Bulgarian Donors Forum Presents 10th edition of Biggest Corporate Donor Awards

The competition honours companies that sustainably and transparently back major community initiatives and causes. The prizes depend on the volume of financial investment that companies had made in 2014 and are determined by a seven-member jury featuring Gabriela Marinova, deputy director of the BBLF. The judges also rank companies on the quality of their programmes. The ceremony took place on 19 November 19 2015 and was hosted by Rosen Plevneliev, President of the Republic of Bulgaria.

45 contestants vied in 8 categories this year.  The winners are:

Largest Volume of Financial Donations:  Dundee Precious Metals won the first place (BGN 1,386,760 lev) followed by VIVACOM (BGN 350,617 lev) .

Largest Volume of Non-Financial Donations:  Danone (BGN 420,375.79 in goods and food)  followed by Microsoft (non-financial donations worth BGN 251, 887.68).

Greatest Contribution Through Voluntary Work of Employees: Mtel.

Most Generous Donor: VIVACOM (with 1.21% donated the profit before tax).

Two banks received two of the quality awards of the competition: Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria won in Best Donation Programme with Choose to Help donation programme while Postbank scooped Most Sustainable Donation Programme for Best Start for Every Child campaign in partnership with UNICEF Bulgaria.

Samsung Electronics won the third quality award in Best Donation Programme of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprise with the national mentoring programme Trends of Tomorrow (TOT) designed to inspire, educate and inform high school students about digital skills and trends in the labour market.

The Most Successful Partnership award recognizes partnerships between companies, NGOs, public institutions or media in the implementation of charitable projects and activities in support of community causes and is awarded in a vote among members of the Bulgarian Donors Forum. This year’s winner is the Knowledge for Success partner programme of Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation and SAP Labs Bulgaria.

Traditionally for five years now BDF recognizes not only companies but also individuals with an outstanding contribution to the promotion of philanthropy. This year the Board of BDF decided to award Georgi Tsvetkov - until recently part of the team of the Forum.

Donor foundations were another focus of this year's ceremony. Their representatives handed the awards to the winning companies.