Fundraising is one of the cornerstones of any organization’s functioning. In the times of full-scale war, the need to find and raise new funds through a variety of tools increases even more.
In order to help the participants of the Legal Reform Platform for CSOs ensure the sustainability of their existence and development and to promote the creation of new initiatives in the public sector, on June 21, CEDEM held an online training titled “Digital Fundraising: Tools, Mechanics, Limitations”.
Fundraising and crowdfunding specialists Hryhorii Kravtsov and Denys Bortnikov acted as trainers. The experts answered many important questions arising in CSOs concerning various ways of fundraising.
According to the experts, digital fundraising tools can vary greatly. in particular, these may include:
- Cryptocurrencies
- PayPal
- Bank and payment cards
- Payment terminals
- Social media
NFT – documents confirming title to a digital image – can also become a relatively new fundraising tool. It is possible to try to sell NFTs as an alternative source of fundraising, even though there are some difficulties because the sales of NFTs are not very widespread. Also, such documents can be given to benefactors for their donations.
According to Hryhorii Kravtsov, cryptocurrencies are a valid way to raise funds for CSOs. In order to accept donations in cryptocurrency, CSOs should create a wallet on a cryptocurrency exchange, from which cryptocurrency can be exchanged to hryvnias and received via Western Union. It is important that the expert advises to immediately exchange such donations into hryvnia at the available exchange rate rather than risk other people’s donations.
In addition, at the training, Denys Bortnikov helped to better understand how crowdfunding works as a specific type of fundraising.
According to the expert, crowdfunding can be a quite effective method of fundraising, because it
- Helps to “test” your idea;
- Allows your project to receive not only finance, but also social capital: supporters it is worth staying in touch with;
- Helps draw attention to the project;
- Provides for the opportunities for the joint initiatives with businesses.
According to Denys, some of the most effective crowdfunding tools are the Ukrainian platforms Big Idea (Spilnokosht) and My City”, as well as foreign ones Indiegogo and Patreon. A ‘jar’ in Monobank is also quite a good tool.
It is important to remember that crowdfunding is a very resource-intensive process, so it always requires a lot of time and effort. If you have successfully developed your own offer and clearly shaped the solution you offer, the expert advises not to be afraid to “ask” for money. After all, during crowdfunding you are not “asking”, but implementing the project and there are always two parties that benefit from this: the organization and the beneficiary.
We are sure that the training was useful for several dozen CSO representatives who are part of the Legal Reform Platform for CSOs who attended it. CEDEM will continue the training series for CSOs so that organizations can constantly increase their self-reliance and continue to develop and get stronger. See you again soon!
The educational event was held as part of the Project Ukraine Civil Society Sectoral Support Activity implemented by the Initiative Center to Support Social Action “Ednannia” in partnership with the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research (UCIPR) and Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) with the sincere support of the American people through United States Agency for International Development.
