In the Pontis Foundation, we have programmes through which we help companies provide expert help to non-profit organizations. A spectre of their needs is very variable. One of these activities is the Pro Bono Marathon. During this event we annually celebrate corporate pro bono culture. It is a one-day event in the style of hackathon –it’s adrenaline, it produces a lot of goodness and enables to create strong and often long-lasting relationships between the sectors. People meet there not (just) because of networking, but because they want to change Slovakia for the better.  Attorneys joined the marathon this year as well.

Description of a problem

In 2015, the Financial Policy Institute, an analytical department of the Ministry of Finance, carried outpro bono analysis of the effectiveness of the syringe exchange programme for the association Odyseus. The analysis showed that benefits of the programme are 2.9 times higher than costs of the state. Despite of this study and other advocacy activities of organizations working with this target group, the so called harm reduction services are not systematically funded and the number of organizations providing them is constantly being reduced.

What were the experts working on?

It was for the first time during the Pro Bono Marathon that we gathered professionals from various companies into one team. Their task was to develop a strategy and action plan for advocacy campaign for the civic association Odyseus to secure state financing of these services in Slovakia. Experts from the law firm Bnt attorneys-at-law, consulting firm Fipra which is focused on the field of public administration and experts from the Financial Policy Institute will continue working with the Odyseus civic association until the start of the campaign which is scheduled for autumn this year.

Expert teams left their workplaces on this day to provide know-how to selected non-profits in the following areas:

• Communication
• Business strategy
• Architecture
• IT

In addition, this year we didn’t focus on supporting non-profit organizations as such, but on finding solutions to social as well as other issues which are addressed by selected experts from the non-profit sector. Our prime target was represented by these topics:

• Education
• Extremism
• Social inclusion
• Efficiency of public administration
• Non-profit sector in Russia

About specific partnerships and what we achieved during the Pro Bono Marathon in 2017, you can find out more here:

https://www.old-nadaciapontis.sk/clanok/firmy-sa-pretekali-v-systemovych-zmenach/2398