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Description
Over the last 6 months of the COVID-19 we have witnessed how giving, mutual help and the infrastructure of civil society organizations are vital in times of a crisis. Over 43 million BGN have been donated for 3 months only for emergency actions. Hundreds of organizations and thousands of volunteers supported national and local authorities in their attempt to address the crisis. At the same time the upcoming months and even years will most probably pose a lot of challenges for both the society and NGOs. We do not have the answers to such questions as how vulnerable groups will be supported, how conditions will be created to overcome the epidemiological and economic risks, how human rights will be safeguarded, how the civil society will be preserved in its pursuit of public benefit. The project addresses one of the most urgent issues facing the civil sector, i.e. financial sustainability. This is a challenge facing most organizations including BDF. That is why BDF will gain greater expertise regarding giving services it provides to corporate and individual donors. With this project BDF will create conditions to improve its financial stability by providing structured giving service and contributing with its services to the development of the donors’ environment in the long run. The direct users of the project outcomes will be corporate and individual donors (BDF members and non-members), and the end beneficiaries will be the NGOs enjoying donations and the people whom they benefit.
Summary of project results
The main role of BDF is to work for the development of the philanthropy environment in Bulgaria. Part of its mission is to provide expert support specifically to donor organizations, through which BDF influenceс directly the capacity building of companies and foundations the increase of the capacity of their giving programs and initiatives that private donors - implement in the country. The project provided an opportunity for the BDF team to go through a methodological programme provided by external experts of analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of the services offered in this direction. The last two years, marked by the COVID-19 crisis in the social, educational and economic spheres, have been extremely challenging for civil society organizations in the country. On the one hand, philanthropy and volunteering have proven their role in supporting the most affected, but on the other - due to the extraordinary dynamics and long-term mobilization, fatigue and exhaustion have accumulated among both NGOs and donors.
The ACF project was fully utilized addressing that context. The BDF team went through a process of understanding the role of the organization as a consultant, competitively placed in the conditions of the country-specific market of services for the development of donors’ capacity. As a result of this overall process, expertly consulted by The Business Institute - a proven leader in this field, a model of basic services was developed that BDF has the potential to develop and offer, thus contributing to financial and organizational sustainability. The external expert provided a methodology through which the BDF team gained new knowledge and better skills for further upgrading and developing the services offered by the organization.
Through the development and implementation of the communication campaign - concept, approach, visions, planned in line with specific business models of communication, our team has started positioning BDF as a reliable and expert partner of socially responsible business.
Over 270 companies were reached through the project campaign, and the individual approach to presenting and discussing possible partnerships continues after the end of the project, as its products are essentially strategically important for the development of the organization.
The services upgraded thanks to the project can be seen here: https://www.dfbulgaria.org/za_bdf/uslugi_bdf/