"Our will come tomorrow." Why should the projects that are not directly related to the war - talking about community service with Irina Solovyi
- Speaking of crowdfunding, joint financing, raising funds for social, cultural, artistic projects and not only, the origins of this activity, it seems, was a community. How has you changed what you do since 2012? - We started 10 years ago. For the most part, people did not know the word crowdfunding. And the first challenge was how to name this story of joint financing in Ukraine. We turned to Yurko Green, he is a hard -working Ukrainianizer.
They told him what platform we create, that people will be able to come, place their projects, ideas, and other people will be able to support them with their small contributions. And those projects that raise enough money will be able to receive this funding for implementation. He offered a community variant. And the first test was reality in 2012: "You want to make a large, influential platform, and call it in Ukrainian.
" My solution was this: if people still have to learn a new word - whether crowdfunding, or a community or the Russian -speaking equivalent of this, then they can probably be studied by Ukrainian. For some time, people labeled everything that was done on the union. Over some time, the crowdfunding stood out and it happened quickly enough.
Already at the end of 2013 on the Maidan, people crowdfanded and did it for the model offered by the community - involved people, offered to join - who as much as it was, what was important - reported on the use of funds. This is a very important element for us, because we have built a community precisely to expand the sources of trust in society. And, for example, in 2022, crowdfunding just spread explosively. They learned, thanks to certain programs, including partnerships on the community.
We have taught that one of the motivating elements for the community is to be kept in the course of events, that is, what progress has been raised. As it turned out, this significantly accelerates the collection [of funds]. And we are glad that we have this experience and now modeled knowledge is available to many.
- How difficult was it to raise funds at the beginning of your activity? And how to raise funds now? Even without the amendment to the situation that changed on February 24, what were the main challenges then and now? Is it possible to say that Ukrainian society has learned and perceived that it is possible to solve and solve a problem for which state, for example, hands do not reach? - a cool question.
This "fund us because our topic does not reach the states" was characteristic in 2012, until 2015. The authors are now called relevant for themselves to check their ideas through crowdfunding. Earlier [said]: “We have an idea, without you it will not happen. Support.
” Now they say, "How do you think of our idea? She responds to you? ” More about meaningful and financial involvement, that is, the community helps organizations to determine the trajectory of their development with the participation of the community. For us in 10 years, these are significant shifts. Since 2017, we have entered the co -financing model when international organizations have doubled funding, UKF has tripled to children's focus projects for children. And the business also joined.
Now we see that the next [stage], to whatever we are moving, the community is a model of co -financing to apply for the projections of the transformation. This is when what is being done in the community, initiated from below, is supported by citizens and further co -financing is due to the participation of business, local self -government, international organizations.
It will also be about the funds, of course, because the community allows you to move - to take the first steps when other players still ripen and look for confirmation that it will work, but it allows you to create a role for everyone. Now a citizen with his / her resources defines the direction of how the local community will develop.
- How did the work of the community have changed when a full -scale Russian invasion began? - The outfit or format we work (when the funds are transparently attracted, transparently transferred to organizations, transparently spent, reports), was a suitable tool for the situation of urgency and when the use of funds may not always be documented properly. Therefore, for a while, the platform froze and it had its consequences.
Some of the authors who raised the funds by February 24, selected the amounts to the Fund, return the alive, which we did for them. Some of the authors decided to wait and in a few months resumed their activities, we transferred them to them. I think it is important because we are in a situation of total war and victory should also be total. We have a different ratio, but find the resource for the things we need, if we believe that ours will come tomorrow.
And I very much believe that ours will come tomorrow, and therefore we will need both books and educational projects. In order for the platform to allow individual citizens to assist charitable fees, we are currently preparing a new section. There, for example, the designer will be able to initiate a charity raising in favor of returning a living or other public organization, and Dobrochynets will have access to some cool design for a contribution of a certain amount.