OPEN BULGARIA - One big international family
WHO WE ARE
Open Bulgaria serves the local and international community living in Bulgaria by creating original content about all aspects of life in the country, hosting online and offline events, and being the go-to place when a question about Bulgaria needs answering. Our team of creators work hard to provide reliable and up-to-date information, in English, about life here. Whether you’re visiting or thinking of moving, we have the information you need. We share jobs, real estate listings and rentals, and other essential services for internationals, helping everyone to feel safe, and at home.
OUR MISSION
To create a virtual international hometown for everyone living and loving in Bulgaria. A place to visit if you need to find answers about moving here, you want to make some new friends when you arrive, and everything in between. Our mission is to be there for everyone and to help make the community feel comfortable and at home.
How do we plan to make our mission sustainable in the long term? Open Bulgaria is a joint venture between the Open Sofia Foundation and Open Cities Ltd., a social enterprise we created to manage commercial partnerships and economic activities. While the Open Sofia Foundation will focus on the non-profit aspects of the project and on its social impact, serving our community, and supporting our local and international institutional partners and other NGOs, Open Cities will work on finding ways to create a stable budget to support our initiative. That’s why we have decided to donate 25% of Open Cities' profits every year to the Open Sofia Foundation. This way we will be able to cover the running costs of the project and to reward our volunteers’ contribution, their professional skills, and their diligent commitment to the cause.
We have big plans for Open Bulgaria because we see how much our people need it, how much the country itself needs it. We are building a network to facilitate collaboration between people and organizations, and also between companies, associations, and initiatives.
We designed our project to connect different parts of this multicultural ecosystem. Locals connect and build friendships with foreigners, which in turn forms our international community. This community connects with and gets involved in projects by various local organizations with whom we collaborate and support. Lastly, we facilitate collaboration between these organizations in the form of joint projects, events, and promotional activities.
COLLABORATION
Collaborating with governmental and non-governmental organizations, public associations, and businesses to promote each other’s activities, all to create healthy and valuable partnerships. If you are interested in collaborating, write to us at [email protected]
Open Bulgaria
Our story
2015
Giuseppe left his hometown in Italy to pursue a career in Bulgaria, ready to face the challenges of a new country, culture, and lifestyle. Quickly he realized how much he wanted to connect with other internationals to share with and learn from their experiences and challenges. For this reason, he created the Facebook group “Foreigners in Sofia & Friends,” which is now the largest international online community in Bulgaria, connecting over 30,000 people.
2016
The Open Sofia Foundation is created with the mission to support that community through cultural events, social meetups, and other functions by collaborating with various NGOs and associations in Sofia and Bulgaria.
2020
Coronavirus. The opensofia.org website was released prematurely, due to the need to get relevant information about Covid-19, restrictions, and lockdowns out to the community. In this time Open Sofia grew and flourished as a place for all information about life in Sofia.
2021
Open Bulgaria. Due to the successes of Open Sofia, and the need to expand, Open Bulgaria was dreamt up. A place for everyone throughout the mountains, the steppe, and the cities in Bulgaria to visit. It is with this dream that we hope to answer the community’s questions about every aspect of life in Bulgaria: How to settle and find a job? What documents to prepare? Where to study Bulgarian? What activities there are to enjoy in English? and much much more.