Starting January this year, Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation (WCIF) will implement the project „Building the Next Generation Civic Leaders “.

The initiative will support the development of 60 young civic organizations’ leaders in Bulgaria over the next six years. Participants in the project will get access to training and ongoing support from mentors who are renown leaders of national non-governmental organizations, journalists, marketing and PR specialists, fundraisers and lawyers.

The initiative comes as a response to the increasing challenges facing the representatives of civic organizations related to the crisis in the welfare state, shrinking space for civil society and the growing radicalization of ever wider layers of the population.

The program includes four thematic training modules: global Issues and identification of adequate local solutions; mission-driven fundraising and financial sustainability planning; partnerships and strategic communication for conflicts resolution; impact assessment and scaling up the desired impact.

In addition to training sessions and discussions, participants will work on assignements in each of the modules. When developing their tasks participants will receive online support and additional training in the form of webinars, as well as assistance from the mentors.

As a result, leaders of civil society organizations will develop and improve their skills for strategic thinking, fundraising for causes and involve citizens/communities in the work of their organizations.  

Participants in the Initiative will be selected after open competition. It is expected that the competition will be open in mid-February.