A seminar "Fundraising: How to Find Funds to Develop Culture?" within the framework of Clearing House programme of ODB Brussels was held in Minsk. The event was organized by the Institute of Belarusian Culture. Representatives of public organizations working in the field of culture, teachers of music schools, museum workers and employees of one of the centers of culture and folk art from Grodno region were introduced to basics of planning and management of projects funded within the framework of European Union programmes, as well as to available international funds.
Yulia Stankevich, a consultant of the House Clearing programme of ODB Brussels, presented a number of recommendations for the development of project proposals by organizations in the field of culture, drawing attention to the importance of logical framework approach in planning and implementing international projects.
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Yulia Stankevich |
"Inexperienced organizations are often primarily concerned with their budget planning. The key to successful planning, in my opinion, lies in a comprehensive analysis of the problem situation and defining the 'logic' of a project. Using the logical framework approach helps you with step-by-step planning of a project and monitoring of its implementation. If you apply this approach, you'll be able to progressively analyze the situation: identify other interested organizations and learn about their attitudes towards the existing situation, formulate the key problem with its causes and consequences, as well as analyze potential strategies of its resolution".
Seminar participants tried to identify and describe problem situations, objectives for new projects and ways to achieve them, and were introduced to the logical framework matrix.
Participants shared their ideas for international cultural projects, i.e. in the field of youth musical education, promoting unique folk craft techniques, popularizing Belarusian and Lithuanian cultural and historic heritage (in particular, XVI century medieval castles), as well as improving infrastructure for tourists visiting the August Channel.
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Sviatlana Rapetskaya (on the left), Grodno Region Scientific Library, Ales Lozka (on the right) - Head of Department of Traditional Culture and Amateur Arts of the Institute of Culture of Belarus |
Representatives of organizations working in the field of culture learned about opportunities to obtain funding for new projects from international funds, from Belarusian state programmes, as well as from local resources.
Of particular interest for the participants was the EU-funded Cross-Border Cooperation Programme "Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus", One of the participants, Sviatlana Rapetskaya, who represented Grodno Region Scientific Library, shared the success story of a cross-border cooperation project (of Grodno region and two regions of Latvia and Lithuania) aimed at creation of a virtual museum. The project received support within the framework of the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme "Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus" (2007-2013) and can be viewed as an example of cultural innovation. Sviatlana Rapetskaya provided a detailed account of the process of project application for the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme and gave her advice and recommendations on planning new projects and establishing partnerships between organization in different countries.