Welcome to the first edition of our re-launched monthly newsletter.
We aim to keep you updated on our latest news, as well as that from our grantees and foundation partners. We will also provide information on forthcoming calls for proposals, Civitates’ evolving approaches and priorities, convenings, and the latest research and insights from those at the sharp end of the struggle for strengthening democracy and civic space in Europe.
There will also be regular in-depth stories on the challenges, achievements and trends we are seeing across Europe, as well as links to jobs, forthcoming events and things we’ve read that we think are relevant for our partners.
One theme emerges from this month’s edition: the importance of civil dialogue for a thriving civic space.
Our feature this month, an interview with Nadejda Dermendjieva of the Bulgarian Fund for Women (BFW), explores how the political instability in Bulgaria is affecting civil society’s ability to organise and advocate for policy and normative changes. EDRI’s recent victory against LinkedIn on targeted ads – featured in our news from the frontline – illustrates well how, by working together, civil society and Digital Services Act (DSA) enforcers can force Big Tech to change its business model. Finally, Social Platform and Civil Society Europe just told us that their advocacy campaign during the European election, named Civil Society for EU, has led to the nominations of an EU Commissioner and a European Parliament Vice-President with a mandate on democracy and civil dialogue.
We also reflect on our open calls for proposals this summer and the lessons they held for private and public donors, and some of the key points we heard from our recent mid-year catch up conversations with grantees across our three portfolios (civic power, tech and democracy, media).
We want this newsletter to be a valuable tool for sharing knowledge, insightful stories and analysis that isn’t available elsewhere. To help us achieve this, please send us news, photos and reflections that you would like to share with the Civitates community — foundations, grantee partners and friends.
In solidarity,
