Capacity building and organizational development: How to Find the Right Consultant?

According to the Head of the project “Organisational Development Marketplace” Elena Khoroshevskaya, this year the Organisation Development Fair for Belarusian non-profit organisations and initiatives will be focused on trainings and workshops. The participants of the Fair-2014 may in advance choose the service they want to use and submit an application for mini-vouchers (the service provided by profile consultants who will help the organisation to develop its potential is included in the cost). This way the organisations will be able to find a consultant on the relevant for them topic. A preliminary call has been made before October, 15, 2014 – within it the organisations filled in the applications for so called mini-vouchers and described their needs and services they require. A special site for communication of organisations with consultants will work at the Fair-2014. During such meeting the consultants will be able to offer services, and organisations, in turn, choose a more suitable consultant.

 

Last year the Organisation Development Fair for Belarusian non-profit organisations and initiatives gathered more than 200 participants – 47 consultants and 153 CSOs (a third of them were regional ones). Equal number or even more participants are expected this year, because special attention will be paid to gaining practical experience. During the Fair-2014 a lot of workshops and master-classes will be held, one of them will be led by the Clearing House team.

 

The goal of the Fair-2014, as it was in 2013, is to give the organisations practical advice and consultancy for their further development. At the same time attention of the participants will be focused on such key moments as qualification upgrade of organisation members, ways of conducting a Public Relations campaign successfully etc.

 

Last year the most active organisations were from Minsk region, and then Gomel, Brest and Grodno caught up with the rest. This year transport and living expenses are not covered by the programme, but as Elena Khoroshevskaya remarked, this fact should not be a great problem, because the participation in the Fair-2014 is free, meals are provided etc.

This year, the same as last year, within the Organisation Development Fair there will be a master-class by the Clearing House consultants, providing free consulting service on project proposals development and project management for the calls of the European Commission and other international funds.

 

To take part in the Organization Development Fair-2014 one should sign up on site not later than October, 20. To get a mini-voucher (for a consultancy or one-time training) the organisations should fill in the online application before October, 15, 2014.

 

With any questions concerning participation in the Organisation Development Fair please contact the Head of the “Organisational Development Marketplace” project Elena Khoroshevskaya by phone +375 29 6909300 or e-mail: elena.khoroshevskaya@gmail.com; the coordinator Natalya Ryabova by phone +375 29 557 64 11 or e-mail: orgconsulting.by@gmail.com and specialist Ekaterina Gancharova by phone +375 44 572 24 63 or e-mail: gancharova@gmail.com.

 

The Fair-2014 will take place in Johannes Rau International Centre for Education and Exchange (IBB) in Minsk, Gazeta Pravda Avenue, 11.