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The Roman Czernecki Educational Foundation (EFC Foundation) works towards strengthening democracy in Poland and Central Europe. We believe that a democratic future requires of us a public spiritedness and an ethos of responsibility for the common good.

Budujemy demokratyczną wspólnotę, zdolną sprostać wyzwaniom współczesności. Przyznajemy granty, stypendia i nagrody, które pomagają ją wzmacniać.

Think
the unthought

We are a family foundation, in operation since 2008. We promote humanistic, cultural, and civic education. Our inspiration is the life’s work of our patron - a social innovator and educator, Roman Czernecki.

What we do

We invest in people, institutions, and ideas. We seek out original ideas and social initiatives, and facilitate their growth.

We support people in their educational ambition, forming the future leaders of our democratic community.

People

We build partnerships with organizations that contribute to positive social change and promote an ethos of civic engagement.

Institutions

We help develop ideas that encourage reflection on contemporary issues and stimulate the debate on the challenges facing modern democracy.

Ideas

Our mission

We believe that democracy needs an empathetic and responsible citizenry capable of independent and creative thought.

At the core of a strong democracy lie empathy and solidarity, a sense of rootedness, companionship, patriotism and sensitivity to the issues of the contemporary world. To foster these qualities, we need the abilities of philosophical reflection, as well as constructive discussion and cooperation. For us, the path to developing these skills lies in humanistic, cultural, and civic education.

Change

The generation now taking responsibility for the future of Central Europe owes its position to young democracies, whose future remain uncertain. The longstanding Liberal approach – that laws and institutions alone are sufficient to guarantee freedom, that educational policy can be subservient to economic needs and that education serves predominantly to prepare individuals for a career – has reached its limits. To effectively address the challenges posed by illiberal forces, by the climate crisis or artificial intelligence, we need a paradigmatic shift in our thinking about education, positing as its aim the future well-being of the political community, in Poland and in Europe. To cite Leo Strauss, “Education is the only answer to the always pressing question of how to reconcile order which is not oppression with freedom which is not license”.

The Roots

Our actions are inspired by the life’s work of Roman Czernecki – a teacher and school director, an organizer of wartime underground schooling, creator and director of Szczekociny School, dean of the Pedagogical University in Gdańsk, and lecture in the history of philosophy at the Warsaw University of Technology.

The values upheld by Professor Czernecki inspired his son, Andrzej – a nuclear physicist, entrepreneur, and member of the Polish Parliament – to establish the EFC Foundation in 2009. Our work is supported by an endowment that Andrzej Czernecki created for this purpose. It was the first philanthropic effort of this scale in Poland.

Today, the Foundation is led by his sons, Igor and Andrzej, with support from Jan Krzewiński.

The past remains our point of reference, while the future serves ever new challenges and demands flexibility. Thus we remain faithful to the values embodied by the Foundation’s patron, Roman Czernecki, and founder, Andrzej Czernecki, while continuously reflecting on and refining the Foundation’s strategy, so as to evolve alongside a changing world.

Friends