FIO – Mazovia Locally

The competition envisages granting subsidies to projects that:

• assume the cooperation of residents,
• result from the specific needs of a given community,
• have a clearly defined goal, well-planned activities, measurable results and reasonable implementation costs (from PLN 1,500 to PLN 5,000),
• they envisage activities that will be directed to a specific group of recipients and at the same time will serve the entire community or, as in the case of self-help groups, members of a given group or will serve the development of young non-governmental organizations,
• will be implemented by the joint efforts of residents and local institutions – local governments, entrepreneurs and social organizations,
• will skillfully and thoughtfully engage local resources – natural, social, human and financial.

The following people will be able to take part in the competition:

• Non-governmental organizations with legal personality (i.e. foundations, associations, Caritas branches registered in the National Court Register, or sports clubs registered with the District Staroste) that were entered into the register no earlier than 18 months from the date of submission of the micro-grant application. Furthermore, the annual budget of such an organization cannot exceed PLN 25,000.
• informal groups submitting an application independently, i.e. at least three persons jointly implementing or wanting to implement activities in the public benefit sphere, and not having legal personality in partnership with a non-governmental organization or independently),
• Self-help groups , i.e., voluntary teams of people whose active involvement is aimed at overcoming problems and improving the living conditions of its members. If a self-help group does not have legal personality, it may receive support under the terms provided for informal groups, provided it consists of at least three members and its activities fall within the public benefit sphere. However, if a self-help group operates as an organization with legal personality, then if it meets the access requirements for young non-governmental organizations, it may receive appropriate support.

Each year we plan to award approximately 150-200 grants , which means that in the 2014-2017 period there will be approximately 650 projects in total.

The competition is open to organizations and groups that:

• are based in the Masovian Voivodeship,
• they plan to carry out activities in one or more municipalities (in the case of Warsaw – districts) from the Masovian Voivodeship.

Animation and educational activities aimed at local communities will also be planned, enabling them to: better function within the local community, apply for funding and implement their own projects, and institutionally develop civic initiatives. These activities will be based on three pillars:

• providing active residents and social leaders with opportunities to use local resources (competitions of local government units, organisational and technical support, substantive cooperation with local government units, innovative forms – village fund, local initiative, own contribution/loan fund, etc.) and supra-local resources (new EU funding perspective, numerous government/ministry projects – including FIO, ASOS, non-public sources, simple fundraising tools);
• disseminating information on the opportunities for local community members to participate in development activities – indicating sources and examples of local social participation in Masovia and Poland (involvement of residents in the development of villages and towns, youth and adult volunteering, co-deciding on priorities and specific solutions);
• increasing knowledge about the creation and operation of non-governmental organisations and other formalised civic initiatives (e.g. social economy entities) among active residents, participants of self-help and informal groups, and leaders and collaborators of young non-governmental organisations.

The animation and educational activities planned in the projects are intended to activate members of local communities and provide them with the knowledge necessary to obtain funds, both through the planned regranting formula and other available local and supra-local funding sources for organizations. Another important element will be mobilizing residents to engage in the development of their towns through social participation.

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