Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) publishes an analysis of trends in the development of online donation fora in Russia for 2019

12.11.2020

At least 240,000 people made donations via online platforms in 2019, raising 426 million roubles, which is 12-13% more than the previous year. However, the rate of growth has slowed with donations having increased 2.5 times between 2015 and 2017.

“Donors are starting to offer help more regularly, with the number of people making repeat donations having gone up five-fold. However, these generally involve small amounts rather than one-off donations”, said Yuliya Khodorova, a senior adviser to CAF. Consequently, the number of private individuals making repeat donations is rising, while growth in the rate of these contributions is slowing down.

Growth is continuing in the number of online donors, which in recent years has been around 30% per annum. According to Olga Maksimova, an analyst working for CAF, 2019 was the year when online fora made great efforts to promote the idea of small but regular help. For example, the Help is Needed charity organised a widespread campaign “A rouble a day”, which was successful in attracting a new audience ready and willing to help and support CSOs on a permanent basis and to take part in charitable work.

The platforms’ “market” is stabilising: the number of CSOs raising money on online fora is fairly steady, with no new sites having emerged during the last three years.

Variations in the amount of donations between platforms suggests that each one works differently and has its own particular audience. They organise promotions, hold specially-targeted collections and attract co-financing from businesses (matching). “For example, CAF holds #GenerousTuesday and other special events on blago.ru which attract new donors. According to our international colleagues, donors who take part in #GenerousTueday are more loyal and motivated”, Yuliya added.

A report containing the full results from the research can be downloaded from the CAF website (http://cafrussia.ru/news/view/320). Previous data can be found in the publication entitled “Online donation fora: 10 years in Russia” available on https://philanthropy.ru/analysis/2018/11/15/67062.

The following platforms took part in the study: DobroMail.ru, QIWI, Let’s do it!, Help is Needed, Take a Chance, blago.ru and Planeta.ru.

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2020/11/12/dinamika-razvitiya-platform-online-pozhertvovanij/