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HIGGS > Articles by: Higgs > Page 14
09
Jan, 2017

By Higgs

Bootcamp November – December 2016

The participants of the third cycle of the Accelerator and the second cycle of Incubator programs who have successfully completed the 1st Phase of the programs on December 12, continue with the 2nd Phase, which besides consulting includes additional seminars tailored to their own needs.

The organizations participating in the 3rd Accelerator program are:
#Tact Hellas, #Art in Progress, #Hellenic Cystic Fibrosis Association , # Road Safety Institute “Panos Mylonas”, # Merimna Patras, # Kardia Paidiou, # FREEDOM GATE GREECE, # Sylfilon, # Society of Junior Doctors # HAN Thessaloniki

The organizations participating in the 2nd Incubator program are:
# AKRI, #Little Giants, #Match and Teach Me for Integration, #The Children’s Art Gallery Of Greece # Association of Schools of the Wikipedia Community of Greece

09
Jan, 2017

By Higgs

NGOs and intra-Community Transactions

The increased interest of international community in the problems of Greece as well as the multiple opportunities for funding and cooperation with other entities from EU have led many NGOs to get involved in intra-Community Transactions. Intra-Community Transactions are considered all the cases where an NGO which operates in Greece has to deal with an income or expense from another country in the European Union.

This article refers to the accounting treatment of intra- Community Transactions and what organizations should look out for once they activate transactions at the Tax Authority.

The complete article is available in Greek. Should you need any further information, please contact us at [email protected].

 

09
Jan, 2017

By Higgs

Interview: Stavros Niarchos Foundation

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is one of the world’s leading private, international philanthropic organizations, making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare.

Ms. Eva Polyzogopoulou, Co-Deputy Chief Programs Officer at Stavros Niarchos Foundation answers our questions concerning grants to Non-Profit Organizations.

1. What advice would you give to an organization applying for a grant at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation?

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) receives and evaluates applications exclusively from non-profit organizations throughout the year. When evaluating requests, we put emphasis on the principles with which the applicant organization operates, such as honesty and transparency, as well as the dedication to their work shown by the organization’s management and staff. Secondly, we try to evaluate the proposal, its impact and its benefits to the society, any innovation elements it may contain and its sustainability. The organizations who wish to apply for a grant must submit the grant request electronically by completing the relevant form available under the Application Form category on our website.

2. When making a grant to an NGO, is your contribution limited to financial support or do you also offer general support to the project? If so, can you please give us some examples?

The SNF is a grant-making organization only and does not intervene in the activities of the organization or in the way a funding is used. However in cases the Foundation believes that there is a social need and decides to cooperate with an NGO in order to meet this need, they work together on the implementation plan. During this process both sides are invited to exchange ideas for a common goal and learn from it. Such an example was HIGGS which was founded to meet the training needs of Greek NGOs. Nevertheless, the ISN is always available for NGOs who need its help.

3. Do you offer the total grant in the beginning, in the end, or in installments?

The grant is allocated according to its size, the needs of the project, and its timetable. In other words, it is provided in installments or at the end of the project. Usually, grants are given to an organization once a part of the project or the entire project has been completed.

4. Which ones do you think are the main training needs of Greek NGOs nowadays?

From our experience, NGOs in Greece vary in size and have a wide range of services and experience. Depending on the characteristics of each one, their training needs may differ. For example, organizations associated with a large international organization (such as WWF Hellas, Greenpeace Greece, Médecins Sans Frontières and others) are usually required to follow specific procedures and practices, allowing them to be trained in a tested model of operation. However, the majority of NGOs in the country have been founded by an individual or a group of people who try to cope with a social need, even when the founding members of the organization have no in-depth knowledge of organizing and expanding an NGO. Taking also into account that non-profit organizations are often not an attractive workplace for young people and that there is no education provided in the universities on this sector, many organizations are unable to acquire the necessary skills in order to develop their services and ensure their sustainability.

All the aforementioned, combined with the socio-economic crisis, have led to the need for NGOs capacity building in management issues (legal, accounting), funding resources, human resources management, communication (marketing, use of social media) and the development of innovative programs and services.

5. The first step for the evaluation of a request for grants to your Foundation is the application through your online form. Could you please inform us about the next steps of this process?

Once an organization submits a request electronically, its assessment process is officially launched. Within about 15 days, a representative of the SNF grants management department communicates by phone with the organization’s representative,(the details of which are referenced in the application), in order to collect some more information on the request and the applicant organization. If we believe that the applicant organization is in a position to implement the project, a list of necessary documents is requested to be submitted within 15 working days. Once we receive the documents, we proceed to further evaluation, and we request further information if it is needed while, at the same time, a financial audit is carried out. If the information collected so far is evaluated positively then the grant coordinator submits the relevant proposal for approval to the Board of Directors of the SNF. The duration of all the aforementioned procedures usually does not exceed 3 months. Once approved, we proceed with the grant allocation.

Please visit the website of Stavros Niarchos Foundation here.

We are very grateful to Ms. Polyzogopoulou and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for this interview.

09
Jan, 2017

By Higgs

Nonprofit Organizations & Social and Solidarity Economy

The new Greek Law 4430/2016 on Social and Solidarity Economy which was passed on 31st October 2016 offers new opportunities to NPOs.

Who is affected? Social Cooperative Enteprises, Social Cooperative of Limited Ability and a new form called Workers’ Cooperatives as well as other legal forms of Nonprofit Organizations. According to this law, it is possible for all the members of civil society to have economic activities. The Social Economy General Registry checks the prerequisites of eligibility of an entity for recognition as a Social and Solidarity Economy Organization. The prerequisites of eligibility of an entity are the following:

  • It employs activities of collective and social benefit, as provided in §2.
  • It employs a democratic system of decision-making, according to the principle ‘one member, one vote’, irrespectively of the contribution of each member.
  • Its Articles of Association foresee restriction in distribution as follows:
    i. a minimum 5% for reserve formation,
    ii. a maximum of 35% is distributed to the employees, unless the 2/3 of the General Assembly members decide for its allocation to activities of iii below,
    iii. the remaining percentage is allocated for the creation of new employment positions and the expansion of its productive activity.

The complete article is available in Greek. Should you need any further information, please contact us at [email protected].

 

09
Jan, 2017

By Higgs

International Development Assistance from Greece: Reduced sources and common opinion

The economic crisis had a significant and negative impact on Greece’s development aid to developing countries, but also on public support for it, although the refugee crisis seems to reverse the trends of previous years.

Greece’s ODA (Greece’s ODA) has been greatly affected by the economic crisis. In 2014, the aid rate was 0.11% of the GNI, ranking the 26th among the OECD donors (and 24th in volume). In 2015, the rate was fairly increased to 0.14% of the GNI (21st), mainly due to assistance to refugees. However, the aid granted by Greece has been reduced by almost 50% compared to 2008. Only 18% of Greek aid is bilateral compared to 73% of the OECD average. This means that much of Greek aid consists of compulsory contributions to international organizations (European Development Fund) and is not a voluntary contribution of the country to international development.

The main recipients of bilateral Greek aid in 2012-3 were Albania ($ 20.8 million), the Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza) (3 million) and Ukraine (2.6 million). Overall, Greek aid for 2015 was $ 282 million – but only 0.1 million was allocated to or through Non-Governmental Organizations. This represents a fairly large reduction compared to the 2008-9 period. In other words and unlike most donor countries, Greece did not allocate a significant proportion of its bilateral aid to NGOs. In 2010-11 Greece provided the smallest percentage of its bilateral development aid to or through NGOs from all OECD countries.

Common opinion
The percentage of Greeks who consider that tackling poverty in the world must be one of the main priorities of the national government is significantly lower than the EU average (36% vs. 50%) and represents the largest decline in Europe. Only 53% of respondents replied that EU development aid should be increased (compared with 68% in the EU).

Also, three out of ten respondents in Greece are aware of the UN’s Sustainable Development Targets (30%), a slightly lower percentage than the rest of the Europeans (36%).

Perhaps one of the few positive findings of the survey for Greece is that younger respondents (15-24 years old) generally have a more positive attitude and opinion on development aid compared to older respondents (25 years and over). The above figures show that Greek public opinion is not well informed about development aid.

Asteris Chouliaras,
Univeristy of Peloponnese &
Chairman of HIGGS Advisory Board

14
Dec, 2016

By Higgs

School Visits at HIGGS: “Me and you together”

12 & 13 December 2016 – In the context of our actions and our desire for teenagers to become acquainted with the world of Nonprofit Organizations and the notion of charity, we have co-operated with the 4eproject program “Me and you together”, where pupils of the third grade of the 42nd Gymnasium of Athens participated.

During the visit, the students had the opportunity to get to know and interact with one of the newly established HIGGS host organizations within the Incubator program, iSea, which is an environmental organization for the protection of aquatic ecosystems.

Objectives of the educational program for teenagers:
• Learn how NPOs are organized and operate
• Get information from skilled people
• To get in touch with the organization and operation of an NPO in an experiential manner
• Understand the concept of charity and solidarity through experiential actions
• Exercise in the exchange of ideas and the expression of ideas

08
Dec, 2016

By Higgs

Social Activism & Enhanced Transparency

8 December 2016 – On the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, HIGGS and Vouliwatch held the event “Social Activism & Enhanced Transparency” at HIGGS venue.

The debate on transparency started by our guest, Nick Aiossa, Policy Officer at Transparency International EU Office, who presented European Programs, Integrity Pacts and OpenBudgets.eu, against corruption. Particular emphasis was given to the need for further cooperation between different actors (academics, journalists, activists, etc.) in the fight against corruption.

Lamprini Papadopoulou, Coordinator of the discussion, gave the floor to the Deputy Professor of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens, Demetris Sotiropoulos, who spoke about the notions of “Activism” and “Democracy”, while referring to the positive and negative impacts of Activism in a democratic society.

Finally, Stephanos Loukopoulos, Executive Director/co-founder of Vouliwatch, spoke about the role of digital technology in democracy in general, and more specifically in the fight against corruption. Particular emphasis was given to Vouliwatch’s role in enhancing transparency in the Greek political system, while stressing the need for the implementation of “Open Data” to the Members of the Greek Parliament.

At the end of the event, a lively dialogue was developed between the attendees and the speakers.

23
Nov, 2016

By Higgs

Insight Out: Delineating “Save the Children”

22 November 2016 – Mrs. Katie Dimmer, Director of Program Operations and Mrs. Claire Bader, Director of Program Development and Quality at Save the Children spoke about how the organization operates, its departments as well as its fundraising sources. Furthermore, the speakers presented a video about the organization’s work.

Please find more information about the organization here.

15
Nov, 2016

By Higgs

Outreach: Studies & Orientation in Greece

15 November 2016 – On the occasion of International Students Day, HIGGS held the event called “Outreach: Studies & Orientation in Greece”.

“Be all you can be. Become the architect of your academic and professional career”, was the theme presented by Amalia Konstantakopoulou, Director of The Tipping Point, and Incubee at HIGGS. Mrs Konstantakopoulou presented the interconnection that the organization offers so that everyone can check all the perspectives that are provided when they come in contact with people they admire.

Mariangela Lestou, founder of Look4studies, provided information to people interested in Scholarships & Other Sources of Finance in Greece so that they can find a way to gain the specialization in the field they choose.

Finally, Sotiris Petropoulos, Diretor of HIGGS, presented the skills and knowledge that a candidate NPO worker needs and announced the HIGGS Internship program.

 

03
Nov, 2016

By Higgs

Outreach: NGO & E-Commerce

3 November 2016 – HIGGS held the “Outreach: NGO & E-Commerce” event during which the speakers Pantelis Charalampidis, Greenpeace Fundraising Director, Kriton Gouzios, Greenpeace e-shop platform Administrator, Spyros Tzortzis, Digital Marketing at Sociality and Kostas Brilis, Lawyer presented the different dimensions of E-Commerce.

During the event, the concept of Greenpeace’s e-shop page and the management of the platform and order were presented, as well as an example of a different e-commerce case a box of sea. In addition, Mr. Tzortzis spoke about the steps of developing an e-shop page while Mr. Brilis presented the legal dimension of E-Commerce of Nonprofit Organizations.

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