Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation

The Black Sea Trust (BST) grantmaking promotes regional cooperation, dialogue, security, stability, and welfare in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine, as well as Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics.  

Since 2007, BST has strengthened regional cooperation, civil society, and democratic foundations in the Black Sea region. BST works to build trust among citizens and in public institutions, encourages active citizen participation, promotes civil societies’ role in conflict resolution, as well as fosters regional cross-border ties.

BST supports the democratic development of the wider Black Sea countries with the assistance of its trusted partners United States Agency for International Development and European Commission. 

BST champions regional views on important issues of the region and the transatlantic community, such as security, democracy, and European policies toward the neighborhood, as well as for sharing the knowledge and lessons learned from the Black Sea regions’ democratic transitions. 

The trust was created in 2007 by GMF, with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Government of Romania and the Ministry of Defense of Latvia.