Tools for citizens

Tools for citizens Civil Society Toolbox
for collective action and organizational development

Civil Society Toolbox is a toolkit for capacity building.

Civil Society Toolbox supports actors facilitating organizational development in initiatives, civil society organizations or informal groups who want to develop their working structures to act, collaborate and create impact in times of uncertainty. It aims to support actors facilitating organizational development in initiatives, civil society organizations or informal groups who want to develop th

eir working structures to act, collaborate and create impact in times of complexity and uncertainty. It allows you to explore and work on a real capacity building need of your organization or group. Civil Society Toolbox is a playful toolkit including participatory methods which allow all actors to collectively identify internal challenges in their organization, team or group, and help them come up with new perspectives, solutions or action plans. Toolbox Themes (2024):
Working with Volunteers | Internal Communication and Decisions | Conflict Resolution | Strategy | Roles and Responsibilities | Financial Model | Risk and Resilience | Leadership Transitions | Crowdfunding | Advocacy Evaluative Learning | Collective Impact | Knowledge and Learning | Vision and Mission | Working with Funders | Community Engagement

First ever presentation of the renewed Civil Society Toolbox in Ukrainian! 🇺🇦We launched and presented in Ukrainian at t...
03/07/2025

First ever presentation of the renewed Civil Society Toolbox in Ukrainian! 🇺🇦

We launched and presented in Ukrainian at the Vidnova Lab meeting in the Carpathians.

This marks not only a translation milestone but also the beginning of practical use of the new Toolbox in Ukraine, empowering organizations with structured, participatory tools for strategy, planning, and collaboration.

The workshop was held by Nataliya Trambovetska , a deeply experienced facilitator, trainer and coach who has been a dedicated member of our community for many years.

Vidnova fellows tested the tool in four different groups. They worked with real-life challenges using the Paths and other tools. Participants shared their cases, reflected on their processes, and found the structured formats supportive and easy to apply.

Białystok meets BerlinOne of the biggest surprises are the people. Over the years, a strong network of engaged users and...
03/06/2025

Białystok meets Berlin

One of the biggest surprises are the people. Over the years, a strong network of engaged users and ambassadors has grown around Toolbox. As part of Erasmus+ job shadowing, we had the chance to meet the team from – an organization that supports NGOs, informal groups, and local governments in the Podlaskie region of eastern Poland. They facilitate collaboration, offer training and consulting, and promote cross-sector partnerships.

After many inspiring conversations, we’re sure of one thing: we want to co-develop the new version of Toolbox in both Polish and German. And we’re truly excited to have such wonderful partners like OWOP by our side on this journey! Thank you Kasia, Gosia and Patrycja for your visit! 🧡

We couldn't imagine a better (re)launch of Toolbox! 💙
12/03/2025

We couldn't imagine a better (re)launch of Toolbox! 💙

🛠️ Toolbox website is under construction! 🛠️https://civilsocietytoolbox.orgWhat does this mean for you?You can still acc...
05/02/2025

🛠️ Toolbox website is under construction! 🛠️
https://civilsocietytoolbox.org

What does this mean for you?
You can still access materials from the first edition of Toolbox, as long as you are an already registered user.

Meanwhile, we are fine-tuning Toolbox's content and functionality. Our redesigned site will soon offer access to new materials and features in English and Ukrainian.

Stay tuned!

Have we mentioned that the new version of Toolbox is already in Ukrainian?We proudly support the learning process on fac...
27/11/2024

Have we mentioned that the new version of Toolbox is already in Ukrainian?

We proudly support the learning process on facilitation and operational efficiency within Vidnova Education by Vidnova Program.

Why Toolbox? The world is growing more complex and constantly evolving, leading to a significant shift in the role of c...
30/10/2024

Why Toolbox?

The world is growing more complex and constantly evolving, leading to a significant shift in the role of civil society. The project “Tools for Citizens” was made to answer the emerging needs of civil society actors in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (in short, VUCA) world. There were two main questions that lead the way in tackling this issue:

❔ What does civil society organizations need in times of pressure, uncertainty and difficulties?

❔ What is a new and horizontal way of doing that?

A team of eight people and four organizations from Germany and Turkey got together and kicked off this journey in 2017 to develop an easily accessible toolkit to respond to the current challenges and needs of civil society in Turkey.

As one of the fundamental principles of the Toolbox is to utilize collective intelligence, the collaboration grew and expanded to Greece where there was an immense knowledge and good practices co-created through the difficult years in the Greek Crises. So Toolbox grew and thanks to this collective intelligence new methods, paths added over the years.

A heartfelt thank you to the organizations and actors who took this initiative and to anyone who contributed to growing of the Toolbox!
MitOst e.V. Anadolu Kültür SOCIUS Organisationsberatung gemeinnützige GmbH Robert Bosch Stiftung This Is Comm'on IIDebate - International Institute of Debate Інша Освіта / Insha Osvita

Work on the new version of Toolbox also includes various tests. We check the readability and functionality of the new ca...
25/10/2024

Work on the new version of Toolbox also includes various tests. We check the readability and functionality of the new cards, the precision of the instructions for individual methods, the comprehensibility of the visual symbols or the logic of the paths. We are collecting feedback immensely carefully to release the most complete and useful tool to support organizational development.

A few weeks ago, to familiarize the entire Commit team with the refreshed version of Toolbox, we invited to our office in Berlin friends from zusa and representatives of Kidults, responsible for the Toolbox redesign.

It was a great opportunity to test one of Toolbox's Paths in action in an expanded spectrum of functionality in a hybrid meeting which is one of the main highlights of the new design. We were delighted to receive many positive feedback and also realize where there is room for improvement. Last but not least, we have a concrete action plan which will boost our internal communication within the team thanks to this workshop.

Linnea Mühlenkamp, thank you for your thoughtful facilitation and for exploring Toolbox's goods together!

Photo credits: Agata Maziarz

[Edit]It’s been a while. The last post comes from 2022, but it doesn’t mean Toolbox wasn’t alive. It was quite the oppos...
18/10/2024

[Edit]

It’s been a while. The last post comes from 2022, but it doesn’t mean Toolbox wasn’t alive. It was quite the opposite.

Since 2022 Tools for Citizens became decentralized and operated more locally, with its community scattered around the globe.

In the meantime, we experienced a pandemic and continue to experience the effects of multiple wars and armed conflicts in different parts of the world, which influenced much of our operational focus and shifted attention to new challenges and ways of working in a state of crisis and emergency.

Internal changes, like organizational transformations at MitOst e.V. and founding Commit along with global occurrences, affected our thinking about Toolbox. At the same time, we were sure, this work couldn’t go in vain.

Former Commit colleague Maxim Smekhov, together with Marou Chatzopoulou from This Is Comm'on and the design agency kidults navigated Toolbox's change and discovered new waters by refreshing the toolkit and its visual identity. All the elements have a modern look, which brings it up not only on the visual level but primarily on the functionality.

We believe that the redesigned version is more accessible and more welcoming. For now, the content of the Toolbox remains the same, but we'll utilize a new visual language, elements and package, however, we plan to work on developing new paths corresponding with the changing world, as examples: system change and work in complexity; crisis, wars and catastrophes; mental health and resilience.

As another step into accessibility, along with the refreshed branding, we aim to develop a new website with a completely digital version of Toolbox in Miro boards.

The wave of news also includes a name adjustment: from now we call it Civil Society Toolbox or simply Toolbox.

And this is just the beginning. We can’t wait to share more. Stay tuned!

Civil Society Toolbox Team / Commit
Malwina, Agata, Ela, Nikita

In Marseille! The Civil Society Toolbox was present at the International Toolfair, organizat by Salto and the French Nat...
28/11/2022

In Marseille! The Civil Society Toolbox was present at the International Toolfair, organizat by Salto and the French National Agency.

We are introducing ourselves to the international community of youth workers and exploring our topic of capacity building as a means towards!! . .

In Marseille! The Civil Society Toolbox was present at the International Toolfair, organizat by Salto and the French Nat...
28/11/2022

In Marseille! The Civil Society Toolbox was present at the International Toolfair, organizat by Salto and the French National Agency.

We are introducing ourselves to the international community of youth workers and exploring our topic of capacity building as a means towards!! . .

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