Practitioners and funders have to act now to change how they approach the long-term sustainability of organisations and their actions. This applies to civil society organisations themselves, taking a long, hard look at themselves, and to funders of civil society whose support has often failed to build capacity for sustainability.

INTRAC has been pushing for such changes by creating multiple spaces for dialogue, debate and peer-learning.

Dialogues

Online workshop, March 2020
 INTRAC hosted a two-part learning workshop on the Stopping as Success project (webinar 1 / webinar 2). This three-year initiative was funded by USAID and implemented by Peace Direct, CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, and Search for Common Ground.

Virtual event, November 2017
INTRAC with ICD, Peace Direct and YCare International ran the first ever Virtual Event as part of International Civil Society Week (ICSW) 2017. Over 120 people from all over the world and many types of organisation joined the live webinar and online discussion forum on Sustaining Civic Action. Read the event summary.

Webinar, September 2016
INTRAC ran a free webinar titled ‘Whose responsibility is it to push for well-planned exit?’, with presentations on research in Vietnam from Kennesaw State University and post-exit evaluations from Valuing Voices. Listen to the recording.

Stockholm (Sweden) June 2016
In collaboration with Plan Sweden and Sida, INTRAC brought together NGOs and funders with researchers from around the world working on civil society sustainability issues during the 2016 conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research. Read the summary of discussions.

Webinar, December 2015
Practitioners from around the world participated in a free two-hour webinar in December 2015 to hear a summary of discussions from our Accra and Abu Dhabi events, and to identify emerging cross-regional themes. Download the summary of discussions.

Accra (Ghana) November 2015
INTRAC and the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) held a one-day workshop on Building Sustainability of Civil Society in West Africa on 17 November 2015. Read the report.

Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) November 2015
We held a roundtable discussion at the Takaful Conference in Abu Dhabi on Civil Society Sustainability and Philanthropy in MENA on 4 November 2015.

Webinar, December 2014
Participants from around the world came together with speakers from the Institute for Communication and Development (Uruguay), the Global Fund for Community Foundations (South Africa) and AfriKids (UK). We shared learning from our Oxford workshop, and debated challenges to civil society sustainability.

Oxford (United Kingdom) November 2014
We convened practitioners, CSOs, foundations, social enterprises, private sector representatives and development agencies to share their experiences of, and practical responses for, the sustainability of civil society. Read the report.