41 Christopher Columbus Blvd., fl. 5
56-58 Krum Popov Blvd., Betahaus Sofia, fl. 2
1592 Sofia
Bulgaria
- Human rights
- Others
- Youth and education
We were founded on the belief that many people have innovative ideas on how to improve the lives of children and youth, want to start a social enterprise to achieve their vision, but lack the funds, skills and advisors, and network to really succeed.
Our Mission is to find outstanding social entrepreneurs and help them develop innovations that improve children's lives on a big scale.
Our objectves are:
- to find outsanting social entreprenerus which are capable of solving pressing social problems for children and youth in an effective and sustainable way.
- To help the children in Bulgaria not with one-time charity aid, but with systematic support and acapicty building for social initiatives.
- To stimulate and develop social innovations in different fields, connceted with the children in Bulgaria.
Since 2014 we've been organising in partnership with Nova Broadcasting Group the contest for social entrepreneurs PROMYANATA (Game Changers). We have an 8 stage selection process, where employees of Nova Broadcasting Groups and Reach for Change Global, independent experts, children and the general public choose between 3 and 5 social entrepreneurs annually. They enter our Incubation program where at least for one year they receive funding, business development, media support, network and access to contacts. As part of the selection process we organise as well an Accelerator for social entrepreneurs - a three months-long free educational program which helps them improve and test their projects. In 2016 the 9 projects in our Incubator supported over 10 000 children in Bulgaria. You can learn more about them at: www.nova.bg/promyanata/
We will organise for the second time The Academy for Social Entrepreneurship together with the Business Institute. The Academy is the first of it's kind educational program in Bulgaria. It offers practical knowledge how to achieve social effect and build a sustainable financial model of your organisation at the same time. We had 58 participants and 44 experts and mentors both from the business and from the social sector in the first edition. All the participants received a scholarship discount with the support of The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and Nova Broadcasting Group, and two of the participants entered with a special scholarship which they received from us at the Sofia Municipality Innovation Hackaton. You can learn more about the Academy at www.se-academy.bg
Since 2016 we've been partnering ING Bank Bulgaria in their Social Innovation Fund. The Fund provides financial grants and business mentorship for social entrepreneurs. Our foundation assists ING with the selection of the project, them management of the funds and with trainings for the employees of the bank who become mentors of the entrepreneurs.
In 2015 and 2016 we organised a series of public events and conferences, which presented good examples for social entrepreneurship, supported by Reach for Change in Bulgaria and worldwide.
In 2017 we'll be partnering TOM (Tikkun Olam Makers) Bulgaria - a global movement of communities connecting makers, designers, developers and engineers with people with disabilities (aka - 'Need-Knowers') to develop technological solutions for everyday challenges. We'll be informing the participants about the possibilities of social entrepreneurship and providing a scholarship for a few selected projects for the Academy for Social Entrepreneurship.
Foundation the Change is one of the lead organisations in the field of social entrepreneurship in Bulgaria which combines the passion of the social sector with the smartness of the business sector. It is a new instrument that can give further power and sustainability of ideas coming from the civil society.
As such we have good partnership with both the social and the business sector and public institutions in Bulgaria. We have a varied portfolio and a community of social entrepreneurs - people and organisations who we support, who are developing bottom-up approaches to solving pressing social issues for children. We can serve as a liaison between our contact and partners and the Network.
We can provide access to international knowledge and methodology for social entrepreneurship as well as contacts to the other 17 organisations worldwide in the network of Reach for Change and the projects they support.
We believe in the power of the right idea in the hands of the right individual. We believe that radical social solutions will come from brave entrepreneurs living close to the challenges that they are trying to solve. We believe that change is possible trough the bottom-up approach and thus we support the development of civil organisations with innovative ideas and dedicated teams.
We believe in the power of networks and the possibility to share know how and visions for positive social change, and we create a community of shared values and aspirations.
As ALF network is working on bringing together and strengthening civil society working for a common future for the region, we think that our missions and approach match and that we can achieve a bigger social impact together - by joining the ALF network. We wish to search for partners with common vision and apply for common projects among the network. We wish to make use of the knowledge from the researches and good practices that ALF network promotes.