The same support tasks appear again and again.
Voluntary organisations use their resources to create community, carry out work and contribute to society. At the same time, a well-functioning organisation requires support work: people need to be organised, information and finances managed, requirements met and work documented.
When many people solve the same needs alone, time and expertise are taken from the tasks the organisations actually exist to do. Friverk is founded on the idea that experience can be shared and good solutions made available to more people.
A workshop for the voluntary sector.
A workshop is not there for the sake of its tools. Some things need to be built, some repaired and some improved. Some things already exist, but need adapting or making available. And sometimes collaboration is the best solution.
Friverk can develop digital products, but also methods, expertise, documentation, shared resources and collaboration. We will not build something new simply because it is possible, and we do not need to own the solution when a problem is already well solved.
The voluntary sector is the starting point.
When Friverk develops something, it begins with the needs of voluntary and nonprofit activity. When good solutions exist, they should be used. Where there are genuine gaps, Friverk can contribute by building, improving, integrating or collaborating.
Some of the same solutions may also be useful to paying businesses. Income can then strengthen continued development, operations and availability for the voluntary sector, without moving the product direction away from its purpose.
People and expertise belong in the workshop.
Friverk should be a community where people contribute time, knowledge, experience and commitment. There should be room to learn from one another, develop expertise and gain experience through real tasks and socially useful needs.
People with long experience should be able to work alongside people who are still learning. In this way, Friverk can both develop useful solutions and help more people use their knowledge for something worthwhile.
Why is it called Friverk?
- Fri
- Points to volunteering and voluntary engagement, but also to independence and room for action. Friverk should be able to work for its purpose without being owned by or bound to particular interests.
- Verk
- Points to work, development and what is created. It points to the workshop, but also to a work: something that is built and can endure.
Together, the name expresses the ambition of a workshop for the voluntary sector.
Economy and capacity are means, not the purpose.
Nonprofit does not mean that Friverk should be small, amateur or temporary. The organisation should be able to build the finances, expertise and capacity needed to create lasting value. Assets and surplus must be used to strengthen the purpose, not for private return.
Friverk must be independent of founders, members, political parties, commercial actors, public authorities and other organisations. We can collaborate widely, but the purpose must not be subordinated to others' particular interests.
The ambition is to build an institution that can outlast founders, products and today's technologies.
The purpose
“Friverk's purpose is to strengthen voluntary organisations and other nonprofit actors through development, innovation and practical solutions, with particular emphasis on activity that promotes nonprofit and socially beneficial purposes.”