What experience can the Ukrainian NGO sector learn from the international community?

The CEE Fundraising Conference was recently held in Slovakia. Slovenské centrum fundraisingu

This is an annual conference that creates networking and learning opportunities for fundraisers, consultants, board members and NGO executives in Central and Eastern Europe.

Fundraiser of the National Network for the Development of Local Philanthropy Viktoria Zablotska was a part of the conference.

In the article below, Victoria outlines her advice on what experience we, as a Ukrainian NGO sector, can learn from Americans and Europeans:

• In-depth analysis of those who donate to you

If your civic or charitable organization is fundraising through donations or crowdfunding, it is critical for you to understand who is giving to you and why.

If you know the demographic information (gender, age, place of residence) about these people, it’s great, but it’s still not enough.

Conduct in-depth interviews, send questionnaires, personalize emails, do whatever it takes to learn and understand your supporters’ personalities.

• Explore the potential of donors

People can donate more than they do. This is confirmed by the Philanthropy in CEE 2020 & 2022 research. According to these studies, the potential increase in donations in Central and Eastern Europe could be 200% (from 2,739 million euros to 5,466 million euros per year)

Have you ever asked your audience how much they are willing to give to your cause and under what conditions? Perhaps one of your donors would like to give you a significant amount, but would ask you for something in return?

Ask those who donate to you about this and listen to their answers.

• Give them a choice

Whether it’s 5, 50, 500 hryvnias or dollars, give people a choice.

In general, donors are divided into:

small donors (up to 500 USD),

midsize donors (500 – 5 000 USD)

major donors (from 5 000 USD).

You can move them from one category to another as their income and trust in you grow. But you need to understand that life situations are different. Therefore, there will be those who will reduce their donations. You need to be prepared for this and learn to understand such changes.

• Look for new tools

According to a CAF study in 2013

(yes, 10 years ago), 58% of players made a charitable contribution by purchasing video games in the past 12 months through initiatives such as HumbleBundle.

Have you ever thought about using video games to raise money for charity? Well, the Red Cross has partnered with EA to create special content for the Sim City game. This expansion for the game costs 9.99 USD, and 80% of the proceeds go directly to the American Red Cross.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian volunteers, public and charitable organizations are constantly coming up with new ideas on how to raise funds: they organize auctions of expertise, hold marathons, and conduct charity courses. But there are still many unused tools. Look for them, experiment and develop them for yourself!

• Work with your inheritance

This is probably one of my biggest discoveries at the conference. According to a study by Giving USA, donations to charity through inheritance account for 9% (46.01 billion USD) of all donations.

Before attending the conference, I hadn’t thought about the possibility of fundraising through inheritance, but as you can see, it works. The main thing is to tell people about it.

Author: Victoria Zablotska, fundraiser at the National Network for the Development of Local Philanthropy