Guiding Principles
and Core Values

Partnership and Collaboration

We are not merely a sponsor or a funding mechanism. Our grant-making process presumes collaborative planning between ABF and its grantees since we understand that common solutions best lead to sustainable change. We also encourage partnership and synergy among our grantees to utilize to the highest degree experiences gained and lessons learned. 


Innovation

We look for entrepreneurial organizations, innovative thinkers, and proactive leaders with a vision and capacity to promote change. We seek to advance creative ideas and novel solutions and are not afraid to take risks that other stakeholders might not assume, and to challenge convention and confront stereotypes.


Local Initiative

We seek to remain focused on our overall mission and supporting strategy, and in so doing, we listen carefully to local needs to ensure that the endeavors we support have lasting impact and that local communities and organizations assume ownership upon project completion.


Proactive Approach

We proactively develop distinct ABF operational competencies and initiatives. We do not just review applications but help build the institutional capacity of our grantees and support new organizations to ensure important needs are met in ABF’s priority fields of work. 


Ethics

We are committed to the highest ethical standards in our own governance and administration of our grant-making, to personal and professional integrity, and to transparency and accountability, and expect our partners and grantees to adhere to the same standards. 


Evaluation

We are committed to using evaluation as a means to sharpen objectives and improve the effectiveness of our work. We understand that ABF’s success will be measured over the long run, but we make every effort to ensure that, where appropriate, our grants have meaningful and measurable outcomes in a shorter time frame as well.


Philanthropy

We are committed to reviving philanthropy in Bulgaria and to encouraging its growth by example and by specific actions.


US–Bulgaria Cooperation

We seek to enhance the legacy of goodwill and friendship between the American and Bulgarian people and to promote US-Bulgaria people-to-people contacts and exchange of ideas. We encourage specific project recognition such that the American people receive appropriate credit for ABF efforts. 

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Though not inviolable, these principles and core values will help guide the work of the America for Bulgaria Foundation. They will be revisited annually and modified as necessary based on ABF experience.

September 2019