The majority of NGOs in Kosovo depend on the international donors. The surveys show that more than 70 % of the funds for NGOs come from foreign donors, with another 6 % of “other funds” – which mostly represent Soros Foundation funds for civil society. In addition, survey shows that more than half of the NGOs in Kosovo are totally dependent from foreign donors, with no other source of funding.
Some of the most important foreign donors for CSOs in Kosovo include European Commission (including European Commission Liaison Office in Kosovo – ECLO), USAID, SOROS Foundation, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency – SIDA, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation – SDC and a number of EU Member State embassies and offices in Kosovo.
Even though the European Commission is gradually becoming the most present donor for Kosovo civil society, there are no official data of the exact amount of its funding. The EIDHR scheme launched in the beginning of 2010 will grant around 1.7 millions EUR for funding successful proposals from CSOs, while around half of this sum was granted last year within the same scheme. A number of other initiatives supported the civil society sector in the fields of minority protection, environment protection, children’s rights etc.
When analyzing the total amount of EU assistance to Kosovo during these years (highest per capita rate from all non-EU member states), the civil society sector does not appear as one of the priorities. This may be explained in different perspectives, but one of the reasons may include also the limited capacities of the Kosovar NGOs to absorb those funds due to specific administrative and financial requirements of the EU. A survey conducted by Kosovar Civil Society Foundation in 2009 shows that 67.7 % of the NGOs have never implemented any project related to the European Integration process, while the entire EU funds target issues that are related to this process in general. 79.4 % of NGOs have never received any EU fund, while reasons for this vary from insufficient information related to the application procedures (32.1 %), difficulties in providing the co-financing as per required by EU (25 %) to lack resources and capacities for implementation (13.1 %). The ECLO is providing training modules how to write project proposals within EIDHR, while increase in numbers and on quality projects remains to be seen.
However, different from other EU Candidates and Potential Candidate countries, Kosovo still remains under strong focus of US donors, including the civil society sector. US based funds, such as USAID, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Balkan Trust for Democracy and Soros Foundation remain some of the main donors for civil society organizations in Kosovo.