Polish donors forum kicks off project to strengthen the sector’s advocacy capacity in Poland

On 21 June 2021 the Polish Donors Forum (Polish Dafne member, represented in the PA LAC) organised the first from a serie of meetings within the project “Stronger voice of civil society organisations in advocacy activities” and and the PA team had a pleasure to participate.

The rationale behind the project is to strengthen civil society organisations involvement in advocacy activities around regulations regarding foundations and associations in Poland. Even strong, large organisations, including federations could do more around consulting on sector-wide regulations. Therefore, the Polish Donors Forum, coordinating the project, wants the voice of the civil society organisations to be stronger and their postulates to be noticed and taken seriously. The project aims to make organisations aware that their voice has power and that they can influence the law and the practice of its application. Particular focus is aimed on a debate on foundation law and developing recommendations on what regulations are needed so that foundations can develop their activities in a friendly and safe legal environment.

The PA Secretariat represented by Hanna Surmatz shared knowledge about the DAFNE/EFC European advocacy efforts and how it could help to anchor national affairs in the European context. Hanna presented the PA experience as a case study with the European Philanthropy Manifesto and discussed with participants the role of advocacy on national level and how to connect to the European level. PA welcomes this inspiring project on strenghtening the civic engagement around an enabling space for the sector and remains at disposal for similar activities in other countries.