These consultations were a response to the need of Dar Qandeel for Arts and Culture, a partner institution in the second round of the project, to develop financial and administrative manuals and a strategic plan for the upcoming years at the institution, and to provide assistance throughout this process.
These consultations were carried out in line with the nature of Dar Qandeel and ad-Dar’s spirit, and its work model based on interacting with the community and providing an open space for the participation of volunteers and involved activists. It was taken into consideration that ad-Dar has never had any of these administrative models, and has never adopted a clear and fixed organisational form nor any institutional rules.
- Developing Financial and Administrative Manuals/ through Finbloom company: This consultation was focused on adapting the manuals to fit the spirit of Dar Qandeel. This included holding meetings, continuous discussions with ad-Dar’s executive staff, board of directors and strategic planning consultant, in order to draw a clear image and understanding of the needs of ad-Dar. Discussion sessions were held to adapt the manuals of the NGO Development Centre to suit the needs identified, upon which an initial draft was developed and shared with ad-Dar’s staff and board of directors for feedback. Accordingly, the final manuals were developed. This consultation primarily focused on the language used in the manuals, to connect it with ad-Dar’s ethos of volunteering and community work, which means building horizontal and non-hierarchical administrative structures as well as making them flexible and spontaneous with some institutional organisation.
Finbloom:
Financial Management Solutions, FinBloom, is a business support services provider that started in 2010. FinBloom is built to help SMEs, entrepreneurs and investors in the areas of: Access to Markets, Finance, and Human Capital, and Financial Management by providing services of systems analysis, design, architecture, implementation, accounting, budgeting, reporting, financial planning and grantmaking, in addition to Quality Assurance by providing services of compliance, developing manuals, financial and business modules, structuring, scaling and markets studies.
- Developing the Strategic Plan through consultant Fida Salfiti: This consultation spanned two months. It consisted of expanded meetings which included Dar Qandeel’s staff, board of directors and volunteers, as well as several meetings with current and potential partners located in the north of the West Bank. The consultation also included an expanded meeting to which cultural and art institutions operating in Ramallah and Jerusalem were invited, with which partnerships could be built in the future. Fida Salfiti has also developed a simplified strategic plan in Arabic for the next three years. This plan includes an organisational structure, the vision, mission and values adopted by ad-Dar, and an action plan for the programme with a specific budget for its items. She has also developed a general framework for evaluating and following up on al-Dar’s programmes and activities, with outcomes, results, indicators and a risk analysis.
Fadya Salfiti
Fadya Salfiti is the Advisory Committee Chairperson at the Creative Palestinian Communities Fund (Rawa). Born in Kuwait to parents originally from Nablus, she studied International Relations in San Francisco while working as a grassroots activist on women and youth empowerment, advocating for and working on a myriad of issues pertaining to the Palestinian cause. In 1992, she returned to Palestine and settled in Jerusalem, holding posts with several international, regional and Palestinian organisations, including the UNDP Rural Development Programme, the Italian Cooperation Agency, the Swedish International Development Agency, Tamer Institute for Community Education and the Palestinian Planned Parenthood Association, among others. Her experience with multiple developmental issues, her engagement with young people and her work with several outfits as a programme specialist on education, health and the Palestinian private sector have enabled Fadya to work on a wide range of cross-sectorial needs.