The mission of the Foundation is to support the sustainable rural development, in particular entrepreneurship and creating non-agricultural jobs, and to ensure equal opportunities for women, the unemployed and young people.

The mission of the FDPA is realized through micro-loan activity and investment grants for the creation and development of small businesses in rural areas; local development programs, publications, studies and specialized socio-economic reports presenting the condition of Polish rural areas.

The initiative to establish the FDPA came about in the early 1980s, while Poland was still under martial law. Thanks to the generosity of the "Rockefeller Brothers Fund" and the involvement of such prominent personalities as Norman Borlaug (Nobel Prize Winner 1971), Dr Szczepan Pieniążek, Dr J.B. Penn (Undersecretary of State in the United States Ministry of Agriculture), it was possible to register the Foundation as a private independent non-governmental organisation in 1988, whose main objective was to support the restructuring of Polish agriculture and food economy, the transformation of the Polish countryside and the building of civil society.

In its initial years of activity, the FDPA focused its activities on the transfer of Western agricultural practices to Poland. In 1993, as a result of the liquidation of state-owned farms, unemployment in rural areas increased dramatically. As a result, the Foundation decided to expand its activities beyond the agricultural and food sector. FDPA focused on programmes supporting integrated rural development, entrepreneurship development (including agro-tourism) and the creation of non-agricultural jobs in rural areas. To this end, the first micro-lending programme serving rural areas was established. Micro-lending services were complemented by training and advisory services for small-scale entrepreneurship.

The Foundation is one of the most active micro-lending and labour market institutions in Poland. FDPA's activities are aimed at providing assistance to the most needy people in rural areas, primarily women, the unemployed and young people, in order to give them equal opportunities in the labour market. The Foundation supports micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, both those who have been in business for a long time and entrepreneurs with no experience in this field; it provides them with financial support in the form of loans and grants, training, counselling, subsidised internships and vocational courses, psychological workshops, workshops on job search techniques, career counselling and job placement.

For several years, we have been running information and education campaigns on renewable energy sources, climate change mitigation and adaptation, promotion of distributed and prosumer energy. In each of the projects we try to involve partners: scientific circles, agricultural advisors, media, entrepreneurs.

We carry out information projects and support the activities of educational and research institutions dealing with rural issues, as well as advising farmers. We popularise research and analysis in the field of agriculture and rural areas.

Film about the Foundation's activities

The FDPA Loan Fund was set up by the authorities of the Foundation for the Development of Polish Agriculture in 1993 to support the rural community during the period of economic transition and adjusting the Polish agriculture to functioning within the European Union structures. Knowing that most people affected by the privatization of state-owned farms will no longer find employment in agriculture, the Foundation decided to focus on promoting entrepreneurship and creating non-agricultural jobs in the countryside and in small towns. The main idea was to help the residents of rural and urban-rural municipalities to re-skill and gain new competences, to support them through trainings, advisory services, grants and loans to start non-agricultural businesses.

The first micro-loan program in Poland supporting rural areas in the provinces of: Małopolska, Podlasie, Mazovia and West Pomerania was created thanks to the funding by the Polish-American Enterprise Fund (Polsko-Amerykański Fundusz Przedsiębiorczości), Caritasverband Deutsch-land and the Levi Strauss Corporation. The Foundation received 3 million PLN. Since then, the FDPA has raised additional funds from numerous domestic, foreign and international organizations and institutions, including the European Union, and continues to support Polish entrepreneurs.

Today, the offer of the FDPA Loan Fund is addressed to all entrepreneurs from the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise sector, both to companies that have been running their business for a long time, and those under construction that are not yet experienced, so-called start-ups. Our programs are designed to: encourage the establishment and development of own businesses, help with running a business, providing funding for business development plans, support the improvement of competitiveness and creating new jobs. We offer financial support in the form of low interest loans which are designed not only to meet the investment, turnover and ad-hoc needs of small businesses, but also to a large extent the educational aspect, as they are targeted, among others, to those who have not previously benefited from external funding.

Our lending activity is carried out through five offices located in the Province of Mazovia: in Płock, Siedlce and Radom, in the Province of West Pomerania – in Połczyn Zdrój and in the Province of Małopolska - in Nowy Sącz.

2022 was for us a year of intensive work on the continuation of loan projects co-funded by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund under the Regional Operational Programs for years 2007- 2013 as well as all different continuation of different Covid-19 Support Loan Programs. We continued the realization of the following projects: 

• MIŚ Loan Fund – co-funded under the Regional Operational Program for the Province of Mazovia
• Loan Fund for the West Pomerania Province within the JEREMIE intiative and Loan Fund for the West Pomerania Province within the JEREMIE 2 intiative – co-funded under the Regional Operational Program for the Province of West Pomerania;
• Loan Fund for the Mazovia Province within the JEREMIE intiative – co-funded under the Regional Operational Program for the Province of Mazovia for 2014-2020
• Loan Fund for the Małopolska Province within the JEREMIE intiative – co-funded under the Regional Operational Program for Małopolska for 2014-2020
• Loan Funds for the Mazovia and West Pomerania Provinces within the POIR initiative – co-funded based on COVID-19 enterprise support programs.

Within the last two years we have granted loans to over 500 SME amounting to over  140 mln PLN.

Office in Warsaw

ul. Gombrowicza 19, 01-682 Warszawa
Tel.: 22 864 03 90, fax: 22 864 03 61
e-mail: fdpa@fdpa.org.pl
office hours: 8:30-16:30

Contacts to Foundation staff:

FOUNDATION SECRETARIAT:

22 864 03 90, fdpa@fdpa.biz.pl

RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT:

Karolina Witeska - Chmielewska : 784 013 951, k.witeska@fdpa.biz.pl

Jakub Zieliński: 695 116 110, j.zielinski@fdpa.biz.pl

TRAINING AND ADVISORY DEPARTMENT:

Ewa Stygienko: 694 407 391, e.stygienko@fdpa.biz.pl

LOAN PROGRAMME:

Monika Mondzelewska: 694 407 395, m.mondzelewska@fdpa.biz.pl

Anna Chmura: 607 210 217, a.chmura@fdpa.biz.pl

Magdalena Kurtiak: 533 429 441, m.kurtiak@fdpa.biz.pl

Agnieszka Pętkowska: 530 140 889, a.petkowska@fdpa.biz.pl

Anna Zymmerman: 690 894 164, a.zymmerman@fdpa.biz.pl