The Foundation for Partnership and Civil Society Development

We have completed programe "Leave a good trace"

In the past three months, we had the honor of participating in the "Leave a Good Trace" program, which has been running for the fourth consecutive year, organized by Erste Bank and its partners – Zaklada Solidarna, Social Prudence Consulting, Panda Communications, and Erste Foundation.

Through training and mentorship support, we gained valuable knowledge about developing social business models and fundraising strategies, particularly crowdfunding campaigns. The program provided us with an opportunity to network with other nonprofit organizations and experts from various sectors, and we would especially highlight the interactive online workshops that encouraged us to reflect on our programs and goals.

One of the most important aspects of the program was the exercise of pitching our ideas to potential donors. Through practical exercises and feedback from mentors, we learned how to effectively present the results of our work, mission, and ongoing projects in just 5 minutes. This exercise forced us to step out of our "comfort zone" and proved to be an excellent opportunity for professional development. The pitch session, or the program finale, took place on December 6 at the Kaptol Center in Zagreb, where 11 participants (nonprofit organizations) gathered. Each organization prepared a 5-minute pitch and presentation.

We pitched the idea of the "Beacon for Unity" project, which we have been working on for years, and achieved a high 5th place!

"Our project is the Beacon for Unity. We are pitching for the installation of a beacon on the Pula promenade, which will actually be our tool for raising donations for associations in Istria. We are very pleased and honored to have been part of this training, and it will mean a lot to us. We are engaged in fundraising and want to expand and further improve it. This was a new and interesting experience for us. We are excited to see what others have prepared, and this is a great opportunity for networking and meeting new people, so thank you to Erste Bank."

The top three organizations received additional individual mentorship and organizational support for implementing their winning campaigns, each valued at 9,000 euros from Erste Foundation.

The winners are:

• "POGLED" – Association for Autism, Nedelišće
• "BIOTEKA" – Association for the Promotion of Biology and Related Sciences, Zagreb
• "PAN" – Association for the Protection of the Environment and Nature, Karlovac

Additionally, there were extra awards: the Audience Award went to the Humanitarian Association Kompići (donation of 1,500 euros from Erste Bank) and the Association for Support and Assistance to Parents of Children with Developmental Disabilities and Their Families "Who is Afraid of Tomorrow", Vukovar (donation of 500 euros from Erste Bank).

We would like to thank Erste Bank and its partners for selecting our organization to participate, for the knowledge shared, the new experience, and, of course, congratulations to the winners!

For more information about the program and this year's participants, click here. Access the promotional video of the "Leave a Good Trace" program here.