CoOp project (Cooperate to Operate – bringing together youth organizations and SMEs through corporate social responsibility) supported youth organizations to diversify their funding sources by educating them in the field of CSR & fundraising from SMEs.

In 2017-2019, the CoOp partners from Norway, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland and Romania:

• Developed research-based knowledge on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ collaboration, and on the business’ capacity to invest in youth development and education.

Check the national CoOp Research Reports and the CoOp Comparative Report on SMEs and Youth Organizations Cooperation.

• Developed innovative and attractive funding models & tools on CSR and fundraising, which can be used both by youth organizations and SMEs.

Download here the CoOp CSR and Fundraising Training Toolkit and the CoOp Ready Tools for Fundraising.

• Identified and promote best practices and success stories on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ partnerships.

Read the CoOp Best Practices Guide on SMEs and Youth Organizations Cooperation, and get inspired by the Success Stories and the Video Success Stories collected and promoted by the CoOp partners.

• Proposed valuable public policies for boosting the partnerships between SMEs and youth organizations.

Check the Public Policies proposed by CoOp partners to enhance the cooperation between SMEs and youth organizations.

The project was co-financed by European Commission, within Erasmus+ Programme through Aktiv Ungdom (Norway). The project partners are:  Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway),  Asset Tec (Greece), Youth Work Ireland (Ireland), Fundacja Samodzielni Robinsonowie (Poland) and Fundatia Danis (Romania).

During the two-year project, the partners managed to reach with specific activities and open educational resources developed for youth organizations and SMEs, over 500 stakeholders from the five countries: NGOs working with young people, youth organizations, youth centers, young people, youth workers/educators, SMEs, large and multinational companies, public authorities, universities, business centers, business associations, NGO federations, etc.

At the same time, through the international training course on CSR and Fundraising, CoOp partners trained 25 youth workers from Norway, Greece, Ireland, Poland and Romania on how to get more SMEs support for their projects for young people. Then, these 25 youth workers shared the new knowledge and skills, and the CoOp educational resources, with other 148 youth workers and staff from their organizations or other organizations from their community.

To disseminate the project’s results and the open educational resources, partners organized 10 national events with 124 participants – youth organizations, SMEs, large and multinational companies, business associations, universities, NGO federations, etc.

For any information you might have about CoOp project, its results and the educational resources developed, please contact CoOp partners here.