Our goal is as simple as to find superheroes all over the country. We are looking for team players who love their town or district, community-minded people who want to do something for their environment. We will show them a well-tried and successful way to do that: that of community foundations (CFs) in Hungary and abroad. We will show how CFs develop communities, how they find allies for getting started, and will provide advice and encouragement all along. The culmination of this process will be the signing of agreements with the newly formed teams which will continue to receive professional and financial support.

While many people are ready for action, there are very few organisations in Hungary, which support independent, local initiatives. One efficient way to foster local action is to run a community foundation. There are 3 of them in Hungary (Ferencváros, Pécs, Miskolc); the Community Foundations Support Program has supported them from the start. People establish many NGOs but there are only few which build on local capacities (volunteering, good ideas, funds). A community foundation, acting as catalyst in the community, can provide regular support for various initiatives and organisations in the community.

The proposed activities are planned to take place between 2019 Sept 1 and 2021 Jan 31. All project participants will be exposed to the following development phases:

– advertisement and brief interview with applicants: we will assess whether the community foundation may be viable or not in the applicant community;
– encouragement phase (approx. 3-6 months): we will provide information on the concept of community foundations, our most important principles and values, and as about the path ahead (from an individual initiative to community foundation) and give support;
– professional work (3-4 months): we will record in writing the intention of the applicant and his/her team to start a community foundation; our organisation will dedicate a mentor (and other kind of professional support for this); then the applicant group prepares a work plan;
– implementation phase: the organising team implements their plan, they raise funds, officially registers the organisation and starts running it.

Fees, costs related to finding the organiser groups, advertisement: 100,000HUF
Encouragement phase, non-wage costs (e.g. travel expenses, refreshments, fees for writers of relevant papers): 400,000HUF in case of 8 groups
Professional work (fees and expenses): 1,500,000HUF in case of 5 groups
Implementation phase (study visits, costs related to local organisational work, meetings): 1,400,000HUF in case of 4 groups
National meeting: 332,305HUF
TOTAL: 3,732,305HUF

We hope to raise 3 million HUFs during Swimathon to support as many superheroes as possible and to be able to provide substantial support for the community foundation movement in Hungary. The above-mentioned programme phases require additional funds as well, which we will cover from different sources.

In the phase what we call professional work we hope to work simultaneously with 5 organising groups. We hope that as a result of our work there will be more operating community foundations in Hungary by the end of 2020. It could be a proof that local issues may be connected with local resources by a committed, active, local organisation. We believe that an active community organisation improves people’s lives at a given locality.

The Roots and Wings Foundation seeks to foster change in society: we want to see more people ready to act for their environments, for others and for the community. We seek to support active people bring together great teams and facilitate initiatives in their environment, which make life easier and more pleasant. We believe that our programmes, including the Community Foundations Development Program, will prove – first at a local, then also at a national level – that an initiating spirit, individual responsibility and solidarity are creative building blocks in the-long term development of a community.

Name: Gyökerek és Szárnyak Alapítvány (Roots and Wings Foundation)
Address: 1092 Bp. Ráday u. 32. 3/3
Office: 1114 Bp. Mészöly utca 7-9.
Court registration: 11.Pk.60.361/2014/6., 24/12/2014
Tax number: 18626166 – 1 – 43
Represetative: Tamás Scsaurszki
Website: gy-sz.hu
Facebook: facebook.com/Gyokerek-es-Szarnyak-Alapitvany
Contact person: Dalma Kökény
Contact information: [email protected]