Main Programmes and Activities:Social Justice and Philanthropy, since 2011
Youth groups of volunteers: total 24 rurally based groups of volunteers (total around 200 girls and boys) based in rural/ conflict affected and IDP communities are associated with community foundations and community resource centres established and developed by participants of TF projects. This is the growing space of educating and guiding youth in creativity and skills development as well as the self-confidence, dignity and worthy voluntary contributions in development of respective communities and wider regions: Women’s HRs campaigns with main accent on the problem of early marriages; cultural, educational and athletic events and environmental activism/campaigns; creation of community histories through preserving women’s narratives, organizing exhibitions of photos from family albums etc.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/YoungGeorgianVolunteers/

Community Philanthropy
11 members of the growing Network of Community Foundations, initiated by TF in 2012, are active in 156 communities and, since 2013, have made total 103 small grant (total amount: equivalent of 48 262 USD). 36 organized groups of women and 19 groups of young volunteers are associated with CFs. Community Philanthropy is the program which makes “the big impact with small money,” the program in which the “good money finds good people”; this is said also about grantees of CFs, the network members. Motivated villagers, women mostly, but men as well, and the youth groups of volunteers are active for welfare of their communities and better future for themselves. They are gaining the recognition and appreciation of communities and local governments and create the opportunities of funding from local municipality budgets, as well as of institutionalization of what they have done (we already have cases of 4 community libraries, music school and the kindergarten, as well as the peace festival, recognized/co-financed from municipality budgets). CFs widen geography of their philanthropy continuously.

A Culture of voluntarism is promoted and exercised successfully through voluntary social activism of the women’s groups and groups of young volunteers, including those who partner community foundations in their philanthropic activism. This is the necessary background for social movement as it was demonstrated by TF partners in 2014 and 2015: more than 3000 community members were involved in the campaigns of 16 day’s activism against GBV and International women’s day for rights and equality.

National legislation for philanthropy
In 2016 TF made its 3rd attempt (after 2013 and 2014 submissions) at lobbying for the philanthropy draft-law in Parliament of Georgia.

Social mobilization of rural, IDP, conflict affected and ethnic minority women, since 2010
Through partnership with UN Women, TF received support and adjusted to Georgian rural context, practiced and widely shared the applying methodology of social mobilization. In 2011, while designing the Social Justice and Peace Philanthropy Program, we linked the community philanthropy to the process of social mobilization as its sustainability strategy. Thus we could sustain outcomes of both work directions and could ensure further replications, developments and geographic widening together with reliable and experienced partners. TF interacts with 64 Self-Help groups (SHGs) of rural, conflict affected, internally displaced and ethnic minority women active in 36 communities of 12 municipalities of 8 regions of Georgia and 3 villages of Gali district, situated beyond the administrative border with Abkhazia.

Evidence of the cost efficiency of the results of TF partners’ activism is clear – it is seen in the rehabilitation of outpatient clinics, village roads, kindergartens, community clubs, libraries etc. and the motivating of local-government for investing in grassroots organizations; to create the background for improvements in the national legislation on local governance; Along with growing recognition of the SHGs and community foundations among the respective communities and local self-governments. TF partners continuously accumulate power for advocacy, political participation and resultant dialogue with local government for gender justice planning and budgeting; accordingly, the level of citizen’ democratic participation is growing and quality of the self-governance, as democratic institutions is rising. Below is the TF’s video on social mobilization of rural, IDP, conflict affected and ethnic minority women.