We have expected you for a long time! - ANNUAL REPORT

The global and local crises affected the civic energy, the activism and the environment in Bulgaria: while the dialogue with the institutions had its ups and downs, the Bulgarian volunteers and donors demonstrated once again that we, as a society, are not impartial to the tragedies across the world, either – whether these have emerged near or far from us. [...] Annual Report 2022 04 Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law The working environment for civil society organizations Council for the Development of the Civil Society 2022 was yet another year in which we were in the whirlpool of the political crisis, with a caretaker government most of the time. [...] Nevertheless! … after 10 years of relentless fight by the Bulgarian citizens, activists and organiza-tions, the Council for the Development of the Civil Society (CDCS) was established – the first such body with the Council of Ministers which: » consists of members elected by CSOs; » ensures conditions for an ongoing dialogue between CSOs and the executive; » has real powers to influence the polici. [...] Thus, 10 years later, the Alumni Club of the NGO Summer School already has 224 civ- ic activists who have the knowledge and the capacity to engage in small and big battles in the name of important social causes What I appreciated most was feeling the power of joint efforts, being aware of the existence of organizations of various sizes, with various missions, and un-derstanding that we all should. [...] Anual Report 2022 13 Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law At the end of the year, we organized an important meeting within the framework of the initiative Let’s GROW with representatives from the Ministry of Labor and So- cial Policy, the Operational Pro-gram Human Resources Development, the Fund of Funds, and social enterprises.