about

CNVOS was established in 2001 by 27 non-governmental organisations. In recent years, more than 150 organisation have joined annually, resulting in a total of 1600 groups of associations, individual associations, institutes and foundations brought together as our members, and further 10.000 non-governmental organisations as our indirect members. Based on our collaboration with the government, national assembly, economy, media, and, most significantly, – our members – we have acquired sufficient breadth and knowledge to fulfil and realise our mission.

THE NATIONAL NGO UMBRELLA NETWORK SERVES AS

• the national NGO information centre

providing the Slovenian non-governmental sector with a complete information service regarding the current sector activity as well as all calls for tender at international, European, national and regional levels;

• the national NGO advocacy centre

based on regular analyses of the legislation and policies regulating the development of NGOs, we draw up amending proposals and lobby our government and the national assembly to have them adopted – we succeed in amending around 30 regulations and policies annually;

• the national NGO training centre

we organise more than 50 training courses annually, covering fields of management and administration, communication, advocacy;

• the national advisory centre

we provide counselling to more than 1000 organisations annually, covering fields of non-governmental law as well as management and administration;

• the national project centre

for non-governmental organisations, we develop project ideas, search for partners, prepare project applications to be submitted to European and national calls for tender, and perform monitoring and evaluation of projects;

• a persistent promoter of transparent and high-quality NGO operation

we develop quality models and integrity plans for NGOs, provide counselling, implement assessments.

WE ARE FULLY INTEGRATED INTO INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITY

We cooperate regularly with our sister organisations from other European countries, getting involved jointly into drawing up of policies at the EU level. We are also very active in Western Balkan countries, collaborating with NGOs and governments to develop NGO support environments.

We are members of:

• European Civic Forum (ECF)
• Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN).

WE MANAGE FUNDS WHICH FINANCE NGO PROJECTS

Our knowledge and experience convinced Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway in 2018, who entrusted us with the management of the Active Citizens Fund for non-governmental organizations, together with the PIP Institute and the Association for the Development of Voluntary Work Novo mesto. The ACF Slovenia program was allocated 3 million euros for projects and strengthening the capacities of NGOs. As partners in managing the Active Citizens Fund, we also help in Croatia, in a consortium with Croatian NGOs Zaklada Slagalica, Solidarna, and Udruga SMART.

We previously collaborated with the donor countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway between 2009 and 2014 in managing the NGO Program of the EEA Financial Mechanism, as partners with the Regional Environmental Center. We supported 120 projects with 1,593,750 euros.

Since 2021, we have also been managing another donor program – Impact4values, which has already supported the noble work of over 100 NGOs. In 2024, we successfully applied for a call from the European Commission and secured an additional 2.6 million euros for Slovenian NGOs through the IMPACT4VALUES 2.0 program.

We will provide support to both local associations and nationwide NGOs. Funds will be available for rapid response actions as well as longer-term program support.

We will continue to strive to ensure that our public calls within the donor programs are exemplary, administratively simple, and that decision-making is transparent and focused on concrete results that make our community better.