Joint efforts for public benefit
Over the past five years Ukrainian civil society has been struggling to promote legislation to simplify the operations of charity organizations and recipients of their donations. Pact’s UNITER Project partners took a strong stand on this matter, and in the last twelve months they were able to conduct powerful advocacy campaign, mobilizing beneficiaries of civil society activities and convincing the government of the importance of the legislation.
Two of UNITER’s grantees initiated the process and were heavily involved in development and daily implementation. The Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research (UCIPR) partner took the lead in facilitating the advocacy campaign as well as contributing to the text of the drafts, conducting conferences and working groups to analyze the substance of amendments. UCIPR also lobbied members of parliament and ensured the legislation’s content was properly evaluated by working with the legal departments of four political factions in Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament). Politicians Olesya Orobets from Nasha Ukraina, Olekdandr Feldman from Bloc of Yuliay Timoshenko, Yuliya Novikova from the Party of Regions and Oleh Zarybinskiy from Bloc of Lytvyn strongly supported the drafts.
While UCIPR was closely engaged in working with the government, another UNITER grantee, Ukrainian Philanthropists Foundation (UPF), was in charge of coordinating communications among charitable organizations. The commitment of 11 of Ukraine’s most prominent charitable foundations and their stated recognition of the need for the new laws and the positive impact they would bring were extremely important elements for the overall success of the legislation campaign. On June 16, 2010, these 11 charitable organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the support of the draft laws “On Charity and Charitable Organizations” (No.6343) and “On changes to Ukrainian laws (regarding decreasing taxes for recipients of charity assistance)” (No.6344).
The new legislation would simplify NGO registration and management procedures, increase the control of charitable organizations over the funds and properties they receive as donations, and decrease taxes on citizens who receive charity. The laws also introduce new tools for charities, including by granting public access to the real estate list of philanthropists, allowing for donations of stocks and bonds without paying VAT, and defining the aims and characteristics of charitable activity. As of now, both draft laws are in Verkhovna Rada waiting for their first reading.
