Cultural-educational initiative

1. What is this project about

Raftul cu idei (roughly translated in English as The Ideas Shelf)'s mission is to promote culture and arts in all forms. We encourage debutant artists and actively seek to enrich visitors’ knowledge in history, general knowledge, science etc. Progressively, we've grown into a well-known trademark on the Romanian Interweb, through articles about books, theatrical plays, photography, psychology, philosophy, history, science, and so forth. Right now, what we're focusing on is education.

We would very much like to step into the offline area and to directly get involved - with measurable results - in sociology, culture, and educational fields here in Romania, by initiating projects meant to promote and sustain intelligent, gifted people all over the country.

Our project is a strong one, but needs financial and media sustainability in order to grow even stronger.

2. What we’ve done until now

Raftul cu idei placed very well in the online medium, as a cultural website. Our editors are entirely volunteers, as we are not monetizing the website. We believe that the moment to take a big step further and have a real impact on society has come. We have to build on our success so far and develop campaigns, initiatives, and implications that are to bring a real, measurable impact, good for both society and individual.

For the moment, Raftul cu idei is on stall because of unmet web maintenance expenses, lack of promotional resources, and financial incapacity to register ourselves as an NGO.

3. What we need to do from here

We wish to register Raftul cu idei as an NGO, to become legally eligible to establish partnerships with local and foreign cultural supporters, thus further reaching to abroad similar initiatives and sponsorships.

We wish to form a reliable, permanent team of editors and journalists, dedicated to our mission, as well as reward our community depending on its implications. Furthermore, we're establishing a membership mechanism that will give users easy access to literature, theatre, films, cultural events, and so forth, as well as freebies.

We're struggling to develop a mobile app as well, to further reach young audience.

5. What can go wrong

The lack of minimum (and immediate) financial support will result in the closure of our website (web hosting and web development), disrupting our connection with our volunteers and with the media partners we have now.

Raftul cu idei naturally grew in about 3 years. Its choking, now, when the foundation was built so strong, would represent a loss for the community already formed, for all culture, arts, education and literature lovers and supporters.