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Description
The project is targeted at solving the main issue in the non-profit sector, namely the lack of diverse and permanent sources of financing for the implementation of the core activity of organizations. As of June 2019, the number of registered public-interest non-profit organizations in Bulgaria has been more than 15 200 (Source: Central Register of Non-profit Legal Entities). Open Society Institute- Sofia report from 2017 shows that most active organizations in Bulgaria are small and have limited financing. The project aims at creating a platform to offer vacant and underused premises to non-governmental organizations (conference halls, offices and other premises), that will be rented for the organization of events, training sessions or hourly offices. This will provide organizations with an additional source of financial revenues and will include them in the shared economy. The main result of the project will be an online platform for provision of workspaces by NGOs. The target group are active non-profit organizations in Bulgaria which have inactively used and vacant workspaces for events and offices. The direct users will be NGOs which will be able to diversify their sources of financing by joing the sector of shared economy and meeting the growing demand for shared spaces and unconventional venues for events.
Summary of project results
The goal of the project was to create a platform (Urbanians.net) to offer free and inactively used spaces of civil society organizations (e.g., halls, offices and other spaces) to be rented out for events, trainings or as co-working offices. This has the potential to provide organizations with an additional source of financial income and to include them in the shared economy by strengthening contacts between various civil society organizations in Bulgaria. The timing of the project coincided with the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the anti-epidemic measures introduced by the authorities, live events were restricted for a long period of time. This drastically affected the demand for event spaces, which virtually dropped to zero. Right after the platform''s launch, the physical events were completely banned, and private gatherings were restricted to a maximum of 15 participants. Even after the easing of measures, this market is far from recovering and the number of live events is very scarce. All this reflected on the interest in the platform. Nevertheless, with targeted communication to potential users, the project team managed to attract 26 organizations that registered their spaces.
The platform already has its users who actively share information in their circles. The project supported by Active Citizens Fund is a first step in the life of the platform. We believe that the interest in it will grow substantially with the recovery of the event market in the country. If the situation in the country goes back to normal, by the end of 2021 the number of users of the platform could at least double.