Donor: Atlas Network (www.atlasnetwork.org)
Summary: Liberal Alternative Institute was established in 2012 as a think tank that will provide a liberal alternative to the quite illiberal tendencies of the time. The operational grant will not only help in reorganizing, but will increase the chances to obtain new funds given that majority of donors require some type of cofinancing. Additionally this start up application will be used to develop the research and policy component of LAI, by establishing a quarterly journal on liberty, freedoms, and free market economy for the North Macedonian context and beyond.
Outputs/Outcomes
Output 1: Established office and Operations Assistant position
Outcome 1: Organize 2 events per month in the office and provide working space for a total of 50 volunteers and interns as well as for 5 staff members during the year.
Output 2: Publishing of the Liberal Forum Journal in quarterly matter
Outcome 2: Publish 10 authors in each quarterly edition of LFJ, with the aim of reaching an audience of 500 readers per each edition.
Output 3: Increased number of applications in schemes that require co financing
Outcome 3: Prepare 10 grant applications for the next 12 months, have at least 5 successful applications with the aim of receiving $50,000 in funds.
Strategy: Having an office will allow us to organize more meetings and provide space for work for staff and volunteers to meet. Using the voices of liberal authors in North Macedonia but also Kosovo and Albania, the LFJ will present thematical debates and discussions to the larger audience. The printed journals will be distributed to university libraries in the three countries inviting students and academic to join the debates. Additionally an online version of the journal will be available for people to be able to access it. The funds for general support by Atlas would be used to provide cofinancing while applying for funds. Increasingly in our applications for funds we have been told that it would be difficult to give funds to organizations that do not have operational funds.
Timeline: Project start date is February 1st 2022, project end date is January 31st 2023. The LFJ are planned to be published in end of April, July, October and January.
