To win better recognition for the contributions of civil society organisations (CSOs) to society and democracy, and to intellectually equip them to face the challenges and changes they contend with, the Maecenata Foundation has launched a collaboration with the Institut francais du Monde associatif and the Institute for Social Research, Oslo. The collaboration is an attempt to provide recommendations for a knowledge programme on NPOs and volunteering in Europe.

For this purpose, the project brings together representatives of NPOs, volunteers and researchers. It invites NPOs, organisations, associations and researcehrs with experience in fieldwork and insights into knowledge challenges in Europe.

The project draws its importance from the fact that existing theoretical approaches are mostly US-centric and based on a situation that differes greatly from the European context. It is therefore essential that researchers also build an understanding of European civil societies. While there are studies at the local, regional and national levels, there are hardly any at the European level.

Research on this is also crucial for practitioners, as it can support them in understanding the challenges faced by CSOs and civil society in Europe and how to deal with them.

The project creates a knowledge network for CSOs and collates the knowledge in a digital library. Maecenata will publish a white paper on CSO’s knowledge as part of the project.

On 14 April 2023, the project will be presented in a webinar.

Find out more from our website post.