Kocián Šolc Balaštík receives VIA Bona Award for Corporate Philanthropy

October, 2008 - Prague 1, Czech Republic

For this year’s VIA Bona Awards given out by the Czech Republic's VIA Foundation, law firm Kocián Šolc Balaštík (KSB) received the Award For Long-Term Partnership for its long-term charitable support, by means of KSB's well known Advent charity concerts, of the Good Will Committee – Olga Havel Foundation (GWC).

KSB has cooperated with GWC since 1995 through organizing an Advent Good Will Charity Concert to which clients, staff and business partners of KSB purchasing tickets and/or giving donations to GWC are invited. This fundraising is used to support GWC’s “New Family” and “Senior” projects. The event is now a well known and appreciated fixture on the Prague pre-Christmas musical calendar and features leading Czech musical personalities.

The evaluating committee composed of representatives of leading Czech business, media and non-profit sector organizations, recognized the fact that KSB, besides its regular support, also makes strategic effort to involve further donors in the work of the GWC, recruiting from KSB’s clients and friends.


Good Will Committee – Olga Havel Foundation
The Committee of Good Will was founded in early 1990 by Olga Havlová, the first wife of the president (1933-1996) of the Czech Republic, in the spirit of the Charter 77 Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted. On 23 September 1992, the Olga Havel Foundation was registered as a non-for-­profit organization. Since that time, the organization has used the compound name Committee of Good Will – Olga Havel Foundation. As its founder, Mrs Havlová made sure that all applications were professionally evaluated, that grants were properly monitored to ensure the effective use of resources, that assistance was provided promptly, and that the Foundation nurtured its contacts with both donors and beneficiaries. These are the principles that the Foundation has followed to this day.

The VIA Foundation
The VIA Foundation is a Czech charitable organization that provides small grants, and expertise to non-profit community initiatives in the Czech Republic. Whereas 50 years of totalitarian government served to dampen people's community initiative, the VIA Foundation now supports peoples' efforts to improve their communities through a variety of programs and activities. In 1997, the VIA Foundation was created as the local, Czech-run successor to the Foundation for a Civil Society. Since then it has supported nearly 2000 community projects in over 260 cities, towns and villages making us one of the most active grantmaking organizations in the Czech Republic.

dots