“Seizing the Moment” Crowdfunding Platform
One of the first volunteer fundraising platforms in Russia was the “Seizing the Moment” project from the Help Needed Charitable Foundation. Money for charity is collected here not by NGOs themselves, but by people who want to help a foundation. Anyone can create a fundraiser, an event or a charity auction, and the money raised will be transferred to the chosen NGO.
Volunteer fundraising is a fundraising strategy where money for charity is raised by supporters rather than the foundation itself
“Seizing the Moment” has existed since 2017, but over time it started to lose popularity. When I joined the foundation in 2022, my first big challenge was to give this project a new lease of life: to make it clear, engaging and playful. It was the first time that any of the foundation's projects had such a different style and character.
I redesigned the project, the interface for charity fundraising (including group donations) and charity events, and later I also designed new charity auction mechanics. Illustrations for the updated project were drawn by Margarita Cherepanova, and texts were written by Irina Skipor.
My colleagues at the Help Needed Charitable Foundation also made the guide to introduce users step by step with the redesigned “Seizing the Moment”.
In the first month after the relaunch, we raised more than 11.5 million rubles for the various funds. This is more than in the previous all 5 years of the project's existence.
Now on average 100 fundraisers and charity events with at least one donation are created on the platform every month. The average amount of donations per month is 3 million 600 thousand rubles, and more than 214 million rubles have already been collected.
In October 2023, we gathered feedback from NGOs and published an article about how “Seizing the Moment” helps foundations raise money for their work.
Charity fundraisers
Charity collection on “Seizing the Moment” platform is an opportunity for a user to offer his friends to please him in an unusual way - to transfer money to a fund that is important for him. Any reason is suitable: birthday, wedding, New Year's Eve or just for fun.
Charity events
Charity event on “Seizing the Moment” platform is an opportunity for a user to use skills and interests for charitable purposes: to organize a concert, a master class, a party, etc. The price of participation is a donation to charity fund chosen by the event organizer.
Creating a charity fundraiser or event
This is a step-by-step process that a user goes through. For both a fundraiser and an event, he can upload a cover, add a description, photos and videos, assign a cause or type of event, start and end date.
Previously, the most difficult step for the user was choosing a foundation. Based on the results of a survey with 100+ respondents, I simplified the interface, added filters by region of operation and by the problems addressed by a particular fund, with the ability to select multiple values. I also sorted the output so that the user could see the funds with the lowest or highest donations first.
Donation form
