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Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges of its member organisations Presented by: Marius Wanders, Keti Tskitishvili, Annamaria Vrzackova Berlin, 12 April 2007, EOSF/DCV Workshop on “Financing Caritas Activities in

Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

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Page 1: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe

Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges of its member organisationsPresented by: Marius Wanders, Keti Tskitishvili, Annamaria Vrzackova

Berlin, 12 April 2007, EOSF/DCV Workshop on “Financing Caritas Activities in Europe”

Page 2: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Elements covered by this presentation

General introduction of Caritas Europa

The Caritas Europa “internal network” structures and processes

Presentation of the ESF mechanism Presentation of the SODA program Presentation of the Management

Forum

Page 3: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

What is Caritas Europa?

Caritas Europa (CE) is: One of the 7 world regions of Caritas Internationalis

162 members active in over 200 countries and regions Regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America &

Caribbean, MONA, North America, Oceania 48 member organisations (MO’s) active in 44

European countries (= all countries of Europe), including member organisations in each member state of the EU

Covering a large geographical area that includes places like Reykjavik (Iceland), Vladivostok (Siberia), Yerevan (Armenia) and Las Palmas (Canary Islands)

Page 4: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Role of Caritas Europa towards its MOs

Liaising with Caritas Internationalis and its other regional structures

Building effective partnerships and alliances at the European level with other civil society actors

Being the political voice at the European level (EU, Council of Europe, OSCE etc.) on behalf of the MOs and based on their grass roots experiences

Fostering exchange, cooperation and coordination with regard to activities of the MOs

Strengthening the network as a whole and building the capacities of the individual members of the network

Page 5: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Diversity within the CE network

Age and history of the organisations Resources (human, financial, technical) Size of the organisations Focus of the activities (domestic/overseas/both) Nature of the activities (delivery of social services and

welfare/political advocacy/both) Proportion of Catholics in the country Level of direct control and/or management by Church

authorities Language, culture “Old” EU, “New” EU or non-EU

Page 6: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Common challenges within the CE network

Common challenges faced by many of the so-called “weaker” member organisations (MOs) include the following:

Operating within a weak economic context Operating within a weak social context Operating in a challenging religious context (very low

proportion of Catholics in the population) Operating in a poor ‘governance’ context: limited realistic

options for NGOs or charitable foundations As a result of all the above, operating in challenging financial

and organisational contexts, especially with regard to sustainability and autonomy

Many MOs focus on their ‘struggle to survive’ rather than on their mission to respond to the needs of the poor and needy.

Page 7: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

The response by Caritas Europa

Priority V of the CE strategic plan 2005-2010 reads is defined as follows:

“Responding to the needs and requests of its member organisations, Caritas Europa develops a coherent approach towards increasing the sense of ownership and the joint commitment within the network.

Included in this approach are development and strengthening of all its organisations

and all its structures, promotion of good governance and quality management

principles, building of capacity within member organisations and

other structures, administering a solidarity funding mechanism and fostering the intra-European coordination of projects

and programmes.”

Page 8: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Historic background of the ESF

ESF was set up in the middle of the ’90s, following the (re-)appearance of many Caritas MOs in former communist-led countries

ESF = Multilateral and solidarity based system of financial support for structural expenses

Meant to supplement bilateral partnerships and bilateral funding arrangements

The system is centrally administered by Caritas Europa, but transfers of support funds take place on direct and bilateral basis between donor and recipient

Page 9: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Objectives of the ESF system

Funding support for the costs of core structures of MOs unable to finance such costs autonomously

To be one of the capacity building tools of CE To facilitate and encourage MOs on their path

towards financial self-sustainability To foster and encourage solidarity between MOs

of the European Caritas network To foster further bilateral partnerships between

MOs To foster closer liaison between national and

diocesan Caritas structures in recipient MOs

Page 10: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Current “map” of the ESF system

Page 11: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

CE vision of the ESF – (1)

Mid-term vision and objectives (< 2 years) “Revitalisation” through better awareness of its

objectives and potential benefits for all stakeholders Better and more professional processes

Increased transparency of procedures Better and more professional application

documentation Improvement of the transparency, reliability, quality

and coherence of the applications by recipients Long term vision and objectives (3-6

years) All but a few of the current recipients will be sufficiently

financially autonomous to leave the system; some will become donors

Remaining needs to be covered in long term bilateral funding agreements (not requiring multilateral system)

Page 12: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

CE vision of the ESF - 2

ESF could/should evolve to also include a CRM (Crisis Response Mechanism)

Same principles: multilateralism and solidarity Every MO can be a ‘donor’ of money or other resources

(human, technical resources) depending on needs dictated by the crisis

All ‘donors’ make “virtual pledges” of the volume and nature of support that – in case of need – they can supply

The crisis-stricken MO will only need to make one application to trigger the multilateral support system

Evaluation by a special CE Committee, CE to call in some of the “virtual pledges”

Such a system will require careful planning and full ownership

Page 13: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Visions expressed by current ESF donors (Tirana, Oct. 2006)

ESF should only support a minimum structure and only at national level (not the branches, dioceses etc in the country). Caritas-Europe must formulate the criteria for minimum structure.

In the case that ESF has more funds the criteria could be less strict or more Caritas organisations in difficulties could be supported.

ESF should support also Caritas organisations who are in difficulties (e.g. Sweden) for a limited period.

The Caritas organisation must try to introduce capacity building activities as a project and send a request to donors which want to finance such activities.

ESF should only support Caritas organisation if that organisations have a clear plan about the phasing out the ESF support.

External auditing to be supported by the donors

Page 14: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Visions expressed by current ESF recipients (Tirana, Oct. 2006)

ESF Committee members will help recipient MOs to develop a strategy for 3-5 years (individual consulting for countries)

Scaling the application (pledge commitment of the donors for several years) and sign the agreement with CE on pledges

Clear guidelines with regard to eligibility within ESF of CE and CI membership fees

Improved transparency of the allocation criteria

Page 15: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

The SODA program since 2001…

Represents Systematic Organisational Development Approach

Aims to promote systematic organisational development and strategic planning within Caritas Europa members

Assists member organisations in terms of public accountability, transparency, governmental and EU requirements, funding requirements, organisation’s internal needs

Includes: Strategic planning Self-assessment inspired by the EFQM Excellence

model

Page 16: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Strategic planning with SODA

A disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and action that shape and guide what an organisation is, what it does and why it does it.

Represents a shared vision of what will be Provides a framework which will be consistent over a

specific period of time Identifies the predetermined direction toward which

short term actions will be pointed Identifies the context within which the organisation

accepts or rejects new opportunities and assigns its resources to current services

Page 17: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

Self-Assessment role

Recognises achievements Identifies space for further improvement Clarifies a linkage of achievements with

ways/tools/approaches Provides a “snapshot” Leads to further improvement plans

Page 18: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

The Management Forum

Is designed to promote and put into practice good governance, quality management and transparency, both at the level of the Caritas Europa network and at the level of individual Member Organisations.

For: Those Managers of CE Member Organizations who shape the management practices, management instruments, management polices and management culture within our network

Page 19: Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges

The Management Forum

Develops cooperation and exchange on global management issues among MOs: Finance, HR, Administration, IQM, etc.

Prioritises management related issues for further exchange and reflection

Identifies ways for responding to common challenges within the network

Reflects and works on “Recommended Management and Administrative Guidelines” (minimum standards) within the CE network.