Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG8: Non-Governmental Organizations in CEE Author(s) Amelia Boyart-Bienenfeld I do not belong to any Institution Brussels Belgium Title The Potential Effects of Donor Funding Schemes on the Diversity and Sustainability of Central and Eastern European CSOs: the Example of the EEA and Norway Grants File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Amelia Boyart-Bienenfeld Abstract This paper aims at answering the following question: do foreign donor funding make Central and Eastern European CSOs more or less sustainable? Against the backdrop of new legal limitations of foreign funding sources for CSOs in Central Europe, it is surprising to see the limited number of evidenced-based studies on the effects of donor funding on CSOs’ structure. Indeed, most academic studies on the topic are exclusively focusing on CSOs in developing countries or on CSOs providing services. The work presented aims at filling this gap, using the example of the EEA and Norway Grants, the most important source of funding for CSOs in the region. The study will touch upon the 11 Central and Eastern EU Member States benefitting from the Grants and will focus on Poland and Romania, the two biggest beneficiaries (EUR 53M and EUR 46M for 2014-2021). In its first chapter, this paper will build on the available research on the impact of the different types of funding (core v. project-based) (I). We will see how the EEA and Norway Grants fit these categories and will question the relevance of these analyses in the Central European context. The CSO environment in “new” EU Member States is indeed characterised by a high degree of diversity and commitment, but also by high levels of mistrust among the general population and threats coming from state institutions. The second chapter will address the organisational effects of the grants on single CSOs (II). It will investigate whether they increase the effectiveness and efficiency of funded organisations through the development of a results-based approach, or whether on the other hand they put more burden on CSOs because of reporting requirements. The risk of dependence to external funding will also be addressed. Finally, the impact of the EEA and Norway Grants on the third sector structure in Central and Eastern Europe in general will be discussed (III). The paper will analyse the institutional set-up of the EEA and Norway Grants as well as the implementation modalities of the grants, and will research in what ways these affect the sustainability of the CSO environment in these EU Member States. Main sources for this research include literature from academia as well as evaluations and reports from various institutions. EEA and Norway grants data will be extracted from the project and programme results published on their website, as well as from other types of publications and documents provided to project promoters and fund operators.
