The year 2020 has been seismic in so many ways that it will leave a monumental mark in our collective memory for generations to come. Throughout a very tough year, we have experienced loss, grief, and anxiety related to a pandemic, natural disasters, social and economic crises, and worsening divides across communities both in our region and across the globe. As self-claimed “optimists”, we have to admit we have seen our optimism being tested across many fronts. We have, however, thanks to our platform and valuable supporters, been able to find consolation in the fact that we have been able to help during these difficult times and that, in fact, reached a record level of funds raised and grants provided to the civil society organisations in Turkey.
Year in Review
In 2020, we raised over GBP 175,000, bringing the total amount since our inception (less than three years ago) to over GBP 430,000. In 2020, we distributed over GBP 150,000 to 29 organisations listed below.
In January 2020, we launched an Emergency Relief Fund in response to the Elazig Earthquake, and again in October 2020 following the Izmir Earthquake. We were humbled by the overwhelming response from our community in the UK and abroad following these devastating events in Turkey, with over 55,000 GBP raised from more than 700 donors. The Emergency Relief Fund also supported the humanitarian crisis involving Syrian refugees that unfolded at the Turkey/Greece border in February 2020.
Turkey Mozaik Foundation continued to launch all planned grant programmes this year, including Gender Equality Fund (March 2020), Institutional Fund (August 2020), Culture & Arts Fund (October 2020) and Children’s Fund (November 2020). However, given the emerging needs due to COVID-19 pandemic, we updated our grant making strategy for this year and the foreseeable future to focus on two priorities:
- Focusing on supporting anti-poverty measures, deprivation, and prioritising organisations that work with disadvantaged groups who became more vulnerable as a result of COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis.
- Responding to the needs that arise from changes in the ways CSOs operate (not only in terms of digital transformation but also taking into consideration the way CSOs organise, fundraise, deal with crisis etc.)
In addition, we had a separate COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund (June 2020) that provided “survival” support of around 2000 GBP each to six organisations. We would like to thank our local partner, Support Foundation for Civil Society, who effectively organised all existing and emergency support funds to ensure your donations were delivered rapidly to relevant organisations and individuals who are in need.
What next for Turkey Mozaik Foundation in 2021?
We are excited to announce that in addition to our existing family of funds, we will be focusing on two cross-cutting themes in 2021: sustainability and poverty/inequality. The Sustainability Fund will launch in January 2021 and later in the year, we will look to develop a dedicated fund to address deep poverty and widening inequalities, having started to work with local CSOs already on these topics.
It was truly moving to see a great community come together and we are grateful for your continued support in what has been a difficult year for all of us. We anticipate the pandemic and global recessionary environment will continue to leave a mark on 2021 so what lies ahead may be another difficult year. We trust you are satisfied with our summary of what your donations have achieved in 2020 and we thank you very much in advance for your continued support in 2021. We remain, as ever, hopeful that we will be able to increase our positive impact even further thanks to our growing base of both donors and grantees.
