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Description
Vacaresti Natural Park Association, is the founder and the former administrator of the Vacaresti Natural Park. In order to continue following its vision and to offer viable programs addressed to the local community, the applicant needs to consolidate its capacity to develop and maintain minimum two financing sources coming from: 1. Individual donations through the fundraising campaign “the city’s life factory” and 2. Private companies’ CSR programs. The project joins the priority “Environment and climate change”, creates indirect benefits for about 10000 people and targets 550 individuals directly involved in project’s activities (community’s members, representatives of the companies, employees of the applicant). Through this project, we propose a new involvement concept, focusing on ecosystem services, and it builds upon the idea of a reasonable exchange between nature and community: the community receives benefits from nature and it gets involved, at its turn, in the protection and conservation of nature. The details of this campaign will be provided by the fundraising strategy, to be developed within the project. The campaign will be two folded: crowdfunding (individual donations through various mechanisms) and financial support on behalf of private companies. It will propose for both categories of target groups various methods for involvement in the conservation of the protected area, such as: volunteering events, species monitoring with specialists, citizens’ science activities, planting trees. The project builds upon actions and programs already initiated by the applicant and its objectives fits into the applicant’s plan to activate the local community in the interest of the protected area.
Summary of project results
The Văcărești Natural Park Association is undergoing a strategic reorganization, both in terms of its action strategy and internal organization. This process was initiated in 2022 due to internal considerations (ten years since its establishment, achievement of strategic objectives) as well as external ones: the need to broaden its scope of action from Văcărești Natural Park to encompass all aspects of urban biodiversity.
The “City’s Factory of Life” project aimed to enhance APNV’s fundraising capacity through activities such as internal organization, training, and public communication to diversify financial resources. As part of this effort, the association developed a dedicated Fundraising Department, designed a comprehensive Funding Strategy, and successfully implemented it, securing financial support from various sources, including individual donors and major corporate sponsors.
At the end of the project, APNV has established the mechanisms needed to engage effectively with individual donors, supported by a well-defined strategy, specialized personnel, established contacts, and communication tools, while also demonstrating the ability to attract resources from diverse channels.
The most significant outcome of the project is the acquisition of funding sources to support the implementation of the association''s new vision: the conservation and promotion of the city’s wildlife areas.