‘extra’ third call in autumn 2009 with changed (two-phase, see below) application procedure.
 

Good practice and lessons learned within projects
- Simplified procedure, less or equal irregularities compared to other grant-making structures: Previous experience of the managing foundations gained in other (mainly EU funded) funding schemes proved that exaggerated administrative burden did not result in higher transparency or efficiency regarding the appropriate use of the project expenditures. On the contrary, the unrealistic administrative rules resulted an incorrect or tricky attitude of the beneficiaries. Since the requirements of the procedure cannot be fulfilled (or with serious difficulties), the beneficiaries usually try to find ‘innovative’ ways for the project implementation or reporting (e.g. procurement, human costs etc.). One of the most important lesson learnt of NGO Fund was that the simple and ‘user-friendly’ procedures did not result in more irregularities in the projects than in other funding schemes and what is more, these cases could rather be considered as mistakes of inexperienced financial management as opposed to deliberate misuse of the grant. This attitude helped to maintain the cooperative relationship between funder and beneficiary.
- There is no procedure which is appropriate for every applicant but setting up fair and transparent system is possible: In spite of the relatively few complaints about the procedure or decision making, the foundations had to find answers for the criticism of the communication about the decisions. There must be unsuccessful applicants in every funding system and this causes sometimes hostile reactions, but clear explanation about the decision and transparent decision making system can help accept the negative decisions. The foundations took the advantage of the three year program and improved the quality of the justification of decisions, gave advice how to rethink or rewrite the project and application for the next round as well as provided possibility for personal consultations with the project staff to discuss the weaknesses of the applications.
- Achievement based reporting: .Although the quarterly reporting system included financial facts, the reporting focused on the real achievements of the projects. Results had to be proved by measurable indicators (or justification why the given result has not been achieved). Every project related costs was compared to activities and results. This way of cost-efficiency was emphasized both in the contracting phase (beneficiaries got very clear and exact project-summary on the activities and indicators) and in the reporting phase.
- Separation of reporting and monitoring functions could enhance the trust and partnership between the funders and grantees: The foundations considered beneficiaries rather as partners than subjects to investigate. In the monitoring visits project staff focused on the daily life of the projects, the achievements and the activities. Given that project documentation had to be submitted with the financial report, the monitors tried to get a real picture and impressions of the projects on the spot.
 
About the wider results and the future of the NGO Fund see more information in the webpage: www.norvegcivilalap.hu

 

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