Communication and transparency are the key to NGOs financial sustainability, opinions

NGOs should strengthen their communication ties with the private sector and public authorities and make their activity more transparent for a better collaboration with local donors, which would provide financial sustainability. Opinions in this regard were voiced by representatives of th civil society, public authorities and of the business environment at a Civil Society Press Club meeting, Info-Prim Neo reports. The second meeting of the Club had the topic “The Private Sector and NGOs: Possibilities of collaboration”, and the participants discussed ways of improving the collaboration between civil society and national donors, including public authorities and fiscal authorities. “NGOs need financial sustainability for an efficient activity. Like in other countries, during the first years since the creation of an NGO, it is supported mainly by foreign donors. However, after a certain period of time, they disappear and civil society needs to initiate and develop collaboration partnerships with the national private sector”, said Anatol Beleac, deputy director of the Academy for Educational Development (AED). Ina Vuticarov, psychologist at SIDO-SRM, mentioned that 80% of the Moldovan businessmen prefer to remain anonymous when making a donation to an NGO. The main reason is that public authorities tax these donations and are suspicious regarding any charitable acts on their part. Ghenadie Rusu, representative of Invest Credit, declared himself discouraged by the procedures employed by fiscal authorities when his company or he personally wants to make a donation. According to him, despite all the differences between civil society and the private sector, both have common goals in solving people’s social problems. Rusu added that civil society had to start procedures of building partnerships with the business environment according to some clear criteria. “When deciding whether to support an NGO or no, the private sector has several criteria. First of all, NGOs should built their communication strategy through personal relationships with companies’ representatives and to ensure maximum transparency of their activity so that donors could see how their money was spent”, he said. According to Svetlana Rudenco, Moldova Agroindbank PR manager, a banking institution has more criteria when choosing to fund a project. It must have a big social impact, must be predictable and have some significant resonance in society, as the bank wants to promote its image through this kind of projects. The Civil Society Press Club is financially supported by USAID within AED's Strengthening Civil Society in Moldova Program.