Building Civil Power for Social Change!

This organizational development project of the Civil College Foundation addresses the severe grant dependency and financial vulnerability characterizing the Hungarian civil sector amidst scarce domestic funding. Internal management faces severe task overload, accompanied by constant risks of staff burnout. Organizational and network knowledge heavily depends on key individual personnel, threatening long-term institutional continuity. Operationally, the Kunbábony Training Center generates financial losses and suffers from energy inefficiency. Furthermore, fragmented grassroots civil actions result in weak collective advocacy leverage when negotiating with public authorities. The project aims to comprehensively professionalize CKA's internal governance structure, diversify income streams, and build long-term operational resilience for the foundation and its national network.

Project implementation revolves around three main action areas. Under organizational development, they restructure internal management, renew the Board of Trustees, execute staff well-being and supervision programs, and hire a professional fundraiser alongside deploying a CRM system to lower grant dependency to 50% by 2029. Under network coordination, they manage the national CKA network via monthly online and quarterly in-person meetings, host the National Organizer Gathering for over 40 attendees annually, execute the Month of Participation, and mentor the Water Coalition and DIO network. Under training activities, they relaunch the 1-year organizing training in 2027, update the online knowledge base targeting 500 annual downloads, and implement green energy modernizations to achieve break-even operation at Kunbábony.

The expected long-term impact is the consolidation of a stable, professional, and independent civil knowledge center providing resilient infrastructure for grassroots community organizing and citizen advocacy in Hungary. Key quantified targets include concluding 45 network partnership agreements, training 240 individuals, securing 100 individual donors, equipping 5 staff members with new skills, achieving 50% non-grant revenue share, and guiding the Kunbábony Training Center to financial break-even by 2028. The primary target groups consist of active citizens (aged 18–99), grassroots local civil organizations, community organizing activists, partner trade unions (PSZ, SZEF), supportive local municipalities, as well as executive board members and operational staff across civil society organizations.