A unique website is running that brings together ideas for Ukraine-based social projects and their potential funders. They’re being collected at Big Idea– http://biggggidea.com – where anyone can register free to promote their pet project in hopes of winning donations. However, commercial projects are not welcome.
Since its
launch in January 2012, the platform has collected more than Hr 136,000 from 520
donors for projects that range in health, the environment, art, children and
music.
Thus far, eight projects have reached their funding targets. One of them is the Crimean Family
Medical Center’s project to have several general practitioners provide online
consultations to distant villages on the peninsula. The group raised Hr 14, 131
to buy six computers and organize workshops for general practitioners.
And Niyas
Izmaylov received financing to purchase equipment for special rehabilitation
gyms and people who live with disabilities in Dzhankoy, a city in Crimea. He raised
about Hr 16,500 to buy two fitness machines and hold training sessions for coaches
to help disabled people.
Other
projects help benefit filmmakers, fashion designers and musicians.
For
example, Lviv-born Halyna Shyyan raised money to publish her book about writer DBC
Pierre called “Lights Out In Wonderland.”
“The most
important thing for me was to stimulate interest in my project and convince people
that it’s a worthy book for the Ukrainian market,” Shyyan said during her book presentation
in October at Book Arsenal.
Big Idea
co-founder Iryna Solovey stressed that successful projects should have clear
plans regarding how much money they need, what they can achieve without donor money
and what points of their program are the most important.
The way Big
Idea itself operates is rather simple. Everybody is free to “like” the project
and donate some money using the online iPay.ua payment system, as well as a
Visa or MasterCard. All the projects indicate their required funding goals and
deadline (no more than 100 days). Donations may start at Hr 1 and have gone as
high as Hr 6,200.
But project
applicants must realize that it’s an all-or-nothing bargain. If the project
turns out to be a success, meaning it reaches its funding goal, it gets the
money. In turn, Big Idea retains 2 percent of the money raised for website
development. Should a project fail to
raise the desired money, the money is returned to donors.
Solovey and
co-founder Oleksandr Suprunets said a sense of cultural and social
responsibility motivated them to create the website. They said they want to help
people who care about the country but don’t know where to start.
To do this,
they received grants from Ukraine National Initiatives to Enhance Reforms, a project
funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Charles Stewart
Mott Foundation and the National Endowment for Democracy. They also raised Hr
38,260 in donations for the website.
Solovey
said that it’s important to offer donors something they can’t buy. That’s why
team members created several presents to reward donors – including signed
books, T-shirts, notebooks, CDs, tickets, etc. “People need to feel an emotional
connection to the project they donate money to, that’s why we work with the
teams and help them work out a proper program,” Solovey said.
“Ukrainians
are rather generous people,” Solovey added. “It’s more difficult to find
potential projects that are important for society.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can
be reached at [email protected]
