The manager: Temenoushka Todorova
The job: Executive Manager of Bulgarska Traditzia Foundation
In brief: Ten years of work experience, including involvement with two United Nations Development Programme projects, has led Todorova to Traditzia, where with a team of just six, she helps improve the lives of hundreds of talented but disadvantaged people across Bulgaria.

It is well known that managing a commercial firm is not easy; it involves making decisions, with both potential benefits and risks.

But managing an NGO means special challenges, because the manager’s decisions have an essential impact on people dependent on its success.

This is the case with Temenoushka Todorova, executive director of Bulgarska Traditzia Foundation.

Unlike managing a profit-driven organisation, where the product per se is the centre of attention, in Todorova’s work, the focus is people, often people with serious social or physical challenges.

Todorova joined Traditzia as its executive director nearly three years ago.

Having already worked in a lawyer’s office, and for two United Nations Development Programme projects, she wanted a change in career, and the Traditzia post offered just such a change.

She remembers fondly her first job in the law company, where she gained skills that serve her to date.

“At the law firm I gained the A, B, and C for me. I learnt how to work as a member of a team, ways to handle difficult situations, to deal with stress.”

She says that she learnt a lot from the management team, skills that she says she practices on a daily basis in her job at Tradizia. It was also a time in which she developed an interest in working as part of a big team, involved in serious and interesting case studies, in administrative work that involves decision-making.

She has always enjoyed work that involves decision-making and said that she was happy to have always been treated with a great amount of trust by her employers.

As a result, she was given a certain degree of freedom to experiment and to assess which option would prove the most effective. It meant that she was able to gain first-hand experience in decision-making and to understand the responsibility it involves.

Her role at Traditzia has proved her greatest challenge in her career so far.

She is not just a decision-maker, but also the main person on whom the development and self-esteem of people depend.

Her mission is made even more difficult by the specifics of working in the NGO sector.

Todorova’s job involves working closely with the board of directors, and especially Katie Hill, head of the board and the wife of the British ambassador to Bulgaria, Jeremy Hill.

Todorova manages a team of six permanent employees and seven volunteers, whom she describes as all devoted to Traditzia’s cause. This lends her special motivation.

“It is very important to me that we are all very close.”

She says that the job, and the size of the team, means that they operate more closely than merely formally relating to each other as colleagues. “We share our problems and come up with solutions together.”

Todorova relies a lot on her own intuition.

When a decision has to be taken urgently, she often acts according to her intuition and subsequently offers the reasoning for her actions. Most times, she says, she has been proven correct.

Smiling, she admits that sometimes she finds it difficult to accept other people’s advice.

“I do take advice from other people, but it has to be very well grounded.”

At the same time, she said, it really depends on people’s approach. There are people with whom she communicates very well in accepting advice, but with others this is more difficult.

“In general, I think that with everyone working at Traditzia we managed to find the right formula for communication. There has never been a clash as such between myself and, say, a member of the board of directors, simply because they trust me and they always ask for my opinion.”

NGO work is no easy matter, especially in Bulgaria.

Of the difficult aspects of her job, Todorova says that lately she has despaired that “everything in Bulgaria is happening too slowly”.

“I always want an immediate effect when putting a great effort into something. In this sector, results come slowly anyway, and it gets me down that the country slows things further.”

Because things happen slowly, and are sometimes obstructed by factors external to the team or herself, planning is often difficult. Circumstances may require her to act on the spur of the moment.

But the desire for change also serves as a motivation. So does her team. Seeing people around her take pleasure in what they do, and that they share her desire for change, spurs her to carry on with even greater determination.

“Life is so short that it has to be given a meaning at all times. I am happy that my team seem to have the same philosophy, and we have all found something to fulfill our lives, despite the not great salaries.”

Traditzia’s mission

Traditzia was registered as a foundation under Bulgarian law in 2002.

It helps disadvantaged people by giving them the chance to practice or develop a talent in making things with their hands.

At the same time, Traditzia promotes traditional Bulgarian art and culture. Its main beneficiaries are day care centres, orphanages and children’s homes. The foundation works with more than 30 such places across Bulgaria.

It helps already skilled artisans, people who have the talent to do traditional Bulgarian handicrafts, but are not able to find a market for their products. Traditzia works with people from minority groups, such as the Roma, as well as individuals with disabilities.

With the development of the foundation in the past five years, the number of customers has increased. Through customers’ preferences for certain products, Traditzia’s concept has shifted slightly, and it also began working with professional artists and businesses. Apart from the regular items made by, for example, children in homes, the foundation has begun selling items such as jewellery suitable as corporate gifts. Even though these products are more expensive, the percentage that Tradizia gets from the sales is also higher, a boost to the work with the foundation’s targeted social groups.

Working with professionals, or in other words businesses, as Todorova calls them, in effect helps the foundation to survive.

“The NGO business in Bulgaria is not profitable, it is not a business at all.”

Even when the foundation applies for sponsorship programmes, the sponsor always requires the foundation to make a minimum contribution from its own funds.

“Co-operation with businesses or professional craftsmen is simply necessary for us to satisfy the needs of our customers in terms of products, and of course to help fund our charity activity.”

The percentage from earnings that goes to the producer, whether an orphanage or a disabled person living at home, is 70 per cent.

“Thus, if the price asked by the maker for a product is five leva, we sell it for 30 per cent more, meaning for 6.50. This means that five leva goes to the maker, and 1.50 stays for the gallery’s survival. Thirty per cent is standard for all galleries.”

One of the ways that the foundation finances itself is through projects and donors. Currently it is implementing three projects. One is financed by the Norwegian embassy and the International Women’s Club in Bulgaria, the second from the PHARE programme and the Finance Ministry, and the third is funded by the Matra programme through the Dutch embassy.

With the help of the Norwegian project, Traditzia does what they call art therapy.

“We have a staff member who travels around Bulgaria to orphanages and care centres, where through creation of art, she helps children and young people build up their confidence.”

Hence, Todorova said, Traditzia serves as a platform for these people to express their talent and to sell their products, as it is difficult for them to find a market in the provinces, especially in small villages.

Traditzia is already an established organization with a good name throughout the country.

“People know that we exist, what we do, and that we can help them develop their talents and find a market for their products,” Todorova said.

Normally it is not Traditzia that seeks out people, but it is the people and the homes that seek them out, directly, though other NGOs or by word-of-mouth.

Traditzia also pays visits to people to find out what they can do. A team of two or three people visits places like Troyan, Etura, Gabrovo (places popular for traditional crafts), or children’s homes, to see “in the field” what artists can offer. The staff then advises artists and contributors on what would be popular on the market. Or, for example, if children are making Christmas cards, Traditzia advises them about various aspects: how big the cards should be, what is sought by customers.

Sources of materials for the handicrafts vary. If the maker is an established artist, who simply looks for a platform for his/her work, the artist provides the materials. If the maker(s) are children from a home, or other disadvantaged people, then Traditzia contributes from its own earnings for the materials, made possible with the percentage the foundation receives from the products’ sale (as well as donors), though it should be pointed out that Traditzia relies mainly on sales.

Most of Traditzia’s customers are foreigners, even though that was not the aim when Traditzia was founded. This, Todorova said, may be because the idea for Traditzia came from foreigners. Four out of five of the members of the board of directors are foreigners.

Many of the advisers to the board are also foreigners. Along with other advice shared among the expatriate community to a newcomer, the name of Traditzia is sure to be mentioned.

“Nonetheless, contrary to our initial expectations, the foundation and its gallery have almost the same number of Bulgarian customers and they are growing.”

The foundation’s good reputation means that it is often invited to be involved with high-profile events, the most recent one the visit by US president George Bush and his wife Laura to Bulgaria. Mrs Bush had been told about Traditzia exists and had requested in advance that it be represented at the Sheraton Hotel where she bought traditional items worth 700 leva. Traditzia also visited the Kempinski Hotel Zografski, where part of Bush’s team was staying.

“Even ministries often work a lot with us, placing orders for traditional gifts.”

Traditzia has become somewhat of a business card for Bulgaria, a place where traditional Bulgarian handicraft work can be found.

The gallery enables people with limited possibilities to sell their work, to get their products through to a wide range of people.

“This way too, we get the chance to present Bulgaria to the world.”

Asked whether the money that goes to Traditzia was sufficient to cover its expenses, Todorova said: “We are always on the edge”.

Last year the foundation ended the year with a loss. There have been times when Traditzia has ended the year with a profit, but by 1000 to 2000 leva, which can barely be called “profit”. But this is normal for many NGOs. As she put it in the interview, the NGO sector in Bulgaria is not a business; it is not something to gain profit from. Traditzia re-invests all returns immediately.