Good Ventures awarded a grant of $500,000 to the Alliance for Open Society International to support the Open Society Foundation for Albania’s project “Albanian Renaissance,” a group of initiatives designed to upgrade public services, bring transparency to public life, and help position the country for European integration.
This grant is part of our effort to learn from other major foundations by co-funding projects with them. After considering several co-funding opportunities with the Open Society Foundations (OSF), we decided to co-fund its work to support political and social reform in Albania based on the recommendation of George Soros and OSF President Chris Stone. We believe this work has many of the qualities that make Mr. Soros’s philanthropy unique, given its focus on Eastern Europe and working with policymakers.
Several possible projects were proposed by Andi Dobrushi, director of the Open Society Foundation for Albania. Mr. Dobrushi and other executives at the Open Society Foundations selected three of the projects to pursue with Good Ventures’ funding, based on factors including the projects’ importance and viability, the level of interest in the projects from the Albanian government, and where OSF saw opportunities for concrete outcomes in a relatively short timeframe.
Below are the proposals and budget for the three projects, to which OSF also contributed funding. Also included are updates on the projects’ progress from Ida Kenny Le Duc, our main point of contact at OSF, who works in Office of the President. Additional updates and conversation notes are forthcoming.