“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 raised here not by NGOs themselves, but by people who want to help a certain foundation. A user can create a fundraiser or organize an event, and the money raised will be sent to the charity he or she has chosen.
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 fundraisers) and charity events, and later I also designed new charity auction mechanics.
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.
On average, 100 charity fundraisers and events with at least one donation are created each month on “Seizing the Moment”. The average amount of donations per month is 3 million 600 thousand rubles, and more than 214 million rubles have 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.
Donation form
I designed the form (both for fundraising and for taking part in the event for donations), making it a single component for the whole project. Later this component will be reused also for bidding in charity auctions.
Creating a charity fundraiser or event
This is a step-by-step process so the users can:
- Choose or create their own cause.
- Select a fund to which the collected money will be donated. The list is formed from a catalog of verified organizations: users can find NGOs by name, problem to be solved and region of help.
- Upload their own cover or choose from a variety of options.
- Add title, description, photo and video.
- Clarify the financial goal and end date. They can also make the fundraiser open-ended or intentionally not set a goal for it.
- Customize visibility and if desired, add a text of thanks that will be seen by everyone who supported the fundraiser.
When creating an event, the users can also specify the recommended donation amount for participation, start and end date, format, time and city of the event.
