COFFEE WITHOUT MILK AND A BIT OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP ON THE SIDE

With the first National Fundraising Congress last year, it turned out that we have only scratched the surface. There are more and more social organisations, and less and less funds available, and above all that, we lack knowledge. Especially, when it comes to young non-government organisations.

That is why we have decided to open a café.

“Resource Café is an event where we will welcome 40 people from civil sector, who will have the chance to talk, share experience and learn from each other in an informal atmosphere. This event is intended primarily to youth organisations and organisation which work with young people. The first Resource Café is in Belgrade and it deals with the topic of social entrepreneurship, where TIMOČKI OMLADINSKI CENTAR and BAGEL BEJGL, NVO ATINA talked”, Dobrila Marković from the OPENS’ programme sector says.

Resource Café is an introduction in the large congress, but also a separate event where we will talk about the fundraising topics, but in a bit informal atmosphere. That is why I am going from the national, towards the local level and we are going to several cities in Serbia.

“I think that is the great way of networking, because apart from the FundCon, the whole story will be brought closer to the local communities across Serbia, and it is great that we will promote the story of OPENS across Serbia, young people, and generally NGOs and Civil Associations will have the chance to hear something new that will help them with the sustainability and development of new programmes and further progress”, Duna Marušić from Timočki omladinski centar explains.

Non-government organisation Atina, with its company “Bagle Bejgl” also introduced itself, with the initial message that events like these are the best opportunity for the networking and empowerment of organisations.

“We think that partnerships and expansion of the vision, advocacy in both civil society and among young people to be active, deal with the issues related to their community and for young people, is of vital development for the society itself. Young people were put aside and everything that is important for a young man has somehow never been a priority and we think that by an activity like this and the activism of young people, we can change the world”, the CEO of NGO Atina, Marijana Savić says.

The next stop of the Resource Café is Subotica, where we will talk with Erste Bank about how to write a project which will attract the donor from the corporate sector.

OPENS FundCon is the fundraising congress which was first organised last year. OPENS FundCon is a comprehensive experience which gathers the best ideas and the most innovative solutions from the civil sector at one place. It offers different forms of sessions and lectures, discussions about different topics such as fundraising, social entrepreneurship, corporate partnerships, digital marketing, leadership, innovative/alternative financing, management of human resources etc. with the purpose of the main topic of the congress – the sustainability of organisations.