On the fourth annual Konkordia conference, organized by the Duende Foundation and the Polish Confederation of Private Employers "Lewiatan", The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation presented model example of an effective transfer of its program "From Penny to Pound" to PZU Foundation (corporate foundation of the largest insurance company in Poland).
Norbert Konarzewski, director of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation along with Bogdan Benczak, president of PZU Foundation, talked about their two institutions cooperating within the program.
"From Penny to Pound" is a financial education program for young children that our Foundation has run since 2008, stressed Norbert Konarzewski. For many reasons, we had to withdraw from it. However, we did not want such a well-functioning community program to be abandoned, so we decided to find another organization that would be interested in taking it over. And so we began partnering with the PZU Foundation, which already since the beginning of this year has been actively participating in the program and will be taking it over in its entirety in January 2014. This only goes to show that a well-functioning community program does not have to fail due to a lack of funding. "From Penny to Pound" is an excellent example of effective collaboration between two corporate funders on one program and its transfer.
 Bogdan Benczak president of the Board of PZU Foundation |
 Krzysztof Kaczmar president of the Borad The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation |
 Norbert Konarzewski director at The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation |
The fourth annual Konkordia conference finished on September 26. It is an event that accompanies the European Forum for New Ideas, which is a leading conference in Poland that focuses on discussing topics such as future and place of Europe in contemporary reality. Every year EFNI gathers about 1000 attendees. Konkordia concentrates mainly on questions connected with building partnerships between non-governmental organizations and business. This conference, in which NGOs meet with business, is also a forum for the transfer of knowledge and exchange of experiences between sectors. The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation has provided strategic support for this initiative - a highly important one for the NGO sector - since its inception, as have two other large corporate foundations: PZU Foundation and Orange Foundation (both important Citi Hanldowy's corporate clients). Konkordia is attended by representatives of different fields: business, NGOs, public administration and media, yearly about 200 people.
 Norbert Konarzewski from Kronenberg Foundation and Bogdan Benczak from PZU Foundation |
 Konkordia's guests |
Krzysztof Kaczmar, president of the Management Board of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation, also participated in Konkordia. Together with Andrzej Godlewski, Deputy Director of TVP 1 (Channel 1 of Polish public television) and Jacek Maciejewski, a member of the Board of the Rak'n'Roll Foundation, he took part in the panel "Business - media - society: dialogue, cooperation or competition?" The discussion focused on the difficulties faced by projects carried out jointly by business and NGOs. The panelists discussed topics such as: NGO-business joint initiatives - how to formulate a message so that it is acceptable to the media, what conditions does such cooperation have to fulfill, and are community projects in NGO-business coalitions competition for the media in terms of advertising budgets. They also responded to a lot of questions from the large audience that was very interested in the presented subject.
Support for the conference was provided by Citi Handlowy volunteers. Eight individuals, including a lady senior citizen, dealt with registration of guests, packaging of conference materials, and running a lost-and-found office. The volunteers also provided information about the conference proceedings, including the panel discussions (timetable, speakers).
