Pledge to make a difference, together.
Carpathian Foundation (in Slovak: Karpatska nadacia) is a unique non-profit organisation and the only foundation in Slovakia with focus mainly on Eastern Slovakia - in the Kosice and Presov regions. We envisage a prosperous Eastern Slovakia as a place where people want to live, where individuals and organizations have accepted responsibility for their actions and their region, where they work to improve the world around them and where they respect each other, work together, help each other and form a better future jointly. Our mission is to lead people and organizations in the east of Slovakia to accept responsibility for themselves, their communities, their region and their future.
Since its establishment in 1994, the Foundation has been providing financial support, educational and advisory services for active individuals and non-profit organizations aiming to make life in eastern Slovakia better. We are bringing innovative solutions to local needs in eastern Slovakia so that the people here can thrive and lead fulfilled lives. Moreover, we establish networks, share experience and build expertise of third sector organisations in Slovakia as well as abroad, mainly in Ukraine in cooperation with our partner Carpathian Foundation Ukraine. We are creating innovative ways to involve individuals and companies in the development of eastern Slovakia and we strive to raise as much financial support as possible for local projects and active people who work to make this part of Slovakia a better place. We extend successful approaches and initiatives from the east to other parts of Slovakia - positioning eastern Slovakia as a source of social innovations and a source of initiatives for inclusive growth, in Slovakia as well as abroad.
The foundation's current grant programs seek to support development of the region of the eastern Slovakia in a variety of areas with emphasis on civil society and community development. In recent years, the Carpathian Foundation has been continually building its capacity and expertise in the area of inclusion and effective development of Roma communities, particularly in early childhood development as well as women social and economic empowerment through program UPre Women (www.uprezeny.sk/en). We have also been responding to urgent needs of socially excluded groups during the COVID-19 pandemic through Carpathian Foundation's Crisis Fund, enabling access to education during school closures, as well as during the current war conflict in Ukraine and the related refugee crisis through our grant program We Love Ukraine. The Foundation is also providing humanitarian aid to (mainly) Western Ukraine helping the situation of internally displaced people and vulnerable groups in cooperation with local partners including its sister foundation - Carpathian Foundation Ukraine.
Over the last four years, the Foundation has been a member of the consortium of three foundations under the leadership of Ekopolis Foundation and in partnership with Open Society Foundation responsible for managing the Active Citizens Fund - Norwegian grants exclusively supporting civil society organizations in Slovakia. Carpathian Foundation is responsible for an Active Citizens Fund Programme's goal - strengthening support for vulnerable groups.