Annual Report 2004 - Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

CIVIL SOCIETY: OVERVIEW
addition, grants made under the Special
Initiatives-International program area allow
Mott to respond to unusual opportunities
that help develop civil society in other
regions of the world.
All Civil Society grants fall under three
broad themes: strengthening the nonprofit
sector; promoting rights, responsibilities and
participation; and improving race and
ethnic relations.
CENTRAL/EASTERN
EUROPE AND RUSSIA
As the world watched events leading up to,
and following, the presidential elections in
Ukraine in late 2004, several Mott grantees
were busy educating the public about their
voting rights and responsibilities through a
variety of nonpartisan activities.
The Kyiv-based Committee of Voters of
Ukraine (CVU) received a three-year,
$252,000 general purposes grant, which was
used to monitor elections and help ensure
that they would be free and fair; manage a
network of citizens’ bureaus that shared
nonpartisan election information; train
thousands of volunteers as election
observers; promote accountability of elected
officials; and analyze election laws while
advocating for improvements in the electoral
process.
CVU, established in 1994, is the
country’s largest indigenous nongovernmental
organization (NGO) that
continually works to engage Ukrainians in
the political process — both at the
grassroots level and at the national policy
level. Its goal is to educate and interact with
the public by providing information at 100
advice branches throughout the country,
hosting a Web site and publishing a
newspaper.
The National Democratic Institute for
International Affairs of Washington, D.C.,
received a five-month, $188,898 grant to
support a group of 25 NGO leaders from
the former Soviet Union who served as
election monitors for the Ukrainian
presidential election. This project tapped the
expertise of nonprofit leaders who knew
both the language and culture of the region,
and who had previous experience
monitoring elections in their own countries.
The group was in Ukraine for the initial
presidential vote in October and then the
runoff vote in November. Members then
remained in the country for the repeat runoff
presidential election in December, which
was required after Ukraine’s Supreme Court
ruled that there had been wide-scale fraud
during the first runoff.
Another grantee, the Moscow-based
VOICE Association, seeks to increase public
participation in the government
continued on page 12
The Committee of Voters
of Ukraine trained
volunteers to monitor the
2004 presidential
elections, including
observing how mobile
ballot boxes were
handled.
2004 ANNUAL REPORT
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