Stronger Roots Publications
Read our publications
Since 2019, the Open Society Fund Prague has been working with a Czech think-tank Glopolis, Open Society Foundation Bratislava and the Hungarian NIOK Foundation in a consortium to implement the Stronger Roots Program and jointly strengthen the roots of civil society in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The program is funded by the European Union from the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme
Publications on Social Base Building
Case Study: KASPIAN (Slovakia)
Through rekindling previous corporate relations and turning businesses into close partners, it became clear for the KASPIAN association that these partnerships, if handled well, can lead to a new level of flexibility and better activities
Case Study: Nadácia Milana Šimečku (Slovakia)
Civil society organizations often struggle with their identity being unclear because of the diversity of the programs they do. The experience of Nadácia Milana Šimečku is an example of how to find the focal points
Case Study: DEDO Foundation (Slovakia)
DEDO Foundation decided to create a communication strategy based on values and data, without using personal stories of their clients. This case study shows how they reached this conclusion, how they used focus groups to
Case Study: The School of Public Life (Hungary)
The School of Public Life embarked upon a research journey with a variety of objectives. They wanted to understand their impact, to collect data on who was attending their training sessions, and to find out
Case Study: Amnesty International (Hungary)
In order to get their supporters closer to the organization and gain new donors, Amnesty International Hungary introduced email journeys, a personalised communication tool that, based on the interests of the people they connected with,
Case Study: Medve Matek (Hungary)
Reaching the same constituencies via a different path can bring huge results. Medve Matek took their existing offline math and logics contest online, which resulted in setting up direct communication with roughly 10 000 parents and
Case Study: INEX-SDA (Czechia)
The case study shows how an organization, focused on international volunteering, was able to wake its “sleeping” supporters in a successful crowdfunding campaign during the COVID-19 crisis and re-activate its constituencies by sharing the Stories
Case Study: The Center for Palliative Care (Czechia)
Launching a crowdfunding campaign to develop a conversational card game about the end of life and kick-starting the community play. Through a creative approach and a carefully planned campaign, the Center for Palliative Care managed
Case Study: Walk the City (Czechia)
A brand is not just a logo, but an emotion. This way of thinking is what made an established, 30-year-old Czech organization, Prague Mothers, decide to rebrand and change its name to Walk the City,
NIOK´s Social Base Building Methodology
The publication summarizes seven years of experience of Hungarian NIOK Foundation in supporting civil society organizations in social base building. It describes the concept of social base building in detail, and depicts the activities that
Constituency Building: Insights and Ideas
How can organizations strengthen their links to active citizens and the public at large under the conditions of a shrinking space for civil society? This paper summarizes practical experience and insights from the representatives of
The Social Base Building Toolkit
This practical guide helps civil society organizations to start building their social base step by step. A set of articles advices on how to build a social base building strategy, how to create meaningful fundraising
Publications on network transversal collaboration
Case Study: Hungarian Green NGO Network (Hungary)
The Hungarian Green NGO Network strengthened its ties to a number of religious and youth groups working on environmental advocacy and climate change. It expanded its membership base and board diversity and also introduced new
Case Study: Association of Organisations Working in Penal Affairs (Czechia)
The case study follows the process of building relations between the Association of Organizations Working in Penal Affairs and the General Directorate of the Prison Service in the Czech Republic. A successful project brought up
Case Study: Self-Regulatory Board of Fundraising Organizations (Hungary)
The CSR Platform changed the way of thinking on how to collaborate with the corporate sector. From simple asking for a donation, they moved to a stronger relationship and developed fresh ideas for the cooperation,
Case Study: Association of Independent Producers (Slovakia)
The goal is not for everyone to have the same views, but to facilitate a debate in order to find a viable solution that would be accepted by all. The Association demonstrates how common solutions
How to Engage with Divergent Stakeholders
This handbook offers practical tips for networks that would like to engage with divergent stakeholders towards collaboration.
The Concept and Impact of Transversal Collaboration
The publication by Glopolis explains how collaboration with diverse stakeholders can make networks more resilient.
Publications about the Stronger Roots Program
Key Societal Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for the Civil Society in the Visegrad Region
In the study, Glopolis examines the key factors affecting the functioning of civil society organizations and challenges and opportunities for civil societies in the Visegrad countries.
Stronger Roots Program Leaflet
Would you like to learn more about the Stronger Roots Program? Learn about the essence of the social base building and transversal collaboration concepts and methods of work of the Stronger Roots Program in a
Evaluation: Results and Impact Summary in 2019-2022
This summary presents the key qualitative and quantitative results of the external and internal evaluation of the first round of the Stronger Roots Program in 2019-2022.