Join us on Thursday, April 11, at 12:30 pm for a discussion with:
Merrill Sovner, Barry Gaberman, and Bill Moody
“The Role of Pooled Funding in Supporting Civil Society in Eastern Europe”
Abstract: Starting in 1991, US private foundations, sometimes joined by USAID, came together to pool their funding into a series of partnerships and trust with the overall aim of supporting civil society in Eastern Europe. Established during a time of optimism and consensus in liberal democracy, civil society was seen as an essential part of sustaining democratic change in the region after the end of Communist regimes. The Environmental Partnership for Central Europe, the Baltic-American Partnership Fund, the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans Trust for Democracy and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation were set up at different times, different countries, slightly different contexts, different yet overlapping funders, and different end points. They have been evaluated and assessed individually, but this effort aims to look across all five to glean a greater understanding of this model, and over a long term. What enduring legacy have these pooled funds left in the region today, where the liberal democratic consensus can no longer be taken for granted? This research project, undertaken by three former foundation staff, aims to develop a list of lessons for the philanthropic field in considering pooled funding for civil society development going forward.
Presenters:
Barry Gaberman is a retired Senior Vice President of the Ford Foundation, and has served as chair of the board of the Foundation Center, the Global Fund for Community Foundations, the WINGS Coordinating Committee and BoardSource.
William Moody is a retired Program Director of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and author of the book, Staying the Course: Reflections on 40 Years of Grantmaking at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Merrill Sovner is a former Deputy Program Director at the Open Society Foundations and a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Room: Sociology Thesis Room, 6th floor, 6112.1
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