<< Background >>In Europe, the importance of the third sector is increasingly being acknowledged, from various points of view. The third sector has gained economic significance in terms of employment and production, especially in services provision. Public authorities have paid greater attention, in recent decades, to third sector organizations, recognizing them as partners for the implementation of public policies. Despite those trends, such an acknowledgement seems to remain purely instrumental or focused only on specific fields, and the image of the third sector in public opinion generally remains unclear. Even within the third sector itself, the degree of consciousness of belonging to a wide and distinct sector varies significantly across organizations and often remains low. In such a contrasting context, the major objective of FIRST project is to overcome these limitations by intervening on the criticalities of one of the third sector representatives, Foundations. This intervention will be used as a base of evidence to open a reflection on the effectiveness, at national and international level, of all nonprofit organizations and boost their roles of promoter of common values, civic engagement and participation.Foundations contribute to the achievement of the fundamental values and objectives of the EU, such as the respect for human rights, the protection of minorities, employment and social progress, the conservation of the environment or the dissemination of scientific and technological progress. In this context, they are key to achieve the ambitious objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Moreover, Foundations promote a more active involvement of citizens and civil society in the European context. With FIRST, we want to support and train people who wish to work with and for that entities who have made it their mission the promotion of cultural identities, shared interests, and common values that embody the principle of solidarity and civic engagement.This project is needed to promote and expand the reach of the third sector so as to amplify the social growth it brings about. This project is needed to support Foundations, in facing the numerous obstacles emerged at EU level, increasing their international visibility, facilitating their interaction and collaboration, and improving the achievement of new resources.This project is needed to increase and diversify the professional offer in the job market.This partnership is necessary not only for their expertise but, mainly, for their interest in making a real difference by giving a concrete help. This partnership decided to apply to give a concrete support to Foundations, and the third sector, in backing the principle of solidarity, not just in a broad sense, but to keep fostering the biggest coordinated solidarity project of our recent history, the European Union.<< Objectives >>There are many obstacles that foundations face in carrying out their activities at EU level (differences between national legal systems, language and competencies barriers) that often make cross-border activities costly and inefficient. Mainly, there is a lack of communication and collaboration due to a missing common awareness of being part of a mechanism that shares common attributes, values and objectives. The project wants to overcome these obstacles in two ways. First, with the creation of a new professional figure, able to use fundraising, networking and communication techniques such as storytelling, and put at the service of Foundations to redefine their identity, promote their activities at the international level and boost their collaborative capacities. Second, thanks to the implementation of a database of best practices and contact, in the form of a mapping tool, the target groups will be able to interact among them, sharing information, knowledge and starting collaborative projects. Even though the project focuses on Foundations, potentially it can be applied to other non-profits, increasing its impact and transferability.The project aims also at meeting the needs of the training providers since it will give them the opportunity to develop and test an innovative training methodology, learner-centered and very practical, in which the contents will be built with a bottom-up approach, that can be replicated and reapplied also in other trainings.In practice the project will produce the following results:Project Result 1 - Foundations' Promoter 4.0 roadmap: definition of a new professional figure, the Foundations’ Storyteller and Fundraiser.Project Result 2 – Interactive-Networking tool: creation of a state-of-the-art mapping tool to gather all the relevant information at EU level; to improve the Foundations’ international collaborative capacity; to increase their impact and promote their identity.Project Result 3 – FIRST Online Training Platform: development of an innovative learning module hosted on an online platform (i.e. MOODLE)<< Implementation >>Besides the regular activities of Project Management and Communication, necessary for the implementation, sharing and promotion of the project results (as explained in detail in the related sections), partners will carry on the following specific activities: PR1: the definition of a new professional figure will have 4 main phases: during the first phase, a research paper will be carried on to state how Storytelling can concretely improve the promotion of Foundations’ identity and activities. In the second phase, the results of the research will be used to create guidelines that will outline a transferable skill-set of competences for the new profile, a sort of promoter 4.0. The third phase will consist of the creation of a training course, focused on Fundraising, Communication and Storytelling, and targeting Foundations’ staff, young professionals and recently graduated, who want to operate in the nonprofit sector. In the final phase, the guidelines will be completed with a practical roadmap for trainers, that will walk them through the implementation of the FIRST training course for the new promoter for Foundations. PR2: The creation of the interactive map of Europe will show users where Foundations are located, which fields of action they are interested in, best case activities and ongoing initiatives and, ultimately, provide a channel for collaboration.Information will be gathered by partners through existing international networks (to be involved during the project implementation), a desk research and further actions (e-meetings or interviews), if needed. To collect information and gather new potential collaborators, partners partners will agree on a methodology to select best practices. An online template will be created according to these criteria. The most important feature of PR2 is the database of contacts (under GDPR), which will allow Foundations and other nonprofit entities, to find a match in this new network and start collaborating. All the organizations selected during the implementation of this phase, will also be involved in project events for sharing purposes. The main aim is to get a clear picture of which are the best cases in EU in order to use them as show-cases of storytelling and fundraising at national and international level.PR3: The training course content, developed in the first project result, will be included in a learning module hosted on an online platform. In the initialization work on the Online Platform, all partners will participate in the drafting of supplementary specifications that will guide the design of the learning module in each phase. The partnership will then select the most appropriate platform to facilitate the spread of the information and the participation to the courses (most probably MOODLE). Finally, partners will participate with hints and suggestions, reshaping the PR1 content in consideration of platform features, help testing the learning module.The partnership will follow the development and design of the learning module by technical partners. During this phase, it will be designed the class calendar, the assignments, quizzes, interactive videos, a library and discussion forums, and others. In the last phase, partners will finalize and test the module. An internal release of the module will allow partners to test it, assess content, the communication system, the task tracking, anduser-friendliness of the general features. The second release will be the pilot one and it will be used for the validation. A final release may emerge at the end of the project life driven bythe conclusions of the validation activities. To properly test, share and promote the project results, partners will organize a dedicated Learning, Teaching, Training Activity (Jul2023) and 6 Multiplier Events, one per each participating Country (Sep2023).<< Results >>Project Result 1 – Foundations' Promoter 4.0 roadmap: definition of a new professional figure, the Foundations’ Storyteller and Fundraiser.DURING PROJECT IMPLEMENTATIONResult 1.1 Research Paper on Foundations’ state of the art, needs, and possible solutions provided by Storytelling to promote their identity and activitiesR1.2 Guidelines for the definition of skills-set framework of the new professional figureR1.3 Innovative and practical training course that combine Fundraising and Communication (Storytelling) competencies.R1.4 Guide for VET trainers and teachers, including the definition of the competencies frameworkON ITS COMPLETIONR1.5 increased and diversified job market’s professional offer.R1.6 Increased Foundations’ staff knowledge and ability to create and run their own new promotional campaign.R1.7 Increased awareness among VET providers, educators, policymakers and the general public about the potential economic growth laying on Foundations at local and European levels.Specific Objective 2 – Interactive-Networking tool:DURING PROJECT IMPLEMENTATIONR2.1 Collection of all relevant information about European Foundation (location, contact and field of interest, activities/promotional campaign best cases, legal information sorted per country, etc.) R2.2 Database of contacts starting a pilot network R2.3 Interactive mapON ITS COMPLETIONR2.4 Increased number of Foundations joining the networkR2.5 Increased number of international collaborationsR2.6 Increased awareness about Foundations’ activities (directly participating in FIRST) through the implementation of best cases selected in the platform.Specific Objective 3 – FIRST Online Training Platform: development of an innovative learning module hosted on an online platform (i.e. MOODLE)DURING PROJECT IMPLEMENTATIONR3.1 Innovative e-learning modules including the contents of FIRST training course (and other PRs where possible) developed during the PR1.ON ITS COMPLETIONR3.2 Increased awareness among Foundations’ staff of Fundraising and Storytelling opportunity.R3.3 Increased awareness among the target group about the new profession of Fundraiser and Storyteller for Foundations.R3.4 Increased promotion and competitiveness of the possible new activities run by the new professional profile.