Together for the common good! This was the motto guiding the members of the initiative group who decided to set up the Oradea Community Foundation, which in 2012 started the first programs for the Bihor community and were involved in supporting local initiatives. Their purpose was to create a community foundation that would improve the lives of those living in Bihor, and this was only possible by encouraging philanthropy and social responsibility.
“After precisely 12 months, with the help of colleagues and the Association for Community Relations, we finally succeeded. And we are very proud of us”, says Sorin Constantin, one of the founding members of the Foundation. Their success translates into helping their community: from its inception and until the end of 2014, the Foundation has backed 51 projects.
In the first year of activity, the Foundation continued the programs developed by the initiative group, such as “11even Oradea”, bringing together people with life experiences worth sharing, as well as people looking for good examples in building a career. Moreover, in 2013 they have established the YouthBank Fund, with the help of which 9 projects were financed in the first year alone, projects submitted by high school students in Oradea.
In 2014, in addition to all the projects run and funded by the Foundation, several community events have been organized in collaboration with other organizations. Two such examples are the Community Challenge and Dream Creators, an event organized together with 11even Association, aiming to attract funds to cover the costs for students with outstanding school performance in the Dream Creator Camp. The Foundation also participated, as a local partner, in organizing the “Prețuiește Viața” Caravan (“Cherish Life” Caravan), organized by Andreea Marin.
The “Talent Scholarship” is an initiative of the Oradea Community Foundation. The first edition was also launched at the “11even Oradea” event in October 2013. Through this program, Oradea CF aims to increase the skills and abilities of those who want to develop projects with an impact in a field of individual or collective interest, in any area (humanities or sciences, arts, sports, etc.). In the first five years, 29 programs were funded with the help of 160 sponsors, for the benefit of 10,000 people from the Oradea community.
In 2016, Oradea CF organized the first edition of the Științescu Fund. The program, implemented with the support of the Romanian-American Foundation, the Romanian Federation of Community Foundations and local partners, has funded 13 local projects that promoted a different kind of learning, life-based learning, for everyday life, based on practice and own experimentation.
The Oradea Swimathon, the most beloved and popular local sport fundraising event in the country, meant making 81 dreams come true over the last five years, with the active involvement of more than 1,200 swimmers and over 4,700 supporters who have contributed to the raising of 473,000 lei.
Subsequently, the list of existing programs was completed by the Scholarship Fund, a social initiative to support 23 students from disadvantaged families, in order to discourage school dropout.

Beyond statistics, the Oradea Community Foundation is about people. About those to whom the programs are addressed and who can pinpoint solutions to the identified needs.