president of Board, Bilgoraj Community Foundation, Federation of Polish CFs, Bilgoraj, Poland , Zagreb, Croatia, E-mail: irena@lbl.pl, LinkedIn profile of Irena Gadaj

Your experience with the CFs and your professional relevance to the theme of CFs:

• I was active in the process of creating community foundation in Poland since 1998. I am cofounder of Bilgoraj CF, and president of Board (on a voluntary bases), I was involved in the process of creating the Federation of Polish CFs, since 2011 I am president of Board.
• I am a member of the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network.
• I am very interested in local development process (information, consultancy, trainings, loans for start up, guarantee funds, donations for SME) – I am the president of Board the Bilgoraj Regional Development Agency (economic development of local SME).
• I am interested in CF development – fundraising methods, cooperation with business, local government and local NGO, social enterprise, CF and local development.

Key characteristics and information about the CFs and community philanthropy in your country:

The first CF in Poland was created in 1998. Now we have in Poland 20-40 Community Foundations and similar organizations. Polish CF are small organizations: with small endowment (2,5.000 – 250.000 USD), not large annual budget (10.000 – 150.000 USD), operating mainly on a voluntary basis (some of CF employ 1/2 – 4 staff) . In the Federation of Community Foundations we have 11 members. More information www.ffl.org.pl