The 2023 grant calls were launched under the Impact Lab program, which develops the skills of CSOs and increases their innovation potential. It uses modern tools of the startup community (incubator, accelerator), workshops or mentoring. In 2023, Impact Lab Incubator startups received a unique training program focused on financial sustainability, impact monitoring, and the overall organizational setup, as well as a grant of up to 20,000 euros. Established organizations received a customized 3-month mentorship in the Impact Lab Accelerator from experts in business or education, workshops and a grant of up to 60,000 euros. In the area of democracy and rule of law promotion within the Impact Lab, The Fund for Transparent Slovakia supported projects with 50,000 euros.
In 2023, the Fund completed projects from the 2022 grant call – these were 6 projects aimed at developing the organizational capacity of organizations with a long-standing commitment to increasing transparency in public life and measures for compliance with the law and reduction of the space for corruption and state capture. We redistributed 50,000 euros among the organizations.
The third edition of the Academy of Investigative Journalism was implemented in cooperation with the Open Society Foundation. The Academy provided 10 Slovak journalists with intensive professional training with the participation of experienced lecturers. Three graduates of the Academy received a grant to carry out an investigative project, which included mentoring.
The year 2023 was also the year of parliamentary elections. Given the long-term pre-election signals of threatening democracy in Slovak society, the Fund was also behind the financial support of organizations that sought to motivate Slovaks to vote in the parliamentary elections in September 2023. The Fund for Transparent Slovakia supported the mobilization initiatives I Want to Stay Here – pretovolim.sk (to encourage first and second voters to vote) and At Heart at Home (to support the choice of Slovaks voting from abroad).
The FfTS funds are made up of contributions from companies that are members of the fund. In 2023, we received 98,000.00 euros in funds from member companies. The funds received came from donations from member companies (57,000 euros) and from the corporate income tax (41,000 euros).
*The term parent company refers to the contribution of a FfTS member company
