According to us, Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation (WCIF), the social responsibility is both the responsibility to the society of everyone of us as well as of all the companies, operating in Bulgaria.
The individual social responsibility includes the engagement of each person towards the community where he lives, which can be expressed as an interest towards what’s happening in the community, as well as in the active participation in the solving of some of the local problems.
Under community we understand the village, the small town or the residential complex in the big city, where lives everyone of us. Each community lives its own life that undergoes a process of development all the time. And everyone of us could take part in that development in different ways, for example by taking part in cleaning of the street on which he lives, by taking part in organization of an event, connected with the history of the town or the village or by rendering social services to children without parents or elderly people.
The individual social responsibility also could be expressed in making donations for significant for the society causes – social, cultural or ecological. There are many ways of donating, as for example donating of goods or donating money through a bank account or online. WCIF tries to contribute to development of durable philanthropic attitudes in Bulgaria through establishment of “Zaedno” award for best fundraising campaign and by creating of the first Bulgarian website for online donations www.zaedno.bg. Through Zaedno.bg WCIF tries to facilitate the donors by offering them a possibility to donate fast and easily online. Zaedno.bg also gives an opportunity to the donors to choose the cause they would like to support, by showing them different charity campaigns, gathered on one place.
Alongside with encouraging of the individual social responsibility, WCIF works actively for development of corporate social responsibility in Bulgaria. Corporate social responsibility includes care for the company’s employees as well as engagement to the problems of ecology and the community in which the company operates. The biggest success of WCIF in that direction is establishment of “Social responsibility of First Investment Bank” fund together with First Investment Bank.
“Social responsibility of First Investment Bank” fund was established through a contract signed between Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation and First investment bank in November 2004.
The fund’s establishment is an extremely big break and precedence in the relations between Bulgarian corporate business and the non-governmental sector in Bulgaria. For the first time a Bulgarian bank puts a leading Bulgarian NGO in charge of a special financial fund. The money from the fund are distributed on a tender principle in order sustainable results to be achieved.
The fund is devoted to the problems of adaptation and preparation for independent life of children from orphanages in Bulgaria. For more information about the fund, look here.