More than 20 civil society organizations and community centers from Stara Zagora took part in an information meeting for the competition under the “Code Success” Fund. The event was held on March 9 at the Regional Library “Zahariy Knyazheski”.
Participants received information about funding opportunities for initiatives aimed at strengthening democracy, European values and human rights at local level. The eligibility criteria were presented, with an emphasis placed on small community-based organizations. Organizations with an annual turnover of less than EUR 50,000 for the last financial year ended are eligible for participation.
During the meeting, the steps for preparing and submitting project proposals, as well as the most common mistakes made when applying, were explained.
The competition will be held in two stages – submission of a concept by April 20, 2026, and the approved candidates from the first stage will submit full project proposals by August 3, 2026.
Stara Zagora is the second host of the series of information meetings. The first was held in Sofia, and the next will be in Burgas on March 11.
You can register for the meeting in Burgas here. Registration is open until 10.03, 18:00.
So far, two online webinars have been organized, and additional materials for the competition procedure are published in the “Resources” section of the project website – https://pact.osis.bg/
Competition under the “Code Success” Foundation
The competition under the Code Success Fund is aimed at local organizations with an annual turnover of less than 50,000 euros. Funding for one initiative is up to €15,000 and the total budget of the fund is €450,000, with around 30 projects expected to be supported. The application is carried out online through the EUSP, and the procedure includes two stages: submission of a concept: by April 20, 2026 and submission of a full project proposal: by August 3, 2026.
Detailed guidelines and required application documents can be found here.
PACT Project
The Code Success Fund is part of the PACT project, which is implemented with financial support from the European Union through the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) program in the amount of EUR 4,264,112.97, equal to 90% of its budget. The funding institution is the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), according to the powers delegated to it by the European Commission.
The project is implemented by a consortium including: 1) Open Society Institute – Sofia Foundation (EIA), 2) Workshop for Citizens’ Initiatives Foundation (WCIF), 3) The European Citizen Action Service, in Bulgarian: International Non-Governmental Association “European Citizen Action Service” (ECAS). The members of the consortium co-financed the implementation of the Project with EUR 258,588, equal to 10% of its total value.
More about the project here.