Starting from 2017, and thanks to the There isn’t a PLANet B! Win-win strategies and small actions for big impacts on climate change, funded by the European Commission under the DEAR program (Development Education and Raising Awareness), PuntoSud has experimented, for the first time in Italy, the tool of financial support to third parties, a financing mechanism through which European Union funds have been disbursed to medium and small organizations.

Financial support is a tool to include in the financing mechanisms, thanks to the guarantees offered by the intermediary organization, small-sized organizations, which often have very limited managerial and financial skills, but innovative, replicable and scalable ideas and which are very active and capillaries in the territory for the reference community. It also allows organizations to participate in calls with simpler application and selection procedures.

The attention towards this tool has grown considerably in recent years, so the European Union considers it a key component of its calls for proposals.

Thanks to the experience acquired, PuntoSud guarantees, before launching the calls to finance the Organizations, to identify a particularly urgent topic of collective interest with CSOs and to develop a shared strategy between the donor and the PuntoSud Foundation.

PuntoSud monitors the project implementation process and the progress of the entire process and ensures that the results achieved are constantly checked. Furthermore, the CSOs are accompanied both in planning and in managing the funds, organizing training sessions for the same CSOs.

This training, detailed on the basis of the interests and characteristics of the small and medium-sized civil society organizations financed, includes meetings and workshops for sharing design methods and rules and project managing, as well as training on relevant topics for projects (crowdfunding, campaigning, storytelling, social marketing).

A helpdesk service is provided and is available to all funded organizations for the entire duration of the project. This service provides continuous support, guidance and answers to specific questions such as the preparation of management tools and the sharing of good practices among the financed organizations.

NOPLANETB has the communication as a transversal element at all levels due to the relevance it has in initiating a change on the issue of climate change, and to promote the development of a solid network among the organizations financed to start the development of strategic partnerships, or strengthen them.

To date, 6 calls have been launched, funding and supporting 58 organizations.