Back in December 2010, FOCIR launched a series of training modules on different topics for Catalan organisations that wish to operate internationally. Their goal is to help contribute to improving the skills and abilities of those who work or volunteer at these organisations. We want to help them with their daily work and improve the quality of their projects and have called the plan “Training with FOCIR.”
Course in raising private funds for non-profit organisations
Finding and getting funding to carry out projects is currently one of the main difficulties organisations face. As many of them used to rely on public funding, against the backdrop of cuts in public funds and cutbacks in grants, it has become necessary for them to undergo training to acquire knowledge on how to raise funds from private sources.
As a result, FOCIR decided last summer to run a third edition of the training course, this time dedicated to finding private funding sources and resources.
As part of this course, two professionals who are well versed in assessing social organisations in communications and raising funds helped attendees identify different sources and channels of private funding (companies and individuals) and to design strategies and actions that would support them with the help of technological resources.
Training sessions took place on June 25 and 27 as well as July 2 and 4 at the Associació Catalana de la Premsa Comarcal headquarters in Barcelona.
Introductory course in digital marketing for non-profit organisations
The Internet is a window to the world, a tool that can help us transform into content producers mere consumers. In times when resources are scarce, we need to make as much use as possible of the tools that the Internet offers to help raise awareness, increase fund-raising, find volunteers and broaden our network. Our online presence will create dertermine our reputation and will, at the same time, serve as a tool for internationalisation as well as for forging links with people and organisations across the globe.
For this reason, FOCIR organised three training sessions on digital tools on September 12, 13 and 19, 2012. During the first and second training sessions, digital marketing experts spoke to us about the main social networks and how we can best use them, search engine positioning and marketing (SEO and SEM strategies), web analysis (Google Analytics), monitoring network presence and e-mail marketing. The third training session consisted in a discussion with the journalist Vicent Partal, Director of Vilaweb, on the best way to deal with the media in the web 2.0 era.
The course, which was free for FOCIR member organisations, was developed at the Espai Vilaweb in Barcelona and was aimed at people wanting to find out more about these topics who already had some basic knowledge of digital environments.
Third sector economy: introductory course to accounting and sources of funding in Catalonia and Europe
This course was held on December 1, 9 and 16, 2010. The idea behind it was to introduce the characteristics, programming and recommendations for accounting in associations, as well as researching sources of funding in both Catalonia and Europe, the requirements a project must have to be eligible for European funding and the different phases of the project, etc.
The training sessions were organised by Ricard Garcia, Economic Advisor and Accountant at FOCIR, Gemma García Hernando, Awareness Manager at the Office of European Cooperation, International Relations Directorate at the Provincial Government of Barcelona and Gianni Orsini, International Relations Manager at the Fundació Desenvolupament Comunitari who explained three practical projects which had received European funding.
This activity, which was free for member organisations of the FOCIR, was held at the headquarters of the Associació Catalana de la Premsa Comarcal in Barcelona.
