Solidarna

Our Mission

Solidarna maps needs and creates new opportunities for all citizens to act in solidarity, in our joint effort to protect human rights and meet basic human needs, reduce inequalities and expand freedoms in all social spheres. SOLIDARNA acts as a reliable partner to civil society actors, the socially responsible business community and donors for social development, serving as a catalyst for the mobilization of resources, a promoter of solidarity and social support for autonomous initiatives for the protection of human rights in Croatia, the region and throughout Europe. SOLIDARNA Foundation's support program provides prompt and targeted support to human rights defenders, civic initiatives, and victims of human rights violations such as survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Our objectives are empowering civil society, mobilisation and support for human rights defenders and gender equality. Solidarna works on strengthening philanthropy and the culture of solidarity through raising philanthropy and human rights in the media, developing individual and coorporate philatrophy. In addition, we continuously work on systemic changes through our advocacy focus.

SOLIDARNA's mission statement SOLIDARNA - Foundation for Human Rights and Solidarity is the first community-based, private human rights foundation from Croatia of its kind, set up in December 2015 by 55 founders - 49 human individuals and six human rights organizations, as a strategic innovative philanthropic endeavour of the Croatian human rights community of practice to enhance autonomy of progressive civic activism in defence of human rights in their full spectrum. It was set up in light of chronic deterioration of human security purported by socially insensitive, neoliberal public policies and the current global offensive of the radical and clerical right against human rights and gender equality which has intentionally targeted Croatians society and politics since its accession to the EU in 2013. SOLIDARNA's founders were especially concerned about rising anti-liberalism, nationalism, misogyny, xenophobia and authoritarianism in Croatia and its two neighbouring regions of Central Europe and the Balkans, but also across the EU and globally. The assumption of gradual implosion of public funding for human rights advocacy proved correct, as did the expectation of rising needs for ad hoc citizen actions and independent media production to protect the society against illiberal trends, which are not eligible for project and program funding from the EU and government donors. In such complex and increasingly hostile environment, SOLIDARNA believes that resilience primarily stems from reinvigorated solidarity actions around issues that re-connect the concept of human rights with deprivation of peoples' basic needs, such as access to health, education, ineffective state protection against violence, discrimination and marginalization. In SOLIDARNA we know that one of the key problems in our society is that human rights protection ghettoized in the minds of most people to few independent institutions and specialized NGOs, which are at the same time exposed to malicious media bashing on part of ultraconservatives as well as libertarians. SOLIDARNA wants to change but this social dynamic and public perception of human rights, by reconnecting human rights with the basic human needs and the core practices of solidarity from bottom up, in line with the famous quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, which has served as key source of inspiration for SOLIDARNA's purpose to contribute to autonomy and sustainability of human rights protection, by enhancing a culture of solidarity and by building local philanthropy for human rights. In short, SOLIDARNA wants to bring human rights back home - to hearts, minds and lives of ordinary people. SOLIDARNA's founders believe that promoting and protecting all generations of human rights - from fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly and association, to right to work, home, healthy environment and basic public goods - requires lasting societal effort, creativity and strong resilience to all kinds of pressures. Hence, SOLIDARNA strives to earn trust and become a reliable partner to private and public donors, local communities and civil society initiatives, acting as mediator and catalyst of more effective human rights awareness raising, advocacy and resource mobilization for autonomous human rights initiatives in Croatia and its broader region. SOLIDARNA envisions citizens both in Croatia and across Europe - especially those with lasting ties with Croatia - as its principal donor base, enabling maximum autonomy and flexibility of funding programs. In parallel, SOLIDARNA strives to develop partnerships with socially responsible businesses, social economy actors and like-minded domestic and international foundations and international development programs. SOLIDARNA, as a reliable, responsive and resourceful re-granting channel and programming associate can add value in mapping and shaping grant-making opportunities to ensure substantial and sustainable community impact on human rights protection in Croatia and regionally, in line with well detected needs of local human rights defenders and the communities they serve. International and public funding is instrumental for balancing out the fragility of the private donor environment for human rights in Croatia which SOLIDARNA strives to reshape. For SOLIDARNA as a new community-focused human rights foundation with no initial operational funds, the key challenge was building its core organizational capacities necessary for the foundation to raise necessary funds to roll out its prospective grant giving programs.