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Community Foundations in Bulgaria

Monika Pisankaneva, Program OfficerSupporting the Growth of Community Foundations in Bulgaria

Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe

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CF Current Situation

• Ten CFs working in 10 different communities (serving a municipality or a region);

• CFs operate entirely on pass-through funds, no endowment building so far;

• Named funds (donor-advised, field-of-interest or designated funds);

• Most CFs make grants, but also implement projects.

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CF Association

• Association of Community Foundations in Bulgaria legally registered in mid-2005;

• Today it has 10 members;• Has established minimum standards for

community foundation, now working to make them recognized by national government;

• Organizing “Donor of the Year to CFs” national competition to acknowledge CF most supportive donors;

• Organizing quarterly exchange meetings for the CFs, maintaining a resource library, etc.

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CF Non-grantmaking Roles

• Bulgarian CFs are very good bridge-builders between various stakeholders (unite rep’s of local government, business and third sector from inception);

• Catalysts of civic participation (community forums);

• Social entrepreneurs (invest in innovative projects, such as social enterprise shop, video-information center on NGO activities, etc.)

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Community Fund ChepelarePublic Forum, April 2002

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Community Fund Gabrovo Public Fundraising Campaign, May 2003

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Challenges to CF Sustainability

• Endowment building: is it feasible in the Bulgarian environment?

• Only 2 national-level foundations in Bulgaria have some form of endowment;

• NGO legislation does not regulate endowments (consequently foundations are not striving to build such);

• Local donors prefer to see immediate results;• Amounts accumulated in cash by individual CFs are not

that big (up to Euro 50,000 per year for the most successful ones) – how much is needed to make a meaningful investment?

• Knowledge about the opportunities for endowment building under the current legal framework and the current market conditions is limited in the foundation sector.

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CFs use some traditional forms of accumulating donations:

Community Fund Blagoevgrad Christmas Fundraising Reception 2005

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But they also use some innovative forms of earning income:

CF Pazardjik manages a video-information center, which broadcasts paid ads of companies and free-of-charge ads of NGOs

• Picture of the video wall

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CEE Trust Supporting the Growth of Community Foundations in Bulgaria Program

Objective• Expand and diversify CF grantmaking by provision

of matching grants to funds raised locally

Eligible CFs• The 10 members of the Association of Community

Foundations in Bulgaria, which meet minimum standards for community foundation

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Areas of grantmaking of the Bulgarian CFs

• Education: Improving school and kindergarten environment for study and play;

• Children and youth: projects for talented children, prevention of addictions programs, students free-time programs;

• Improving the living environment: beautification of neighborhoods, increasing safety, etc;

• Health-care: projects in partnership with public hospitals (purchase of equipment, campaigns for breast cancer prevention, etc.);

• Sport and tourism: improving sports infrastructure for public use, trainings for villagers who wish to develop alternative tourism, etc.

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New computers for schools in Stara Zagora (CF Stara Zagora grants to schools)

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New facilities in the public library of Stara Zagora (CF St. Zagora grant to a local NGO)

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Improved conditions for tourism in Bogutevo (Chepelare CF grant to local initiative group)

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Sustainability Strategy

• CF Association (Association of Community Foundations in Bulgaria) creating contacts with national-level donors and government;

• Community Foundations diversifying their funding base (donations of cash and real estate, for-profit activities, grants for re-granting);

• Exchange of experience and learning from best practices on endowment building in the region of CEE.