The Freshwater Institute, a new hub for human rights activists and civil society leaders in East Asia, hosted its first major event May 24-27 in Taipei. The Civil Society Innovation (CSI) Lab brought together 23 civil society leaders from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China to build community and introduce methodologies for developing new fundraising and business approaches. 

CSI Lab participants, who were selected from a competitive application process, represent a diverse group of grassroots civil society organizations working on freedom of expression, access to information, access to justice, environmental rights, labor rights, LGBT and gender equality, civic participation, and democratic resilience.*  

The CSI Lab kicked off with a nature walk in the grasslands of Yangmingshan National Park where participants got to know each other and share their challenges and aspirations. 

The following days featured business development workshops at the Chang-Fo Chuan Human Rights Center at Soochow University. Participants refined their organizations’ theories of change and discussed the challenges of fundraising in politically restricted contexts. With guidance from Freshwater co-directors Shawn Shieh and Ed Rekosh, they developed ideas for business models to generate revenue in support of their missions, taking inspiration from the dozens of innovative funding ideas on Rights CoLab’s Mapping Civil Society Innovation project. Lab members also heard from nonprofits such as Tò-uat Books, which is a hybrid social enterprise, on the challenges and rewards of developing membership programs and other revenue generation approaches.

“We shouldn’t avoid talking about money—we need to lean into it, because local business models give our organizations greater independence.”—CSI Lab member

The CSI Lab ended with a trip to the National Human Rights Museum, located in a former prison complex that held many political prisoners during the period from 1949 to the late 1980s  known as the White Terror.

At Rights CoLab and Social Innovations Advisory, the founding organizations of the Freshwater Institute, we are grateful for the enthusiastic participation and insights of the first CSI Lab cohort. In addition to developing exciting business ideas, the participants provided valuable feedback which will help us improve the next CSI Lab in 2024.

Freshwater Institute’s next offering will be the Human Rights Accelerator Program, a nine-month incubator program supporting civil society leaders to implement their business prototypes. We look forward to inviting CSI Lab participants and others to apply to the first Accelerator which will kick off in September 2023.

* Civil society organizations represented by the first CSI Lab cohort include: Lady Liberty Hong Kong, FLUID Hong Kong, Taiwan Labor Front, FLOW HK, Tainan Sprout, Tò-uat Books, Judicial Reform Foundation, Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Rights, Open Culture Foundation, and 29 Principles.

思流學院台灣公民社會創新實驗室報告

東亞人權活動倡議者和公民社會領袖的新中心思流學院，5月24日至27日在台北首次舉辦大型活動——公民社會創新實驗室，聚集了23位來自香港、台灣和中國的公民社會領袖攜手建立社群，並引介開發募款和商業模式的新方法。

創新實驗室的活動始於陽明山國家公園的踏青，藉此讓參與者認識彼此並分享其面臨的挑戰和期望。

接下來的幾天，創新實驗室於東吳大學張佛泉人權研究中心舉辦商業發展研討會，參與者修改其組織的改變理論，並討論在政治受限的環境中募款的困難。在思流學院共同主持人謝世宏和Ed Rekosh的指導下，參與者受到Rights CoLab的公民社會創新地圖中數十種創新募款想法的啟發，提出了適合其組織的商業模式構想，以創造支持其使命的收入來源，非營利組織如左轉有書等社會企業也分享了開發會員計劃和其他收入來源的挑戰和收穫。

創新實驗室三天的活動以參觀國家人權博物館作結，此博物館的前身為監獄，曾於1949年至1980年代末期（即白色恐怖時期）關押過許多政治犯。

思流學院的創辦組織Rights CoLab和Social Innovations Advisory很感謝公民社會創新實驗室全體參與者熱情投入並提出見解，除了開發令人興奮的商業構想外，參與者還提供了寶貴的意見回饋，有助於我們改善讓下一屆公民社會創新實驗室更加圓滿。

思流學院的下一個計劃是人權加速器，這是一個為期九個月的孵化器計劃，旨在支持公民社會領袖執行其商業原型。我們期待邀請公民社會創新實驗室的參與者和其他有興趣的公民組織申請第一屆加速器企劃，該計劃預計於2023年9月啟動。

* 第一屆公民創新實驗室參與組織：香港民主女神、流性香港、臺灣勞工陣線、如水FLOW HK、台南新芽、左轉有書、民間司法改革基金會、台灣伴侶權益推動聯盟、開放文化基金會以及 29 原則