The Foundation in Support of Local Democracy (FSLD) is a non-governmental, non-partisan, non-political, independent and non-commercial organization.
It was established on 18th September 1989 and entered in the Register of Foundations on 9th January 1990. It was founded by a group of parliamentarians, from the former democratic oposition under Communist regime, namely Senators: Jerzy Regulski, as chairman and initiator, Andrzej Celiński, Aleksander Paszyński, Jerzy Stępień, and Walerian Pańko, Jacek Woźniakowski, M.P. The Foundation's role was to serve as a social partner to the Parliament and the Government in reforming Polish local authorities and building local democracy.

The Foundation regularly undertakes projects supporting the development of local democracy and governance and targeted at local government staff and councilpersons, NGO representatives, journalists, teachers, youth, employees of small and medium enterprises and also individuals who are unemployed or face the threat of unemployment.

The Foundation is the largest non-governmental organization in Poland which supports the development of local governance.
In recognition of its efforts in 1995 FSLD received the UN Habitat Scroll of Honour, in 2000 the Prime Minister's Main Prize in the "Pro Publico Bono" Competition and in 2004 the Honorary Award of the Economic Forum in Krynica for supporting cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe.

At present the Foundation has a network of 16 regional centers and branches, 4 Colleges of Public Administration and Polish Institute for Local Democracy.
Thanks to this structure, the Foundation's activities cover the territory of the whole country. Since 1992 the Foundation has also been involved in assistance programs (e.g. in the Balkan countries, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.), sharing the experience of the Polish local government reforms.

Over 20 years of its existence FSLD centers have trained 1 million people. FSLD centers operate more than 70 professional clubs and forums for local government employees and representatives of local authorities.


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The Foundation in Support of Local Democracy has experience in the following fields:


Management of large training projects, e.g. financed by the European Union, including human resources development projects (e.g. PHARE 2000 SSG - HRD Integrated training support for rural youth facing unemployment (Warmia and Mazury region), contract no PL0008.01.01.001, PHARE 2000 SSG - HRD, Supporting the essentials of entrepreneurship in secondary schools (Podlasie region), contract no PL0008.02.01.003, PHARE - Development of Local Government and Training in Poland - stage II, and training component B3 of the Rural Development Program for local governments, co-financed with a World Bank loan, implemented based on a contract with the Ministry of Interior and Administration.

Delivery of training and consulting for local government representatives (mangers, councilpersons, officers, employees of budgetary enterprises subordinate to local governments) which has been the Foundation's basic activity since 1989. Training and consulting encompasses also the consequences of EU integration to local governments (Community legislation, raising EU funds, management of EU-funded projects).

Delivery of training and consulting for the employees and managers of SMEs and individuals starting up their own businesses. Four FSLD training centers, in Krakow, Bydgoszcz, Kielce and Rzeszow belong to the National System of Services for SMEs of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PAED). The Krakow and Bydgoszcz centers run Consultations and Advice Bureaus which operate based on a contract with PAED and provide free consulting assistance to persons who intend to set up their own businesses. Examples of contracts targeted at entrepreneurs include a contract for training 6,000 final beneficiaries of the Sectoral Operational Program called Enterprise Competitiveness Increase (2003), commissioned by the Ministry of Economy and Labor and performed in association with Doradztwo Gospodarcze S.A.

Training and consulting services for representatives of non-governmental organizations (e.g. institutional development, fundraising, project management, partnership with local governments and the business sector), youth (e.g. training on entrepreneurship, citizen participation) and teachers (e.g., FSLD has a Non-Public Teacher Training Institute which pursues the idea of professional development for teachers, teaching advisers and psychologists in schools and other educational institutions and disseminates knowledge on law and local government procedures in the school community.

Preparation and assistance with the implementation of municipality (gmina) and county (poviat) local development in which economic development and cooperation with the private sector programs have a prominent place. This includes supporting local partnerships for employment (Component 4 of contact no. PL01.06.09.01-02-01 Promotion of employment and human resources development in Lower Silesia in the IMC Consulting Ltd. Consortium).


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In its endeavors, the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy complies with the following fundamental rules:

Being Non-political
The Foundation strives to maintain contacts with all local authorities and organizations operating at the local level, irrespectively of their political profile. It cooperates with all national organizations, parliamentary commissions, politicians and political parties in order to support local democracy and further decentralize the state structure. In our foreign programs we try to collaborate with representatives of various ethnic and political groups, always respecting, often complex, local conditions.

Being Independent
Using the financial support from foreign and domestic sources (government and private), the Foundation preserves autonomy while implementing its programs. The Foundation's operation is subject to the rules provided by its Charter and to the authority of its statutory bodies.

Being Non-commercial
While not driven by the will to generate profit, and charging only partial remuneration for some of the services offered, the Foundation makes every effort to be able to provide them to all the gminas and civil partners, irrespective of their financial capacity.

Transparency
While accomplishing public goals with the use of the entrusted financial resources, the Foundation is open to any external audit. FSLD regularly submits reports to all sponsors and diligently clears accounts of the entrusted funds. By its own initiative, the Foundation makes its finance subject to regular inspections by auditors, and publishes annual reports of its operation.

Subsidiarity
While accomplishing its statutory goals, the Foundation is not replacing local authorities or other institutions of local democracy in their endeavors. It works to reinforce the capacity of those institutions instead, and to inspire activities performed by local authorities and citizens.

Professionalism
FSLD personnel makes every effort to provide and maintain the highest quality of the services it offers: we train our own trainers on a regular basis, and continue cooperation only with well-proved experts. We regularly make our activity subject to different evaluation procedures. We are guided by principles of professionalism in all our contacts with our Polish and foreign partners.

Prof. Jerzy Regulski, President of the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy till present, is also one of its founders. He is recognized as one of the founding fathers of the local government in the Polish 3rd Republic. Joined by a team of collaborators, he published the guidelines of the local government reform in 1981.

He co-presided the local government team during Round Table negotiations in 1989. Elected to the Senate, he chaired the Senate Local Government Committee, and later coordinated the implementation of the local government reform as the Government Representative Responsible for the Local Government Reform.
In 1992-1997, he was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Poland at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
In 1998-1999, he was the Chairman of the Prime Minister's Council for the Reform of the System of the State.

Prof. Jerzy Regulski is an outstanding expert in local government and urban planning. He graduated from the Engineering Faculty of the Warsaw University of Technology and from the Paris-based Centre de Recherche d'Urbanisme. He has obtained the title of full professor in technical sciences and that of full professor in economic sciences.
He has published over 200 books and dissertations, and lectured at 78 universities.
He is a honoris causa doctor of the University of Łódź and of the Danish University of Roskilde.

He was awarded with the medal of the National Assembly of the Local Government (1994), with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland (1999).
He has also obtained the Grzegorz Palka Award for his merits to the local government, and a special award of Polish associations of the local government for the execution of the reform of the system of the State (2000 r.).