Russia: light-hearted look at failures in the charitable sector.
What CSOs receive to reward their honesty and how this can promote charity work
15.02.2026
Article published on the givingjournal.ru website
The Prichini Goda is a light-hearted annual prize awarded to recognise CSOs who have faced major challenges during the year and to create a space for an honest discussion of mistakes and failures.
On 13 February, Moscow hosted the third Prichini Goda prize-giving ceremony, which, in a tongue-in-cheek way, portrays the non-profit sector in an unusual light by highlighting its failures as well as the successes.
CSOs are used to talking about their achievements publicly: fundraising, saving, opening, launching. However, they are less keen speaking about their failures and do so very rarely, usually once a year at the award’s event, organised and hosted by Evgenia Korytina, creator and producer of the Prichini.dobro Telegram channel. Here, they discuss things which are never mentioned in reports or press releases: “We were just one point short”, “the bus broke down”, “our partner cancelled the trip five days in advance”, “the QR codes were out of date”, “my body failed me”. This “unserious” award is gradually becoming an important source of information about what’s really happening in the non-profit sector.
The format
Fuck-up Nights is the most famous international format, an initiative that began in 2012 and which has grown into a network of events around the world. It is also a familiar business concept. They are public or internal corporate meetings where entrepreneurs and managers share stories of their failures, e.g. identifying what went awry, how much it cost, and what decisions turned out to be wrong. Basically, it is a collective stand-up show where each participant has seven to ten minutes to speak.
Another pioneer of the genre is FailCon, a whole conference focused on start-up failures, which was launched in San Francisco in 2009 to counter the claim that the sector is only interested in publicising its successes. In Russia, such parties are also held in the business community. However, there has never before been such an emphasis on professional failings in the non-profit sector.
But the key difference between the Prichini Goda award format and similar business events is the principle of universal participation. “The evening is organised not for the community but by the community itself. Contributions can come in all forms. Gifts are brought by the audience themselves, which allows everyone to showcase their creativity and feel involved”, said Korytina.
How it works in Moscow
For the third time, the audience was welcomed to the inclusive Raznye Zerna café, the only such place in the city that employs people with disabilities. The format consists of a microphone, live sound and tables arranged around a makeshift stage. The tone of the evening is set by the host and creator of the award Evgenia Korytina: fast-paced stand-up, interaction, and cutting-edge humour that also involves the audience. Here, people can joke about a wide range of topics, interrupt, come up with punchlines, hand out gifts and offer support to the winners, losers and other nominees for the award. These are essentially brave and funny individuals, who are not afraid to talk frankly and critically about their work.
Evgenia introduces the finalists who take the microphone, speak about their failures and burnout, receive support from the audience and prizes from the party sponsors. From time to time, their stories are interspersed with a sale of dishes by waiters from Raznye Zerna, who try to work out what food each guest has ordered: “Whose Greek salad is this?”, “Who ordered the Romaine sandwich?”.
Applications for the award begin several weeks before the party: this year, more than 30 organisations submitted nominations. Public voting then takes place, ending promptly at 7pm as soon as the party starts. All the results can be viewed in real time on the website. The award itself is an improvised “Oscar”, a trophy in the form of a golden dog on fire, printed on Louise Matvienko’s 3-D printer. The prizes include gifts brought by the audience and the party’s sponsors, as well as other things that are particularly valued by organisations such as expert advice, training programmes, media support certificates, including from the awards’ media partner, the Giving Journal. And there are also gifts to lift the spirits, including vitamin supplements, relaxation masks and scented candles.
An entrepreneur, Polina Soloukhina from Vladimir, who has her own Ne Gryzi sweets brand, created a limited range of Ne Gryzi Sebya lollipops especially for the award. The Mir da Lad Centre donated inclusive board games both to the Raznye Zerna café and the award nominees. Some chose to contribute financially.
Alexander Leukhin (ADRA Aid Centre) and Ilya Sharov (Friends4Impact) covered the costs of the sounds’ engineer and corkage fees respectively. Prizes were also awarded for stories told by the finalists, for example a project that provides psychological support for teenagers “I can” explained how it was rejected three times on different platforms. At the party, the team received a gift from the Mixplat company – a fitness platform which is sure to be a hit.
Various tales were told on stage. Burnout of the Year nominee, Tatyana Afonina, compared herself to a horse pulling two 35-kg teams across the country, and likened burnout to a daily rebirth of the phoenix, having experienced losses in her personal life as well as health issues.
Kirill Sindeev of the “Dog Helpers” Training and Canine Centre shared their story. Last year, they were nominated for the award in the We Tried but Fell Just Short category. The organisation’s application for a grant from T-Bank was turned down because information on the budget had been entered in the wrong column. But the story had a happy ending. After the party, T-Bank decided to support the Centre, placing it second on the list of search results on the bank’s applications page, which made up for the loss of the grant. In the end, the team went on to win another grant worth one million roubles.
There were some funny stories too. One was from the Mamin Theatre project, which staged a charity performance about blind artists and performers for people with disabilities. Due to an error by the contractor, hearing-impaired people, rather those with visual impediments, were invited to the event and who ended up falling asleep in the auditorium.
The final act was a short poem by Maria Polyanskaya about a fuck-up party and a burnt-out farmer, at the end of which Evgenia Korytina told her audience “Don’t forget to record all your failings in advance so that by the end of the year you can’t say that everything was perfect and successful and, by so doing, give yourself enough time to apply for the award”. She herself received a separate prize for her brilliant stand-up routine.
This year, on the day of the Moscow party, Natalya Sokolova from the Easy Step Support Centre, organised a similar event in Achinsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai as she is a great admirer of the format. Eighteen people from local non-profit organisations came to the first meeting at the café in order to get to know each other, share their stories, laugh and support one another.
Winners of the Prichini Goda award
The prize is awarded in three categories: “We tried our best but just fell short” (fundraising failures), “Burnout of the Year” and “Fuck-up of the Year” (failures not related to money or fatigue).
This year’s winner of the “We tried our best…….” category was Yulia Mazur of the Heroes Among Us CSO. Her organisation made four attempts to obtain grants but were unsuccessful each time. In the first instance, they were just 0.25 points short, next they were told that they didn’t have sufficient co-funding, even though it was 51%. On the third occasion, it was seven points short, with the comment that the ideas in their application were too philosophical. By the fourth time, the team was exhausted. “We still intend to go ahead with the project but agreed to take expert advice before making another grant application to help our people recover”, said Mazur.
The undisputed but at the same time the “saddest” winner according to the audience was the team from the Live Now charity. They didn’t attend the event because, as they said in their nomination, they were in no mood for jokes. They won the vote in the Fuck-up of the Year category by a huge margin. Their application referred to some very serious issues: “wages owed”, “conflict with a line manager”, “the departure of some of the team and burnout among the rest”. There was also a request to involve lawyers and mediators willing to support the charity during this difficult period.
Tatyana Afonina, Ambassador for the Volunteers of Culture CSO, preserves the memory and creative legacy of Soviet theatre and film actors among young people, erects monuments to Soviet actors and directors, and works as a tour guide at the Donskoy cemetery. Tatyana was the unanimous winner in the Burnout of the Year category and said from the stage. “This is no longer burnout but my normal working temperature. Like a tired phoenix spitting ashes and overcoming the lure of my bed, I crawl towards the railway station with two 30-35kg suitcases, proudly telling everyone that I’m bringing culture to the masses”.
Tatyana’s cases contain an exhibition-quest for old films. “I realise that no-one else will do this apart from me. I’ll leave, the young people will go and watch new films and forget about good old Soviet cinema. I should stop because I cry in despair after every trip…but no, I stubbornly drag myself to more and more different parts of the country”, she said.
Other nominees for the We tried really hard but fell just short category
Oksana Chernova of the We are with you CSO applied for a Presidential Grant for a project to help elderly people but fell one point short. But then the fun began. The “grandmothers” recorded a video message to the judges, turning rejection into a media event and a source of internal motivation for the team.
Anastasia Averina. A country estate festival survived lawsuits, power cuts, torrential rain and inspections by the authorities. The result was an event that virtually no-one attended and an experience in risk management in the field.
The Mama’s Soul CSO. For almost a year, it “fought” the Ministry of Justice’s private office to publish a report to avoid losing a partner but with no success.
Margarita Filneva. Her team created the “ideal project” but it was turned down due to some silly technicality. The reply read “rejected because the signature was illegible”.
The psychological support project for teenagers “I can”. It’s the same story of verifications and platforms. Three “no’s”: one from a major player, a year waiting for another, followed by another that went from “congratulations” to “sorry we can’t help you” in one day.
Burnout of the Year category
Mila Geranina. After eight years working for the same organisation and ten years in the sector as a whole, Mila decided to leave her job. This story demonstrates that quitting is sometimes the best way of dealing with a crisis.
The Clean Seas Environment Charity. The Holidays in the Arctic Museum bus regularly visits various cities but breakdowns have occurred season after season. When the vehicle broke down yet again, the team realised that not only the engine but also the crew had burned out. Guinaz Izmaylova described a key sign of burnout. “I fell into humanitarian work but couldn’t get up”. This is the moment when the body literally chooses to stop rather than being heroic.
Iskra, a CSO that provides a mentoring service for orphans, had to operate for a whole year without financial support despite facing many challenges. Burnout was the result of a situation where there are more ideas than resources.
Fuck-up of the Year category
Anna Mezhova entrusted her successful charity to friends, only to see how financial stability can be destroyed in a year. A management shake-up, “tick-box” measures and the disappearance of a large sum of money led to Anna’s departure from her own charity.
Ekaterina Demidova spent a year building a relationship with an artist she planned to ask for help, but one day she accidentally sent him a message with a silly video.
The Ticket to the USSR project sold the idea of a trip to an “adult camp”, agreed a programme and menu, only to learn five days later that it had been cancelled due to a fire that resulted in the camp’s closure.
Alexander. This AI expert “slept through” an offer to stand in for a colleague at a workshop because he hadn’t logged into a conversation for a month.
Anastasia Pletmintseva, Sport for Life charity. A strong application for a Potanin grant was rejected for one reason: it turned out that a previous agreement had been inadvertently cancelled in January this year instead of last December which, according to the rules, meant that it couldn’t be approved.
Information on all the award nominees can be found on the https://prichini.ru website.
What the results of this year’s award event mean for the sector
The sector is maturing and prepared to look critically, not only at its strategy and mission, but also its mistakes and failures
What all these stories have in common is that project authors are prepared to carry on with their work despite all the difficulties and challenges, which is why this format is so therapeutic. When an organisation talks openly about its problems and failures, it not only helps them but also the sector as a whole. It is an opportunity for everyone to think about the risks involved, to know what to check and to have a contingency plan. It’s a pity that only the smaller rather than the larger systemic CSOs have so far decided to engage in such self-analysis, although it is clear that the latter have made mistakes and suffered failures.
CSOs lack structure and infrastructure
Reading through the nominations, it’s clear that for many CSOs the problem is not so much a lack of ideas or motivation, but more the absence of a clearly-defined organisational structure: equipment breaks down, the website isn’t ready, poor payment procedures, accessing Government services is incredibly difficult and partners change their working hours.
Perhaps this is an indication that CSOs are still not accustomed to investing in operational activities and inviting professionals to undertake various tasks such as production, technical and legal support, quality control and project management.
Burnout – the first signs of crisis in CSOs
People in the sector continue to suffer from burnout. It’s a widespread concern and one of the things that was particularly noticeable in the award category nominees. There are many reasons for this, e.g. organisational difficulties and incompetent management. Even the most driven teams will not get far on motivation alone. Burnout has long since become a management rather than a mental issue.
This is an important signal for the whole sector. Caring not only for those in need and volunteers, but also for colleagues and employees is key to an organisation’s sustainability.
Communications is an important element in a CSO’s work
Judging from the nominees’ stories, failures often occur at the communication stage: not joining the conversation on time, writing something that’s inaccurate, not agreeing on things in advance, not giving people enough notice. Communication rules and horizontal connections are just as relevant to an organisation’s work as stable funding and sound planning.
Analysing mistakes is a sign of maturity
What unites all this year’s award winners is not that they have failed at something, but more an indication of their lack of professional experience. It’s clear that organisations are ready for reflection and self-analysis, to evaluate risks, record mistakes and work to rectify them. It is an approach that builds trust more than showcasing achievements. Prichini Goda shows that the sector does not have to be perfect to be sustainable.
Community – a real work tool
Experts talk a lot about working with communities – the meetings of the Prichini chat community and the Prichini.dobro channel are living proof that real communities exist in the non-profit sector. The award is not just a networking opportunity but also a resource that helps people find partners, build friendships and develop joint projects.
