Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe

1. Overcoming financial and organisational challenges of Caritas organisations in Europe Response by Caritas Europa to financial and organisational challenges of its member organisations Presented by: Marius Wanders, Keti Tskitishvili, Annamaria Vrzackova Berlin, 12 April 2007, EOSF/DCV Workshop on “Financing Caritas Activities in Europe”

2. Elements covered by this presentation • General introduction of Caritas Europa • The Caritas Europa “internal network” structures and processes • Presentation of the ESF mechanism • Presentation of the SODA program • Presentation of the Management Forum

3. What is Caritas Europa? • Caritas Europa (CE) is: • One of the 7 world regions of Caritas Internationalis • 162 members active in over 200 countries and regions • Regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & Caribbean, MONA, North America, Oceania • 48 member organisations (MO’s) active in 44 European countries (= all countries of Europe), including member organisations in each member state of the EU • Covering a large geographical area that includes places like Reykjavik (Iceland), Vladivostok (Siberia), Yerevan (Armenia) and Las Palmas (Canary Islands)

4. Role of Caritas Europa towards its MOs • Liaising with Caritas Internationalis and its other regional structures • Building effective partnerships and alliances at the European level with other civil society actors • Being the political voice at the European level (EU, Council of Europe, OSCE etc.) on behalf of the MOs and based on their grass roots experiences • Fostering exchange, cooperation and coordination with regard to activities of the MOs • Strengthening the network as a whole and building the capacities of the individual members of the network

5. Diversity within the CE network • Age and history of the organisations • Resources (human, financial, technical) • Size of the organisations • Focus of the activities (domestic/overseas/both) • Nature of the activities (delivery of social services and welfare/political advocacy/both) • Proportion of Catholics in the country • Level of direct control and/or management by Church authorities • Language, culture • “Old” EU, “New” EU or non-EU

6. Common challenges within the CE network Common challenges faced by many of the so-called “weaker” member organisations (MOs) include the following: • Operating within a weak economic context • Operating within a weak social context • Operating in a challenging religious context (very low proportion of Catholics in the population) • Operating in a poor ‘governance’ context: limited realistic options for NGOs or charitable foundations • As a result of all the above, operating in challenging financial and organisational contexts, especially with regard to sustainability and autonomy Many MOs focus on their ‘struggle to survive’ rather than on their mission to respond to the needs of the poor and needy.

7. The response by Caritas Europa Priority V of the CE strategic plan 2005-2010 reads is defined as follows: “Responding to the needs and requests of its member organisations, Caritas Europa develops a coherent approach towards increasing the sense of ownership and the joint commitment within the network. Included in this approach are • development and strengthening of all its organisations and all its structures, • promotion of good governance and quality management principles, • building of capacity within member organisations and other structures, • administering a solidarity funding mechanism and • fostering the intra-European coordination of projects and programmes.”

8. Historic background of the ESF • ESF was set up in the middle of the ’90s, following the (re-)appearance of many Caritas MOs in former communist-led countries • ESF = Multilateral and solidarity based system of financial support for structural expenses • Meant to supplement bilateral partnerships and bilateral funding arrangements • The system is centrally administered by Caritas Europa, but transfers of support funds take place on direct and bilateral basis between donor and recipient

9. Objectives of the ESF system • Funding support for the costs of core structures of MOs unable to finance such costs autonomously • To be one of the capacity building tools of CE • To facilitate and encourage MOs on their path towards financial self-sustainability • To foster and encourage solidarity between MOs of the European Caritas network • To foster further bilateral partnerships between MOs • To foster closer liaison between national and diocesan Caritas structures in recipient MOs

10. Current “map” of the ESF system

11. CE vision of the ESF – (1) • Mid-term vision and objectives (< 2 years) • “Revitalisation” through better awareness of its objectives and potential benefits for all stakeholders • Better and more professional processes • Increased transparency of procedures • Better and more professional application documentation • Improvement of the transparency, reliability, quality and coherence of the applications by recipients • Long term vision and objectives (3-6 years) • All but a few of the current recipients will be sufficiently financially autonomous to leave the system; some will become donors • Remaining needs to be covered in long term bilateral funding agreements (not requiring multilateral system)

12. CE vision of the ESF - 2 • ESF could/should evolve to also include a CRM (Crisis Response Mechanism) • Same principles: multilateralism and solidarity • Every MO can be a ‘donor’ of money or other resources (human, technical resources) depending on needs dictated by the crisis • All ‘donors’ make “virtual pledges” of the volume and nature of support that – in case of need – they can supply • The crisis-stricken MO will only need to make one application to trigger the multilateral support system • Evaluation by a special CE Committee, CE to call in some of the “virtual pledges” • Such a system will require careful planning and full ownership

13. Visions expressed by current ESF donors (Tirana, Oct. 2006) • ESF should only support a minimum structure and only at national level (not the branches, dioceses etc in the country). Caritas-Europe must formulate the criteria for minimum structure. • In the case that ESF has more funds the criteria could be less strict or more Caritas organisations in difficulties could be supported. • ESF should support also Caritas organisations who are in difficulties (e.g. Sweden) for a limited period. • The Caritas organisation must try to introduce capacity building activities as a project and send a request to donors which want to finance such activities. • ESF should only support Caritas organisation if that organisations have a clear plan about the phasing out the ESF support. • External auditing to be supported by the donors

14. Visions expressed by current ESF recipients (Tirana, Oct. 2006) • ESF Committee members will help recipient MOs to develop a strategy for 3-5 years (individual consulting for countries) • Scaling the application (pledge commitment of the donors for several years) and sign the agreement with CE on pledges • Clear guidelines with regard to eligibility within ESF of CE and CI membership fees • Improved transparency of the allocation criteria

15. The SODA program since 2001… • Represents Systematic Organisational Development Approach • Aims to promote systematic organisational development and strategic planning within Caritas Europa members • Assists member organisations in terms of public accountability, transparency, governmental and EU requirements, funding requirements, organisation’s internal needs Includes: • Strategic planning • Self-assessment inspired by the EFQM Excellence model

16. Strategic planning with SODA • A disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and action that shape and guide what an organisation is, what it does and why it does it. • Represents a shared vision of what will be • Provides a framework which will be consistent over a specific period of time • Identifies the predetermined direction toward which short term actions will be pointed • Identifies the context within which the organisation accepts or rejects new opportunities and assigns its resources to current services

17. Self-Assessment role • Recognises achievements • Identifies space for further improvement • Clarifies a linkage of achievements with ways/tools/approaches • Provides a “snapshot” • Leads to further improvement plans

18. The Management Forum Is designed to promote and put into practice good governance, quality management and transparency, both at the level of the Caritas Europa network and at the level of individual Member Organisations. For: Those Managers of CE Member Organizations who shape the management practices, management instruments, management polices and management culture within our network

19. The Management Forum • Develops cooperation and exchange on global management issues among MOs: Finance, HR, Administration, IQM, etc. • Prioritises management related issues for further exchange and reflection • Identifies ways for responding to common challenges within the network • Reflects and works on “Recommended Management and Administrative Guidelines” (minimum standards) within the CE network.