Klon/Jawor’s research diagnosed key problems of NGOs: the insufficient knowledge of the NGOs’ rights and duties pertaining to the law and to management, as well as the relatively low social standing of the NGOs. The barriers for NGO development include poor asset base (50% of NGOs have no assets, and only 6% of NGOs have more than PLN 100 thousand a year at their disposal), for 25% of organisations access to information and understanding the law pose a problem. We assumed that in order to operate independently and influence the quality of public life, NGOs need formal-legal knowledge presented in an accessible and easy form.
This premise leads to the project’s objective, i.e. long-term strengthening of NGOs in Poland and increasing their participation in building democracy, thanks to access to up-to-date, credible information and knowledge. The project allowed us to develop a unique, lasting, modern information solution: the Non-Governmental Centre of Information, Knowledge and Opinions ngo.pl, which delivers news, advice, opinions and data about the third sector. It provides information about the law, grants, events, activists, legal and formal changes, and hosts debates in the extensive “opinions” section. From the technological perspective, ngo.pl received a new layout, navigation, a mobile version and a version for people with disabilities. New forms of presenting knowledge were developed: 35 infographics, animations and webinars. The knowledge database was extended, 31500 pieces of information were published, advisers provided consultation to 10748 people, 21333 updated and 18108 new records were included in the database. Another theme of the project was collecting new facts about NGOs in Poland. We conducted the 7th edition of the research “The condition of the NGOs' sector 2015”, on the sample of 4000 NGOs, based on new methodology. The report has been distributed during meetings and via the media. There was a broad response to the project in the NGO community: we reached 45000 organisations (31500 by e-mail, 3000 directly and 10500 by post), about 2000 NGO commissioners, as well as about 1100 libraries and help centres. The resources of ngo.pl were used by about 10 million users, the database by about 4,5 million. Recognition of ngo.pl by NGOs grew from 62% to 73%.