We are confronted daily with the question: “HOW ARE YOU FINANCED?”. Unfortunately, such a renaissance “patron” who would pour funding into our work does not exist.
Securing finance for the implementation of our mission is not much different from that of economic entities. It depends on the success and recognition of our work, the quality and competitiveness of our programs and projects and the social contribution that we achieve through our fields of work.
Sunce association is as CSO a nonprofit institution. All funds are directed to the development of the organization and contribute to society through the protection of nature and environment and promotion of sustainable development.
Our “products” are our projects. With them, we compete in EU funds competitions, the various international foundations, and local public and business entity competitions. Means won in the competitions we are obliged to spend exclusively dedicated to the project activities planned or otherwise we must return it.
65 – 80% of the annual budget of Sunce comes from international sources, primarily the foundation for the protection of nature and environment and EU funds.
To reduce our dependence on projects and donors and ensure the necessary co-financing of individual contests, Sunce began with the development of social entrepreneurship within the organization. The economic activities that we decide on and that we carry out contribute to the achievement of the Sunce’s goals, and they relate to:
- preparation of studies, plans, expert analyzes, opinions and reports
- providing education services within the scope of work of the Sunce
- design, organization and implementation of public events
- publishing and selling of own printed and audiovisual educational, informative, and promotional materials, publications, and computer programs.
Although for now negligible in our business, donations from private entities that support the idea of sustainable development and seek corporate social responsibility, according to forecasts should increase in the future. Unfortunately, it often happens that the donors of this type are in conflict with the goals of Sunce, directly represent environmental contaminants and their donations tend to exclusively promote their business.
Certain smaller funds, about 2% of the annual budget comes from self-financing from membership fees of individuals and legal entities (members) of the Dalmatia green program and from organization of social events. Unfortunately, recent trends indicate that in Croatia is not possible to achieve significant funding through membership fees. Despite this, increase in our membership is very important for visibility and achieving the objectives of the organization and we will continue to invest in its increase.
Our financial reports are available in Croatian only which can be viewed HERE. The financial reports are part of the annual work reports, which you can view HERE.