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Description
Civil society organizations (CSOs) have few free sources of funding in Slovakia, they are dependent on grants or other similar sources, not realizing that (regular) donations from ordinary people would provide them autonomy and long-term stable funding. The project aims to strengthen civil society through the development of individual philanthropy, especially of young people, and through the provision of new, modern online tools for organizations to facilitate their access to finance from individual donors. By strengthening the financial capacity of organizations, their anchorage in society will be increased and their capacities will be released to perform their primary activities. The Centre for Philanthropy organisation created the DARUJME.sk (DONATE.sk) website - the gateway to the world of online donation. Allows donations to be made directly in the website environment.
DARUJME.sk was created in 2012 and today it needs some system changes. It does not meet today''s standards, nor does it technically allow the involvement of more organizations - it needs to be expanded. The aim is to reach the tool which can be used by as many organizations as possible and to receive as many donations as possible - while the potential is enormous - more than 50,000 organizations are registered in the Slovak Republic. The target groups of the project are civil society organizations and society in a broad sense.
The project established cooperation with companies and with a Norwegian partner, the NORSENSUS MEDIAFORUM, who will help prepare the program for the theoretical part and especially mentoring for CSOs how to prepare and set up a donor acquisition strategy. The goal is to improve the ability of organizations to harness the potential of the system and attract donors and donations online.
Summary of project results
The environment of the non-profit sector needs a stable tool that will enable the long-term acquisition of donations for the organization''s activities via the Internet. Thanks to the DARUJME.sk web platform (DONATE.sk), donors can easily donate one-time and regular donations. Organizations can quickly create a donation page to place on their website. Thanks to DARUJME.sk, the organizations can build relationships with their donors, involve them in the story of the organization and together fulfill its mission.
The goal of all activities was to move the DARUJME.sk platform significantly forward. The main activity was the extension of the donor infrastructure. Within it, the project promoters have programmed a completely new DARUJME 2.0 (DONATE 2.0) which is built on the latest systems and allows continuous development and the addition of new features. It has set up a long-term training program for fundraisers, because the tool alone is not enough - people in involved organizations need to know how to reach donors. Thanks to the project, it was possible to prepare an information campaign on donor calls, which explained what it is and how to use it to raise resources.
During the project, the organizations involved in DARUJME.sk received 354,134 donations from 117,140 donors in the total amount of € 8,141,108. 499 organizations received donations, 200 of which exceeded € 2,000. These values significantly exceeded the planned indicators. As part of the project, 10 organizations agreed to further cooperate with a marketing and communication company. The project promoters managed to convince 300 new organizations that DARUJME.sk is an important part of their fundraising. At the beginning of the project, almost no one used donor calls for the benefit of organizations.
The project was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, too. The involved organizations started to use DARUJME.sk more to obtain resources and the donors helped them also in lockdowns or to keep them even during interrupted activities. DARUJME.sk is currently the only tool of its kind in Slovakia and will continue to operate after the end of the project. The increase in the donated amount in 2020 was 100% and in 2021 36%. It teaches donors to trust online donations, to collect donations for organizations, it also teaches organizations to communicate and fundraise.
Summary of bilateral results
Cooperation with the Norwegian organization Norsensus Mediaforum was of great importance for the project. The organization was primarily engaged in media and educational activities. Together with the project implementers, they participated in three activities - an information campaign on donor calls, a long-term educational program for fundraisers and the superstructure of the donor system. As part of the information campaign, representatives of the partner organization helped set up the strategy, provided ongoing feedback and help with settings. Together they prepared the content of the educational program and a successful two-day workshop on Storytelling for fundraisers. They continuously communicated about the DARUJME.sk superstructure, where the partner provided information on several technical solutions. The Norwegian partner provided a new / different perspective on project activities and plans. Representatives of the partner organization also provided very specific assistance and training in building internal capacity in the field of communication and marketing. Norsensus Mediaforum also moved information on the latest trends in the topic of the project in Norway. During the project, friendly relations have been established and the organizations remain in contact. Successful cooperation led to another approved project in the ACF Slovakia program called "Crowdfunding - a tool to strengthen the financial independence of CSOs".