Fundația Danis

Annual Report

2018

2018 Highlights

231

young people


received support from Fundația Danis, through internship or entrepreneurship education programmes.
118

would-be or young entrepreneurs


were involved in entrepreneurship education or business coaching programmes.
3935

hours


of business coaching were provided to would-be or young entrepreneurs.
30132

euro


were provided as financial support or fellowships to 30 young people, investing in their education, or in the development of their entrepreneurship competencies.
40

managers


from Romanian companies joined our entrepreneurship and social responsibility projects.
69

NGOs professionals & social innovators


from more than 20 European countries learned how to conduct workshops for young people, how to develop organizational storytelling strategies & how to use design thinking for developing their services.

Projects

Through Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs international coaching exchanges, we bring extraordinary people and meaningful business experiences in the lives of young entrepreneurs.


10

Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs exchanges


were organized by Fundația Danis, in 2018.
22439

euro


were provided as financial allowances to the Romanian young entrepreneurs travelling abroad.

“I had the opportunity to speak with experienced people from the sector about my own business, and to receive feedback and many opinions about my business, how I can start it, what activities I should do, what I should change, etc. “

 Cornelia Ungurean was among the three finalists of the Entrepreneur of the Decade Award of Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme in March 2019! She has a business based on production of innovative organic oils obtained from sunflower – Biotech Exclusiv. Here is the story about her EYE exchange, from Greece.

82

Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs exchanges


were organized by Fundația Danis, since 2012.

László Bene is a young aspiring entrepreneur from Romania who has been involved in entrepreneurial activity since high school. Starting an online store at the age of only 17 enabled him to discover his passion well ahead of time. Zamir store delivers personalized T-shirts, sweaters, hooded sweatshirts and socks, with dreamy or cosmic prints :).

Read about his Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs experience here:

Delivering “fashioned” happiness together

The exchanges took place within “SGE-SMEs Growing in Europe” project, which is leaded by Cambra de Comerc, Industria i Navegació de Girona (Spain), and co-financed by European Commission.


56

students


did an internship in 2018, through Internship Cluj Programme.
23

companies and NGOs


joined, as partners, Internship Cluj 2018.
1363

students


participated in Internship Cluj programme, since 2006.

Internship Cluj is organized twice per year, during spring and autumn, being adapted to the academic year structure. These are six-week or 12-week internships, during which students work 20 hours per week, testing the knowledge they acquired in school, and developing their work skills for future jobs.

“A good thing about the internship is that it gets you what of the comfort zone. This internship gave me the opportunity to learn more about myself, to challenge me with new responsibilities. And I learned to ask more questions, to ask for help when I need it and to discover new things useful for my future career.” (one of the students participating in Internship Cluj, 2018 edition)

“The biggest plus of the internship are the people I worked with. They helped me any time I needed it, and they show the patience any beginner needs it. I am also happy that I had the opportunity to learn about the corporate culture and to be part of the working environment, so different from the school one.” (one of the students participating in Internship Cluj, 2018 edition)

The companies and NGOs that joined, as partners, Internship Cluj in 2018 were:

Asociația pentru Relații Comunitare

Arhipro

Auchan

Centrul de Voluntariat Cluj-Napoca

Compexit Autorulate

Compexit Fleet Services

Compexit Trading

CTL Consulting

Danis Consulting

DotWhite

Electrogrup

ES Elektro

Fabrica de Pensule

Fundația Noi Orizonturi

Minimit

Moldovan & Partners

Office Depot

Pro Vobis

RoGrup – Broker de Asigurare

SimBound

Terax

Transylvania Hostel

Verdant Isle Dental Clinic

CoOp - Cooperate to Operate

30

NGOs and SMEs


were involved in the CoOp Research on the collaboration between the Romanian SMEs and youth organizations.

CoOp project aims to support youth organizations to diversify their funding sources by educating them in the field of CSR & fundraising from SMEs.

In 2017-2019, together with our partners from Greece,  Ireland, Norway and Poland we:

  • Develop research-based knowledge on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ collaboration, and on business’ capacity to invest in youth development, and education.

  • Develop innovative and attractive funding models & tools on CSR and fundraising, which can be used both by youth organizations and SMEs.

  • Identify and promote best practices and success stories on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ partnerships, with the intention to start an European trend for such partnerships.

  • Propose valuable public policies for boosting the partnerships between SMEs and youth organizations, with the intention to start an European trend for such collaborations.

In 2018, we developed and published the CoOp Romania National Report on SMEs and Youth Organizations Cooperation and the CoOp Comparative Report on the same topic, comparing data on cooperation between the two sectors from Ireland, Greece, Norway, Poland and Romania. Also, we collected cooperation success stories that encourages both SMEs and youth organizations to collaborate more for solving community problems and supporting young people.

CoOp project aims at enhancing the cooperation between SMEs and youth organizations through a collection of video stories that could motivate both sectors to collaborate more. Here is one of the video-story we developed to motivate the SMEs to get more involved in community projects, as this involvement is a “must” for millennials, their future employees.

12 experts and youth workers from youth organizations, SMEs, multinational companies, local municipality and university participated in the CoOp with us! Romania Multiplier Event from September 2018. The event was a learning and sharing experience in the field of cooperation between companies and youth organizations.

The project is co-financed by European Commission, within Erasmus+ Programme and Fundația Danis’ partners in this project are: Asset Tec (Greece), Youth Work Ireland (Ireland), Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway) and Fundacja Robinson Crusoe (Poland).


Skill IT for Youth

50

young people, youth workers, NGO senior leaders and employers' representatives


were involved in the Skill IT Research on young people’s digital skills and on youth work in the field of developing the future skills young people need.

The Skill IT for Youth – Integrating Digital and Future Skills into Youth Work project aims to equip youth workers with the digital knowledge, skills and confidence to enhance young people’s futures in the 21st Century.

In 2018-2020, together with our partners from Ireland, Norway and Poland we:

  • Provide research-based knowledge on digital youth work, youth workers, youth organisations and young people’s needs regarding ICT, digital and social media, and labour market’s needs and expectations in regards to the young people’s digital skills;

  • Develop a competency framework for digitally-based youth work

  • Help the organisations and youth workers to professionalize their work by encouraging the organisational environment to support the digitalization of services and of work, and by equipping youth workers in the field of ICT, digital and social media, and 21st century learning skills for young people;

  • Provide professional development tools in the digital field, such as, an online learning community and a training toolkit & a training course for youth workers;

  • Suggest valuable public policies to boost the digitalization of the youth sector.

In 2018, we developed and published the Skill IT Romania National Report on digital skills and youth work and the Skill IT Comparative Report on the same topic, comparing data on youth workers and youth organizations digital-readiness and on young people’s digital skills from Ireland, Norway, Poland and Romania.

The project is co-financed by European Commission, within Erasmus+ Programme and Fundația Danis’ partners in this project are: Youth Work Ireland (Ireland), Camara Education (Ireland), Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway) and Fundacja Robinson Crusoe (Poland).


Future Builders

Training course

29

youth workers


from ten European countries learned how to conduct valuable workshops for young people, on entrepreneurship, visual storytelling, volunteering and career counseling.

Fundatia Danis supported 29 youth workers from ten European countries to be trained on how to conduct valuable workshops for youth, within Future Builders training course, supported by Erasmus+ Programme.

The training course, organized by Sprak og Kultur (Norway), FAIR (Poland) and Fundatia Danis (Romania), took place in Poland, in mid-April 2018. The event brought together youth workers from Georgia, Ireland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and The Netherlands.

During the six-day training course, the youth workers learned and developed essential skills on how to conduct workshops for young people. Then, they learned the specifics of conducting training courses on entrepreneurship, visual communication, volunteering and career counseling. In the last days of the training, in teams, the youth workers conducted small workshops, learning by experience how to put in practice the knowledge and skills gained.

The project was co-funded by the European Union through Erasmus+ Programme.


Story Builders

Training course

30

youth workers


from ten European countries were initiated in connecting the art of storytelling with organizational development.

The training course, organized by KDYS (Ireland), Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway), Fundatia Danis (Romania) and FAIR (Poland) took place in Warsaw, Poland, in mid-May 2018. The event brought together 30 youth workers from Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, The Netherlands and Ukraine.

The catalyst for offering this workshop was to explore storytelling as a way of organizational and personal development. During the training course, the youth workers experienced in various forms the storytelling mind-set, and developed skills and knowledge related to story thinking, story structure, and storytelling techniques. Moreover, they learned to connect their personal stories to the organization’s stories and to their clients’ stories. And, for making their organizations more sustainable, the youth workers tried out various storytelling techniques for advocacy and fundraising activities. Finally, the participants made the plan on how they will use the storytelling in the future, for themselves and for their organizations.

The project was co-funded by the European Union through Erasmus+ Programme.


Other Projects

Exquisite Workshops for Young Entrepreneurs

17 young entrepreneurs benefited from a series of exquisite workshops on entrepreneurship education. They gained knowledge and skills for developing their businesses on topics such as design thinking, behavioral economics and storytelling for businesses. The workshops were delivered by Fundatia Danis experts and partner experts from Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway), Danis Consulting (Romania) and Ligia Cremene Coaching and Consulting (Romania). Exquisite Workshops were powered by NTT DATA Romania.

Design Thinking for social innovators

30 young social innovators from all over Europe participated in a design thinking workshop we delivered in partnership with experts from Civitas Foundation (Romania). The workshop took place within the boot camp of European Social Innovation Competition (EUSIC), organized in 2018 in Cluj-Napoca.

Bridges to ENpower

We take YourKite project experience further, supporting the youth work sector from Ukraine, in 2017-2019. The capacity building project “Bridges to ENpower” focuses on entrepreneurship education for young people and it is supported by Erasmus+. Our partners in this project are: Resonance Foundation (Ukraine), Fundacja Aktywnych Inicjatyw Rozwoju (Poland) and Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway). In 2018, we organized in Ukraine the ENPower workshop, through which we learned more about the business and job market context from the country, and we shared the entrepreneurship educational resources we developed so far within the framework of other international or local projects.

Storytelling for business

Invited by RATIO Association Cluj-Napoca, we delivered a workshop on storytelling for businesses to 110 young people, in September 2018. The workshop was part of the RATIO Academy developed by RATIO Association for university students from Romania and Moldova.

Scholarships for young people

We invested in the education and professional development of the young people by offering scholarships worth over €6,800. The scholarships were provided within the Internship Cluj Program.

B2B – Humanitarian campaigns

We supported companies from Cluj to get involved in humanitarian campaigns, for people with serious health problems, through our Business to Business program (B2B). B2B aims at supporting entrepreneurs’ social responsibility initiatives, and this year brought together three companies and resources of approximate €3100.

Special Events

Exquisite Event for Entrepreneurs

70

entrepreneurs


participated in the networking event – Exquisite Event for Entrepreneurs

Exquisite Event for Entrepreneurs brought together successful entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs, managers, experts in entrepreneurship education and business consultants from Cluj-Napoca. In order to stimulate the networking and the discussions among the guests, the event included some special moments, such as the business story of the NTT DATA Romania told by its founder and current CEO, Daniel Metz, and the online presentation on the business network power for communities, offered by Prof.  Cornel Ban – International Political Economist at City, University of London and Copenhagen Business School.

At the same time, the guest had the opportunity to meet two entrepreneurs who, through the support of Fundatia Danis, benefited from Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program, developing their businesses through international business coaching:

Cornelia Ungurean (Biotech Exclusiv), guided the participants through an organic oil tasting moment, presenting types of sunflower oil with different spices, produced by her own company, and organic olive oil from Greek Lesbos Island, produced by the company that hosted her during the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs exchange.

Bogdan Iliesiu, who founded Febra Film, came to the event with his short-film FARUL. In 2013, we helped Bogdan to benefit from the support of an experienced entrepreneur from Austria to develop his film production company.

The sweet moment of the evening was offered by Donuterie, respectively by the two founders of the company, Marius Muntean and Andra Otava. The guests had the opportunity to also learn about their business journey in Romania and abroad.

The Exquisite Event for Entrepreneurs was powered by NTT DATA Romania, as the main sponsor and the host of the event who took place at NTT DATA Tower.

Event powered by

Financial data

Income Sources in 2018

Costs in 2018

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Photos credentials: the photos used in this report were taken by Fundatia Danis team, entrepreneurs or other participants in our projects and by Norsensus Mediaforum team, during the implementation of the projects presented.