The special award of UniCredit Foundation was bestowed on one of the last year’s winners

Three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) shared the prize pool of BGN 30,000 in the competition for the best business plan of an NGO, organized by the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law Foundation, the Programme and Analytical Centre for European Law (PACEL) Foundation and UniCredit Foundation with the support of America for Bulgaria Foundation within the scope of the project “Efficient approaches towards NGO sustainability”.

The official award ceremony took place on February 20th at Sofia Grand Hotel and it gathered together public figures, businessmen, civil sector and media representatives.

Twenty non-governmental organizations applied with their business plans in this year’s edition of the competition. Out of those 20 applicants, 8 finalists were shortlisted to compete for the awards. “It was a very difficult task to shortlist the finalists. So far, we had always selected seven finalists, which turned out impossible this year.” – shared Lyuben Panov, programme director of the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law. The jury, consisting of representatives of America for Bulgaria Foundation, UniCredit Bulbank AD, Srednogorie Med Industrial Cluster, Musala Soft AD, Microfond AD, The Capital newspaper, Yatoto.com, had the uneasy task to select the top three business ideas.

The big prize – a cheque worth BGN 12 000 went to Transformatori Association, Sofia for the idea VELOVRAZ – offering convenient and interesting solutions for parking bicycles in private properties and public spaces. “I am very grateful for the existence of this initiative and I would like to thank all those people who are working for it! We, the people of Transformatori, believe in the principles of competition. We are happy to see so many organizations among the finalists who have managed to attract attention on their causes and ideas” – shared Delcho Delchev, one of the leaders of Transformatori. The award was handed by Mr Levon Hampatzoumian – Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit Bulbank, who stated that the bank intends to support further the social entrepreneurship programme. “Winners are all who participated in the trainings, because they have demonstrated entrepreneurship. We will continue supporting such initiatives, because we believe that many small steps will improve our environment”, said Mr Hampartzoumian.

The second prize – a cheque for BGN 9 000 went to the idea for an all year round greenhouse for production of ecologically clean vegetables, which will employ disadvantaged people – an idea by Protection, Love and Faith Association, Targovishte. The cheque was handed by Mrs Elena Marinova from Musala Soft AD.

A cheque for BGN 9 000 was handed by the executive director of America for Bulgaria Foundation, Mrs Desislava Tolyokova, to Hug me Foundation, Sofia for their project for art workshops with the involvement of well-established and popular artists, children and adolescents from care institutions, while children of solvent parents can participate for a fee.

This year’s edition had one more additional accent. In January 2014 UniCredit Bulbank presented to all its employees the business ideas of the three winners in the last year’s competition – the summer training programme of Iliev Dance Art Foundation, the soap workshop HOPeSOAP of the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion, and the initiative “Nature in hand”– a classroom in the open organized by the Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds. The result from the voting by the employees determined the prize of EUR 5000, provided by UniCredit Foundation, to go to the soap workshop of the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion. The cheque was handed by Mr Dimitar Penkov, Head of Small and Medium Enterprises Unit of UniCredit Bulbank.

The competition for the best business plan is carried out for the third time. Its aim is to encourage non-governmental organizations to develop a commercial activity linked to their mission statement, through which to get funds for the accomplishment of their main tasks.

The next edition of the competition will start in the summer of 2014 and will have several stages. At the first stage organizations will participate in two trainings, where they will receive knowledge and guidance on how to conduct a commercial activity in support of their mission and what is important for the business idea to succeed. The second part of the programme is development of business plans by the participants in the training within a period of three months. The third part is the competition for the best business plan, in which an independent jury determines the three winners.

More information for clients:

UniCredit Bulbank, Call Centre

Phone: 0700 1 84 84

More information for media:

UniCredit Bulbank, Identity & Communications Department

Viktoria Blajeva, Phone: + 359 2 9264 993, wjlj/ebwjepwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Ekaterina Ancheva, Phone: + 359 2 9264 963, flbufsjob/bodifwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Magdalena Ivanova, Phone: + 359 2 9232 528, nbhebmfob/jwbopwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch