Two Basic Ideas: Networks & Partners

To support culture and development in far corners of the world, the Prince Claus Fund needs a very broad reach. Partner organisations in different regions, representing a variety of disciplines and diverse networks, offer the Fund the experience and perspectives of a very wide range of people. They, in turn, benefit from the Fund and its many Dutch and international friends and advisors.

“Partnership” is a popular concept, but it often masks an unequal relationship. The Fund respects artistic quality and creative capacity wherever they are found and understands that they are often obstructed by lack of resources and unsupportive environments. In the Network Partnership program, the Fund works together with culture and development organisations whose capacities it already knows, funding collaborative projects over time. The aim is not a donor-recipient relationship, but a deeper interchange in which the Fund and the organisation, along with their networks, are learning and advising.

How does it work?

Each year the Fund invites two cultural organisations to propose a collaborative project and a three year plan they would like to carry out with the Fund. The partners and the Fund sign a 3-year contract. After the 3 years have expired, the Partner may remain in the Network Committee as a non-financed partner for 3 more years. The agreement that is made by both partners is based on the fact that after the partnership expires the Partner cannot be supported again by the programme so as not to develop a donor dependency.  

Mutual help and inspiration through the Network Committee

The reason Network Partners are reluctant to leave after the initial 3-year funding period, is that they feel they benefit greatly from the interchange and support they get from one another and the Fund. Although the Fund ends financial support after the first three years, advice and dialogue continues to be exchanged between PCF and its partners for three years thereafter. Twice a year the network partners come together to have frank discussions on various topics. Practical issues are for instance raised, such as what are the different private funding policies around the world, and different administrative and bureaucratic problems which these organisations face. They learn from each other’s experience and are inspired to initiate their own collaborations with each other.