In late April, I traveled to Tbilisi, Georgia for a gathering of the Human Rights Funders Network – an annual conference that brings together human rights grantmakers, mostly from Europe and the US.
The conference came at a tense moment. Tbilisi is only 100 miles from the Russian border, and Russia’s influence was felt deeply at the moment.
Just down the street from the site of the conference was Freedom Plaza, where hundreds of thousands of Georgians were gathering nightly in protest of a far-right “foreign agent” law that would punish grassroots groups for the source of their funding.
That law ultimately passed last week, and I recommend anyone interested in human rights follow the situation as it unfolds, including the ongoing work of opposition protestors.
One bright spot amid the strains of rising authoritarianism: the conference hosted the launch party of the Dalan Fund – a new, participatory grantmaking vehicle that puts decision-making power in the hands of local activists.
I spoke with the leaders of the Dalan Fund about their vision, and learned that activists in the three CEECCNA regions often feel like “prisoners of geography”, caught between East and West – in no small part because of the paternalistic approach that Western donors take to this part of the world.
As co-founder Nino Ugrekhelidze told me:
“If we have any departing point from philanthropy it’s that there has been one particular culture that is imposed on all of us – in how we talk, how we make decisions… We don't tell people across three different regions that there is only one way of operating.”
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