The best social projects carried out this year by companies, non-governmental organizations, individual donors and volunteers were nominated to be awarded at the People for People Gala 2017. In total, 307 philanthropic projects and initiatives were nominated in 2017, compared to 270 in 2016 and 170 in 2015.

In the last year, NGOs, companies and individual donors have mobilized and invested in the transformation of Romania the amount of RON 57,121,881.

The figures show the clear tendency to increase the involvement in social causes on the part of all actors in the civil society: volunteers, donors, organizations and companies of all types and of all sizes.

Beyond the figures, the People for People Gala reveals a reality of kindness with concrete results: there are organizations in Romania that take care of children, the elderly, people with disabilities or people with terminal illnesses and who manage to help people because they mobilize resources even from the communities they serve.

These organizations are efficient and use resources transparently and efficiently and manage to save lives, renovate hospitals and schools, build houses or offer scholarships to talented children who do not have support systems.

"From next year the activity of these organizations will be dramatically affected by legislative changes (so-called "fiscal revolution") that no longer allow companies with a turnover of up to 1 million euros to use the sponsorship law and to benefit from tax incentives when sponsoring social causes. The People for People Gala highlighted the incredible results of the civil environment, but it was also a call for help for legislators to intervene in the 12th hour in order not to fracture this current of civic responsibility », said Dana Pirtoc, CEO of ARC Romania (Association for Community Relations, which has been organizing the People for People for People Gala for 14 years.

The winners were designated by a jury consisting of Andreea Roșca (journalist and co-author of "Those who change the game"), Claudiu Florea (entrepreneur), Corina Vasile (Communication and Public Relations Director of Raiffeisen Bank), Dana Pirtooc (CEO ARC), Dragoș Neacșu (CEO Erste Asset Management), Felix Pătrășcanu (CEO Fan Courier), Georgiana Pogonaru (Founder romcolor2000), Irina Lapoviță (Lidl, CSR Coordinator), Marius Stefan (CEO Autonom), Mihaela Gînju (Founder of the Eurudio Association), Mihaela Perianu (Managing Partner AIMS Human Capital&Dale Carnegie), Péter Barta (entrepreneur), Raluca Ion (author Republica), Roxana Vitan (Executive Director of the Romanian-American Foundation).

The jury decided as follows:

1. The best CSR program of a company – Vodafone Romania through Vodafone Romania Foundation for Connecting for Good
2. The best professional fundraiser – Robert Ion from Hope and Homes for Children Romania
3. The best sponsorship project of an SME – Libris.ro for the project A gesture for life – Libris supports maternity hospitals in Romania
4. Best Internal CSR Program – Zitec for The #1024 Program
5. The best fundraising campaign of a large NGO – Give life for the fundraising campaign via SMS
6. The best fundraising campaign of a small NGO – Cetatea Voluntarilor Association for equipping and renovating the Clinical Department of Children's Infestive Diseases, Arad County Hospital
7. The best sponsorship project of a company – Vodafone Romania through Vodafone Romania Foundation for the project "MobiHope – Increasing the quality of life and care of patients with life-threatening diseases"
8. The Grand Prize of the Gala – ENEL for the ENEL – CeRe partnership: Resource Center for Public Participation
9. Galantom – Veronica Soare Award for the fundraising campaign on the galantom.ro platform
10. Architect award in the community – The Association Tine de Tine! for the project "Together for Mateo"
11. Architect's Award for Dignity – Savannah and Papaya Agency for the Campaign Life Has Many Nuances
12. Architect of the Wellbeing Industry Award – Princess Margareta Foundation for the openness and help offered to other organizations in the fundraising learning process
13. Jury Prize – Together for the future Constanta for the project Beach and sea for all

For more details about the winning projects and photos please contact us at ionut@arcromania.ro or access the www.gala.arcromania.ro.

*Edit note

Below you can find a brief description of the winning projects.

In case you would like to conduct more comprehensive interviews with the winners, please let me know so that we can put you in touch with the organizations.

The best CSR project of a company
Vodafone Romania, through the Vodafone Romania Foundation, is awarded for the "Connecting for Good" initiative, the largest program in Romania that uses technology and innovation in order to increase the quality of life of people in need. In the last year, 548,217 euros have been allocated for numerous programs using telemedicine.

The best professional fundraiser
Robert Ion is nominated by Anamaria Bogdan for the fundraising activity within Hope and Homes for Children Romania, for which he raised, in two years of activity, 1,500,000 euros.

The best sponsorship project of an SME
Libris.ro is nominated by Save the Children Romania for the program "A gesture for a lifetime – Libris supports the maternity wards in Romania", which he supported with 171,734 euros, used to equip 6 hospitals in the country with high-performance medical equipment, in order to decrease the infant mortality rate.

Best Internal CSR Program
Zitec is awarded for the "#cei1024" campaign, which addresses the problem of the lack of donors in blood donation centers in Bucharest and in the country. Over 500 liters of blood were collected in donation sessions organized at the companies' headquarters in Bucharest, and the total value of the program was 2000 lei.

The best fundraising campaign of a large NGO
The Daruieste Viață Association is awarded for the fundraising campaign through SMS, aimed at building the Oncology and Radiotherapy Clinic at the "Marie Curie" Emergency Clinical Hospital for Children, Bucharest. The campaign attracted 700,000 euros.

The best fundraising campaign of a small NGO
The Cetatea Voluntarilor Association is awarded for the fundraising through which it has equipped and renovated the Clinical Compartment of Children's Infectious Diseases, of the Arad County Hospital. The total amount attracted is 414,000 lei.

The best sponsorship project of a company
Vodafone Romania, through the Vodafone Romania Foundation, is awarded for the "SOS Deaf" project, through which it developed, together with the Association of Samaritans Romania, an emergency communication system for people with hearing and speech impairments.

Grand Prize of the Gala
Enel Romania is awarded for the Enel – CeRe partnership, through which CeRe received general financial support to be able to carry out its activity and projects, such as providing advocacy assistance, involvement in public decision making and community organizing of citizens who want to get involved civically. The budget amounted to 125,000 lei.

Galantom Award
When you say Veronica Soare you say miracles: minuni.ro, "To miracles before" (the show of le Smart FM), "Miracles on the Camino for the Heart of Children". Little miracles that Veronica manages to do to support those who need help. We don't know if Veronica inspired others to go to the Camino de Santiago, but what we do know for sure is that it inspired some good people who were perhaps already considering the pilgrimage down this road to dedicate their journey to a social project through the Galantom platform. Through the two editions of the campaign "Miracles on the Camino for the Heart of children", giving her birthday for ATCA or participating in a charity karaoke contest for "Ajungem Mari", Veronica managed to raise through the Galantom platform over 60,000 lei.

Architect's Award in the Community
The Association Tine is awarded for the campaign "Together for Mateo", which mobilized the entire community of Cugir to contribute nancial for Mateo, an 8-year-old boy who needs an expensive operation. Over 2000 people were involved in the campaign that raised 133,300 lei.

Architect's Award for Dignity
The Savannah and the Papaya Agency are awarded by the RESPECT Platform for the campaign "Savannah – Life has several nuances", through which they contributed to the discussion about the restrictive modification of the family definition and the strengthening of the idea that there is no single type of family.

Architect's Award of the Industry of Good
The Princepesa Margareta Foundation of Romania received this award because it understands that the future of the good industry is to join forces and not to waste its resources. And every time he was asked for help to share their fundraising experience, they responded with great openness.

Thanks to them, dozens of organizations did not repeat mistakes and evolved rapidly in their fundraising practice.

Jury Prize
The Association Together for the Future constanta is awarded for the campaign "Beachand sea for all", which aims to make accessible the first beach in Romania for people with disabilities. In total, 32,000 lei were raised, and the beach was visited by 100 people in only 20 days.