About CSI
Holt Ruffin, Executive Director
Richard Upjohn, Associate Director
Civil Society International
2929 NE Blakeley Street, Seattle, WA 98105-3120
Voice: (206) 523-4755
Fax: (206) 523-1974
E-mail: [email protected]
CSI is an information clearinghouse focused on American voluntary organizations, nonprofits, and independent associations--our so-called "third sector"--and their collaborations with similar organizations overseas.
CSI publishes materials both in print and electronically and distributes them worldwide. A private, nonpartisan educational organization, incorporated in the state of Washington,
CSI is registered as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and receives the great majority of its funding from voluntary donations and foundation grants.
Focus
The current priority of CSI's activities is publicizing creative collaborations between voluntary organizations in the U.S. and the West and new third sector organizations emerging in the new independent states (NIS) that succeeded the collapse of the Soviet Union. The latter, which number in the thousands, are involved in myriad reform efforts affecting virtually every social institution: from law and education through culture and public health to small business and banking. Their efforts often succeed where government programs have failed. Such third sector projects are also frequently complementary to the business sector--as when programs to privatize real estate stimulate the development of mortgage financing, apartment management, or office remodeling industries. In short, the numerous collaborations which are occurring between grassroots, nongovernmental groups in Eurasia and voluntary organizations in the U.S. and other nations of the democratic world, are making fundamental contributions to the growth of stable, democratic, civil societies in this important world region.
CSI On-line
CSI maintains a large bi-lingual Web site, with servers in the U.S. and Russia. Quite simply the best place on the Web for information about civic developments in the NIS,
CSI's site contains more than 2,000 documents and links to other sites. Easily searchable by field of activity and type of resource,
CSI also collects news of upcoming grant and conference announcements as well as research on civil society in the U.S. and abroad. Several of
CSI's publications have been uploaded to the site.
CSI operates an electronic mailing list, CivilSoc, which links approximately 1,200 people around the world with an interest in the social and economic development of the nations of the former Soviet world. CivilSoc is one of the best and easiest ways to find out what is going on in the NIS. To join CivilSoc, just send us a message.
International Partnerships
On a limited basis, CSI forms organizational partnerships with third sector organizations whose goals and activities parallel ours. Our principal partnership at this time is with the Agency for Social Information (Agentsvo Sotsialnoi Informatsii), based in Moscow. Under this agreement,
CSI translates into English and redistributes excerpts from the ASI weekly electronic bulletin. We also archive selected stories from each Russian edition of the bulletin at our Web site, and act as agent for ASI in the U.S. ASI in turn will produce a Russian adaptation of The Post-Soviet Handbook in 1997, for distribution in the NIS.
CSI seeks partnerships with other organizations in the NIS which can multiply collaborations between third sector organizations, East and West.
Consulting and Training
CSI offers consulting and training on uses of the Internet for international project management and communication by third sector organizations. Past and present organizations
CSI has worked with as a consultant or trainer include the Seattle Public Library, the United States Information Agency, the National Council on Economic Education, Financial Services Volunteer Corps, Rural Development Institute, and others.
Internships
Contingent upon the availability of funding, CSI offers both summer and year-long internships to qualified college undergraduates and graduate students. Please contact us for further information on the current status of internships.
CSI is a private, nonpartisan educational organization, based in
Seattle, Washington, USA. It is registered as tax-exempt under
section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and receives
its funding from voluntary donations and foundation grants. The services we provide are free of charge.Donations to
CSI are tax deductible.
CSI's home page is located on servers of the Friends and Partners World Wide Web Site in Tennessee, USA and on the Friends and Partners Russian Mirror Site in Pushchino, Russia
This document is accessible from Civil Society International's home page at:
http://www.friends-partners.org/~ccsi/
Civil Society International
For more information contact:
[email protected]