1) Legal, taxation and accounting assessment
The Coordinator is conversant with the most common doubts that all foundations tend to pose.
The Coordinator is a source of reliable and efficient information, because it responds with optimal flexibility depending on the type of query and through specialists in the area of foundations.
The associated foundations can use the Coordinator to solve legal, tax, accounting or management queries.

2) Resource and documentation centre
The Coordinator makes all the publications produced since it was created, as well as those which have gradually been forwarded to it, available to its associates. This material may range from an article in any issue of the "Societat Civil" (Civil Society) journal that is out of print, to a recent book: 2001 Congress of Foundations. Papers and round tables, as well as all our own and other foundations' publications, such as annual reports, bulletins, books..., either at the Coordinator's own headquarters or through the most suitable medium.
Associates can update their knowledge on the contents addressed in publications by the Coordinator and other foundations.

3) Human resources
The management of foundations is becoming increasingly more professional, they create employment and more and more people are beginning to take an interest in their work.
The Coordinator, by virtue of a collaboration agreement with the Department of Education of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, facilitates the hiring of staff for practical training in foundations.
Associates can bring human resources for hands-on training in their team thanks to the Coordinator.

4) Specialised training
The ever-changing reality of organisational management requires an increasingly greater and ongoing degree of specialised, in-depth and wide-ranging knowledge. The Coordinator strives to respond to these needs by organising courses, seminars and conferences given by qualified professionals mainly targeting people holding management posts in associated foundations (at special rates) and in the foundation sector in general. Recent activities have featured courses on the procurement of resources, the management and motivation of work teams, time management and work organisation, and others are scheduled to address marketing and communication in response to requests from associates.

5) Institutional relations
The Coordinator, committed to the development of civil society in general, and particularly to the world of Catalan foundations, takes on the responsibility of representing its associated foundations. With this aim in mind, one of the basic lines of work is collaboration with the Catalan and State administrations, as well as other international organisations.

This collaboration takes the form of meetings or other kinds of encounters, when the subject so requires, where the opinions and demands of the associated foundations can be voiced before the relevant departments of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, mainly:

- The Department of Justice.
- The Department of Social Welfare.
- The Department of Education.
- The Department of Culture.
- The Department of Universities, Research and Information Society.
This also applies to the political powers represented in the Parliament of Catalonia, as well as the local administrations.

Furthermore, the Coordinator is always open to working with other State or international agencies, whereupon, and with a view to defending and representing the world of Catalan foundations, it maintains a smooth working relationship with the following agencies:

- The European Foundation Centre.
- The Centre of Foundations.
- The Spanish Confederation of Foundations.

Centro de Fundaciones	European Foundation Centre	Confederación Española de Fundaciones

6) Commissions
In order to offer an annual programme optimally pitched to cover the needs of its associates, and also to analyse and pre-empt constant changes in our society, the Coordinator is structured into five commissions, on which foundations with a direct interest can collaborate or participate actively. These commissions are:

- The Commission of hospital foundations.
- The Commission of health-care foundations.
- The Commission of cultural foundations.
- The Commission of teaching foundations.
- The Commission of research foundations.

In a complementary way, the work they carry out fosters direct contact between the members of each foundation and the exchange of experiences, always geared towards studying beneficial proposals for all the foundations in Catalonia.


7) Meetings and debates
Adopting the same approach as for its general training, the Coordinator organises conferences, meetings, work sessions, congresses and round tables with a marked practical and applied character, with the collaboration of agencies, prominent figures and any experts who may be directly involved. One example would be a legal conference on the new Catalan Law on foundations, or the seminar on the regulations of the Spanish General Accounting Plan adapted to foundations governed by the legislation of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia; other events include debates analysing aspects of foundation life, such as the figure of the trustee, etc.

Similarly, when the circumstances so require, the Coordinator organises public acts for all the foundations and anyone interested to study and debate the reality of foundations at the highest level. To this end the Coordinator has staged three congresses to date, the last one being the 2001 Congress of Foundations under the title of "Identity, values and future".


8) Creation of new foundations
The Coordinator offers full support in the creation of foundations to cover any new needs detected by Catalan civil society.
The Coordinator has accumulated experience, in terms of requirements and formalities, from all its associated foundations. Therefore, it can offer expert advice that will serve to analyse the viability and complementariness of the task of the foundation that is to be set up.

Anyone interested in creating a new foundation can get the help of the Coordinator. All they have to do is get in touch with it by phone or by e-mail.

1) Website www.ccfundacions.org
The new technologies, and particularly the Internet, afford us a window onto the world, and an efficient working tool. The Coordinator, as the representative body of the world of Catalan foundations, is also duty bound to leverage the possibilities of such innovation, and has consequently promoted its presence through a new and more powerful website, with added features and great possibilities for dealing with the associated foundations, as is confirmed by more than 11,000 visits a year to the site. It is therefore an essential point of reference for the world of Catalan foundations.
Highlights of the website are: optimal flexibility of mutual contact between the Coordinator and associated foundations; it offers regular information on activities carried out; it features downloadable digital-format documents; it facilitates interaction between foundations as a departure point for joint actions and projects; it has links of interest to other Spanish or international websites; it gives publicity to any interested person or organisation body from anywhere in the world as to the existence of its associated foundations and how to get in touch with them.
All of this is shown on the site map, which gives an overview of the contents.

2) Database of Foundations in Catalonia
The Coordinator, using the information provided by the foundations themselves, with the collaboration of the General Board of Law and Legal Organisations of the Department of Justice of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, and with other foundation protectorates, has drawn up the II Directory of private foundations in Catalonia. It is the most comprehensive and most up-to-date database of foundations in Catalonia, and is available to all foundations and other interested organisations from civil society.
Its importance is made clear by the body of knowledge and contacts it offers. All kinds of queries and searches can be carried out on it: by sector, territory, name, etc.

3) Agenda of activities of the associated foundations
The Coordinator, through its strategic decision to adapt to new technology, has gone all out for the immediacy of information, facilitated by the fact that the Internet allows us to work with information in real time.
The www.ccfundacions.org website presents a broad agenda of the foundation sector though an automated system in which the associated foundations can promote their activities themselves.
Anyone interested therefore has instant and round-the-clock access to information on events going on in the foundation world.

4) Resources for foundations
Given that the Internet provides worldwide presence, the Coordinator has made the most comprehensive search engine available, with links to sites of interest related to the world of foundations.
This section of the www.ccfundacions.org website makes for well-structured browsing, and enables visitors to find out who is who in the foundations scenario, and what activity they are engaged in anywhere.


5) Datasub: information on subsidies
The Coordinator, well aware of the importance of knowing what subsidies are granted by the public, autonomous, state and international administrations to foundations, signed a collaboration agreement with the InfoNetworks company which offers subsidy information and application services with excellent economic conditions for associated foundations.

1) Civil Society
The Coordinator periodically provides reference material on monographic subjects which directly affect civil society. "Societat Civil" is structured into four large sections: an overall presentation analysis, specific approaches from the different sides of the subject in hand, an interview with a prominent figure, and the foundation perspective.
In order to fully cover the myriad facets of civil society, the journal features experts in the subjects representing an extremely far-ranging ideological spectrum.
The publication of each issue is complemented by a public event consisting of a round table with the presence of some of the authors of the contents of the journal.
The latest issues are:

-Civil society and politics.
-Civil society and the media.
-Civil society and values.
-Civil society and education.

2) II Directory of Private Foundations in Catalonia
In 1997, the Coordinator made a major effort and published the I Directory of private foundations in Catalonia, a basic knowledge- and interrelation-based instrument, the like of which had never been seen before, making it available to all foundations.
The II Directory of private foundation in Catalonia, following faithfully in the footsteps of the first edition, is an extension and improvement in all senses. The new additions make the II Directory the most up-to-date database with extremely reliable data on the foundations in our country.
All in all, it showcases information on over 1,100 foundations, and the data files for 810 of these organisations include comprehensive information updated to the year 2000.
Finally, and in view of the transcendence of the product, the Coordinator has published all this material on its website to make for better dissemination of the Catalan foundation sector.

3) 2001 Congress of Foundations. Conclusions
On the 1st and 2nd of March, at the Cultural Centre of "la Caixa" Foundation, prominent figures from the Catalan political world, experts from a wide range of fields and members of foundations debated and reflected on the proposed title: "Identity, values and future".

A reflection of the success of the Congress was the high turnout, with over 200 registered delegates who participated in the debates on the different round tables, to say nothing of the coverage achieved in the different media.

Thus, and as a continuation of the work it has already carried out, the Coordinator presents the definitive conclusions of the Congress, so that foundations can, as has already been stated, not just adapt to change, but pre-empt it and act at exactly the right time.

   Conclusions del Congrés (catalan) (PDF - 31 Kb)
   Llibre Congrés de Fundacions 2001 “Identitat, valors i futur”. Ponències i taules rodones (catalan) (PDF - 2074 Kb)

4) Research
The lack of basic information on the third sector in general, and more specifically on foundations, renders the work of social observers and researchers somewhat difficult. The Coordinator therefore supports any research that can shed some light on this matter, and in 1997 took charge of drafting the I Directory of private foundations in Catalonia, which was updated and extended four years later, in an effort that will continue in the future.
Nevertheless, these materials, groundbreaking as they are in our field, must be seen as a vehicle leading to further, more in-depth research that will help to understand the reality of the diverse and complex field of foundations. In this regard, special mention must be made of the work currently being carried out, namely:

4.1) The Study on foundations in Catalonia.
The main idea of research is to determine the basic starting points of the foundation world, to address the current complex reality and, through a proactive analysis, to define future lines of work in view of burgeoning scenarios.
It is the perfect complement to the conclusions of the 2001 Congress of Foundations, a multidisciplinary tool, featuring the participation of an equally plural team, and which without any shadow of a doubt will become a reference point for knowing and understanding the characteristics and the wealth of the Catalan foundation world as a whole.

4.2) Other specific research
Moreover, and in order to optimise dissemination, the Coordinator is also considering collaboration with publishers in the publication of research. Once such study is:

-Josep Arias Velasco. The taxation of non-profit making organisations. Madrid: Catalan Coordinator of Foundations and Marcial Pons, 1997.
Two editions of this book have already been published.

-(in preparation) Josep Ferrer Riba. The legislation of foundations, which will be a comparative study of legislation in Catalonia, Spain, other autonomous communities, the European Union and the United States.


5) Circulars
To complement web-based communication, the Coordinator, depending on the importance of the subject, in some cases also opts for the use of circulars. In the year 2000 this system was used to inform associates about the draft Bill on Catalan Foundations, and also, now with the formalities at a more advanced stage in the Parliament of Catalonia, about the status of the Draft Bill governing our sector.