CF Practice Lab

Welcome to the www.cfpracticelab.org  – the space for the community of CF learners, practitioners and researchers that participated in the CF Study Trip Project, or in the learning events of the European Community Foundation Initiative (ECFI).

If you want to use the resources offered on this site (materials from the study trip, reflection papers or other resources)  please register to the site as it is a non-public space and we want to keep it so for the time being. By signing-in, you get the full access to all resources at the site.

You can find here various resources on community foundations in Central and Eastern Europe related to the series  Study Trips to Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia during 2010 – 2014 held as a part of the C.S.Mott Foundation community foundation learning initiative and also Germany, England and Scotland as a part of the ECFI (European Community Foundation Initiative).

You can use the blogging platform to post your opinions, views, and ideas relevant to the community foundation practice. The site allows us, the CF practitioners and CF support organizations to share news about relevant events in the field. More information about members registered to this site (their backgrounds and interests) can be found in the Members section.

For more information about this site contact  Boris Strečanský, Center for Philanthropy/ECFI, boris@communityfoundations.eu

VERA DAKOVA, Program Officer, C. S. Mott Foundation, London, UK, E-mail: vdakova@mott.org, Web: C. S. Mott Foundation
DEJAN PERIC, Executive director, :Step Forward CF, Zajecar, Serbia, dejan.peric@fondacijaiskorak.rs, www.fondacijaiskorak.rs
ALINA PORUMB, Community Foundations Program Director, Association for Community Relations (ARC), Cluj Napoca, Romania
ANASTASIIA POPSUI, Director, Community Foundation of Irpin Region, Irpin, Ukraine, irpin.community@gmail.com, www.irpin-fd.org.ua
ANETA KAPEL, Program coordinator, Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland, Warsaw, Poland
BEATA HIRT, Current position: director, Healthy City Community Foundation, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, bhirt@knzm.sk
BORIS STREČANSKÝ, Senior Expert, Center for Philanthropy, Bratislava, Slovakia, strecansky@changenet.sk, www.cpf.sk
BRANKA KASELJ, director, Community Foundation Slagalica, Osijek, Croatia, www.zaklada-slagalica.hr
DRAGO VRUČINIĆ, Director, Foundation ZAMAH, Zagreb, Croatia, zamah@zamah.hr, www.zamah.hr
HARALAN ALEXANDROV, researcher, lecturer, consultant, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria
IDA ADOLFOVÁ, Financial and Program Manager, Komunitná nadácia Zdravé mesto, Slovakia, adolfova@knzm.sk, www.knzm.sk
IRENA GADAJ, president of Board Bilgoraj Community Foundation + Federation of Polish CFs, Bilgoraj, Poland, irena@lbl.pl, www.flzb.lbl.pl, www.ffl.org.pl
ISMET SOKOLJANIN, Grant Program Coordinator, Tuzla Community Foundation, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, www.fondacijatz.org, ismet@fondacijatz.org
IWONA OLKOWICZ, Program Coordinator, Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland, Warsaw, Poland, iwonao@filantropia.org.pl
JOZEF JARINA, executive director, Bardejov Community Foundation, Bardejov, Slovakia, knbj@bardejov.sk, www.knbj.sk
JIRI BARTA, Executive Director, Nadace VIA, Prague, Czech Republic, www.nadacevia.cz
JULIA SZANTON, Consultant, Oberhoffen-les-Wissembourg, France, juliaszanton@yahoo.com
MACIEJ MULAWA, Director of office, Federation of Community, Fundations in Poland, Biłgoraj, Poland, ffl@ffl.org.pl
MIHAELA GIURGIU, Community Foundations, Program Coordinator, Association for Community Relations (ARC), Cluj Napoca, Romania
MONIKA PISANKANEVA, Philanthropy Development Manager, Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation, Sofia, Bulgaria
NICK DEYCHAKIWSKY, Program Officer, C. S. Mott Foundation, Flint, USA, nick@mott.org
OKSANA RUDA, program Director, ISAR Ednannia, Kyiv, Ukraine, ruda@isar.net.ua
ÖZNUR AKKAYA, Secretary General, Bolu Community Foundation, BOLU, Türkiye, o.akkaya@bbv.org.tr, www.bbv.org.tr
SHAUN SAMUELS, Managing Director, Technical Support and Dialogue Platform (TSDP), Johannesburg, South Africa, shaun.samuel@iafrica.com, tsdp.co.za
SIMONA CRISTINA ȘERBAN, Executive Director; President of the Board of Directors, Cluj Community Foundation; Romanian Federation of Community Foundations, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, simona.serban@fundatiacomunitaracluj.ro, www.fundatiacomunitaracluj.ro, www.ffcr.ro
SVITLANA SUPRUN, consultant, Mott Foundation, Kyiv, Ukraine, suprun.svitlana@gmail.com
SCSAURSZKI TAMÁS, member, Civitalis Association, Budapest, Hungary, scsaurszki.tamas@gmail.com
TOMAS KREJCI, Executive Director, Usti Community Foundation, Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic, tomas@komunitninadace.cz
VADIM SAMORODOV, Program Director, the Ladoga Foundation, Moscow, Russia, www.fondladoga.ru, vsamorodov@fondladoga.ru
VALENTIN BORISOV, Chairman of the board, Community Fund Ruse foundation, Ruse, Bulgaria, valentin.borisov@cfruse.org, www.cfruse.org
CIPRIAN CIOCAN, Sibiu Community Foundation, Sibiu, Romania, ciprian.ciocan@fundatiacomunitarasibiu.ro, www.fundatiacomunitarasibiu.ro
ILIA MIHOV, Burgas Community Foundation, Burgas, Bulgaria, ilia_mihov@yahoo.co.uk
JURAJ MESIK, Healthy City Community Foundation, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, mesik@changenet.sk
AYSEGUL EKMEKCI, Project Specialist, Third Sector Foundation of Turkey, Turkey, aysegul@tusev.org.tr
VASYL BILUSCHAK, Community Foundation of Dolyna, Ukraine, E-mail: communityfundofdolyna@gmail.com
VIACHESLAV BAKHMIN, Mott Foundation, Russia, E-mail: vbakhmin@yandex.ru
JUDIT FLEISCHER, CF Ferencvaros/Hungarian CF movem., Hungary, E-mail: frocsi@gmail.com
vera dejan alina anastasiija aneta beata boris branka drago haralan ida irena ismet iwona jozef jiri julia maciej mihaela monika nick oksana oznur shaun simona svitlana scsaurszki tomas vadim valentin ciprian ilia juraj aysegul vasyl viacheslav judit

For more information on the cfpracticelab.org contact Boris Strečanský, Center for Philanthropy, strecansky@changenet.sk,

 

Roll-up Conference  rollup-cfpracticelab-01

 

About CF Study Trips

The Study Trip to Slovak CFs in September 2014 was the fifth study visit in a row. Preceding visits were paid to CFs in Bulgaria (2010), Czech Republic (2011), Poland (2012) and Romania (2013).

The concept of CF Study Trip consists of combination of several elements:

  • learners who are typically practitioners from the CF related areas (CF directors, Board members, CF association and CF support organization professionals) or theorists and academics interested in issues of community philanthropy
  • community foundations that hosts the group of learners in their communities
  • one week of intensive interaction, observation and conversation among those mentioned above.

The origins of the idea to organize annual CF study trips to different countries in Central and Eastern Europe (so far) where CFs have grown in last two decades can be found in the shared awareness that towards the end of the first decade of 2000 when there has been a vacant regional space (V4 or CIS or Balkans) for sharing and reflecting different developments in this field.

After phasing out of Community Philanthropy Initiative (CPI) meetings hosted by the EFC (European Foundation Center), most of the networking and sharing among practitioners was taking place ad-hoc or on a national, or, if at all, on a sub-regional basis. The impetus for starting this process was given by the Mott Foundation and the Association of Bulgarian CFs. The number and composition of participants proved validity of the concept and visits organized so far. Thus in the past five years, the Mott Foundation funded and facilitated these study trips – in cooperation with the Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation and the Association of Bulgarian Community Foundations in 2010, together with the Czech Association of Community Foundations in 2011, with the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland and the Polish Federation of Community Foundations in 2012, with the Association for Community Relations and the Romanian Federation of Community Foundations in 2013, and with the Center for Philanthropy and the Slovak Association of Community Foundations in 2014.

The diversity of countries in Europe, different tempos and approaches of support and development of CFs and the very uniqueness of each community in which CFs have been established, only emphasized a need to stop and reflect of what is it that we see, that we do and that happens around us in order to be able to make more informed and hopefully better decisions in our work. Be it a work for a CF, CF Association, CF Support organization or a donor interested in CFs.

Last but not least, CFs represent a real-life social laboratory of community transformation that deserves reflection by peer practitioners and academic researchers. That is the reason why study trips from early on included participants whose interest and roles were research based.

And it is the combination of the practitioners’ experience with the experience of experts that has been a unique feature of the Study visits so far and their added value to participants.

The study visits have been crafted on the go as an open-end and open-process endeavor that has one common denominator: a genuine interest of their participants to share and to reflect.

The participants include CF practitioners from existing CFs and promising CF initiatives, CF support organizations, national CF associations and federations, experts and researchers interested in issues such as the community cohesion and social capital, and donors supporting community philanthropy.