MegaFon has become the general sponsor of Russian football. For six years
MegaFon, a leading Russian telecom operator, announces the signing of an agreement with the Russian Football Union. Under the terms of the agreement, MegaFon becomes the General Partner Russian football from 2016 to 2018.
The signing of a partnership agreement was the next step towards strengthening cooperation between the mobile operator and the RFU and another stage of the support program Russian sports, which MegaFon has been consistently implementing for many years.
“Cooperation with MegaFon allows us to implement socially important projects - together we have been successfully holding football competitions among orphanage teams “The Future Depends on You” for 10 years, in which children from all over Russia participate. We are very pleased to continue and expand the partnership - we plan to solve even larger problems of attracting interest in football. Thanks to MegaFon’s help, we will be able to continue our efforts to popularize this sport,” said the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation, President of the RFU Vitaly Mutko.
The General Partner status provides not only financial support for the development of Russian football, but also the popularization of football in the country as a whole. Therefore, with the participation of MegaFon, it is planned to implement large-scale projects that will allow every fan to feel truly involved in the largest football events, even if they cannot be personally present at the stadium.
“I believe that the development of sports in Russia is one of the priorities not only at the state level, but also for socially responsible business. For Alisher Usmanov and the MegaFon company, work in this direction is one of the main priorities,” noted MegaFon CEO Ivan Tavrin. “Thanks to the technology we have as a leading telecommunications operator, we can provide access to football and sports competitions to all Russians, regardless of what region or city they are in.”
In the near future, the partners will introduce to the market a publicly available and free “Mobile Trainer” application, with the help of which everyone will be able to train using modern methods in real time via a smartphone or tablet. With the help of MegaFon's fast and accessible mobile Internet throughout the country, you can play football anywhere - in the gym, at the school stadium or in the yard.
High-quality communication from MegaFon will allow fans to share the most important highlights match with friends. And during Euro 2016, MegaFon and the RFU will open a fan zone where you can watch the progress of the main matches live.
True, not alone, but together with OJSC Rostelecom. Both operators will transfer $260 million to the Russian organizing committee. Half of this amount will be transferred in the form of cash, and half in the form of communication infrastructure facilities.
The management of MegaFon at a press conference in Moscow announced the launch of a support program Winter Olympics and the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi. We are talking about a multi-year program, lasting six years, that is, until the 2016 Olympics, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro. The first stage of the sponsorship program begins now, in anticipation of Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada. MegaFon will share the general partnership with Rostelecom, the size of the sponsorship contribution for both will be $260 million, and both partners will divide it equally among themselves. “Our half of the partner contribution is also divided into two parts,” explained MegaFon Public Relations Director Pyotr Lidov, “one half is paid in cash to the Olympic organizing committee for six years, and the second half will be transferred in the form of various communication services. We're going to provide communications Olympic Committee, various companies related to the preparation of the Olympics, construction organizations, etc. In addition, we envisage very large investments in the development of the communication infrastructure of the city of Sochi. This is our own investment. Bye we're talking about about the construction of 3G networks, but if another technology replaces it by 2014, we are ready to provide the most modern solution in Sochi.”
In accordance with the partnership agreement, only MegaFon base stations will operate at the Olympic venues; there will be no equipment from other operators there.
The head of the MegaFon marketing department, Igor Pepelyaev, noted that winning the sponsorship competition was not so easy. “We first came to the Olympic organizing committee the year before last. I can only say that it was a tough and aggressive fight, but according to the rules accepted in sports. It was also not easy - to discuss the contractual relations that we built with organizing committee, because everything was built from scratch. In modern Russia, for the first time, the Olympics are being organized with the involvement of commercial partners. And the victory that we won together with Rostelecom in such a sport as Olympic sponsorship only confirms our leadership,” he says. MegaFon Deputy General Director for Strategic Issues Tigran Poghosyan, in turn, drew the attention of journalists to the fact that it was also the first time that two telecommunications operators became sponsors of the Olympics.
Head of the Marketing Department of MegaFon OJSC Maxim Pepelyaev
and Deputy General Director for Strategic Projects
Tigran Poghosyan tells reporters about the details of the sponsorship agreement
As for financial support for individual sports and athletes, MegaFon management is in no hurry to announce these figures, explaining this by operating expenses, which will be determined in each individual case. “We, of course, plan to involve the most prominent athletes and teams in individual sports in the advertising campaign, but our main task is to support sports as such,” noted Igor Pepelyaev.
There are no special roaming offers for fans traveling to Vancouver to support Russian Olympians. According to top managers, this would be too expensive, as it would involve multimillion-dollar financial investments. Nevertheless, MegaFon is preparing a number of loyalty programs related to the Olympics for its subscribers. Thus, from January 11 to February 28, subscribers can answer questions in a special quiz, receiving points for correct answers. Based on the results of each week, a winner will be determined. Then, at the next stage, the winner will be able to assemble his own team of friends to participate in the grand prix drawing. As a result, the captain of the winning team will have the opportunity to use unlimited communications until 2014, and the remaining participants will be awarded valuable prizes.
Tigran Poghosyan also drew attention to the fact that supporting the Paralympic Games, in which, as is known, disabled athletes take part, imposes a special responsibility on the operator. “It’s important not only to prepare sports objects in the city of Sochi, it is important to change people’s consciousness so that people with disabilities feel comfortable and are not an object of ridicule,” he believes.
“We have been supporting the sport for many years. For us, this is not a fashion trend, it is a natural development,” sums up Petr Lidov.
Roman Prokolov, head of social programs and special projects at MegaFon, spoke about the social projects of one of the major mobile operators in an interview with Philanthropist.
MegaFon has quite a few different social programs and promotions. How are they related to each other? How is the choice made?
MegaFon is an all-Russian company. We conduct 99% of our operations in our country. Therefore, we do not consider ourselves cut off from the processes and events that are taking place here. And, among other things, from the problems that exist in our country. MegaFon has been involved in social activities for quite a long time and systematically: we have a number of long-term projects. For ourselves, we determine that the company should give people not only technology, but also the opportunity to communicate. Moreover, we understand communication in a broad sense: no matter what problems and difficulties people have, it is important that they have no barriers to communication.
What charitable projects do you consider the main ones?
We have chosen several priority areas of social support. This is, first of all, development children's sports and sports for the disabled. Main children's project – Open Championship Russia in football among orphanages and boarding schools, which is called “The Future Depends on You.”
Moscow stage of the “The Future Depends on You” Championship
Why did you choose football for orphans?
According to official statistics, in our country today there are hundreds of thousands of orphans. This project is not so much about football, but about social adaptation. Because, unfortunately, there is a sad statistic: when children leave orphanages, many cannot adapt normally. They are less likely to start families, some join the ranks of prisoners, etc. According to official data at the end of the 90s, 10% of orphanage graduates even committed suicide.
We chose sport as a form of adaptation. Football is perhaps the most beloved game all over the world, played by both children and adults. This is a team game, it gives you the ability to interact and set goals. This is also an introduction to healthy image life. In addition, when children are passionate about something, they have less time for bad thoughts and actions.
What is MegaFon's role here?
MegaFon completely created the championship. The project arose in 2005, at first it was local competitions in the North-West region. Over the course of several years, it has grown into an all-Russian championship, in which today about 5,000 people from dozens of regions participate, from the Far East to Kaliningrad. MegaFon is the organizer and main sponsor of this championship. Starting last year, it acquired official status. Our partners are the Russian Football Union and the Ministry of Sports. We also received support from the Ministry of Education.
How can children become participants?
Together with the Russian Football Union and the Ministry of Sports, we inform the management of orphanages and boarding schools that tournaments are being held. Some orphanages already have football sections- This is the basis for creating a team. Where there are none, but the children want to participate, the question of preparation arises: either the physical education teacher begins to work with the children, or an outside coach comes as a volunteer. There are teams where there is not even a coach - they play themselves. Age: from 11 to 14 years. And, by the way, not only boys - there are teams where even several girls play, along with boys.
First, local competitions are held, then in macro-regions (Ural, North-West, Siberia, Central region), and the final is traditionally held in Sochi. Winners - 2 teams (junior and older groups) - before the New Year, they are going to the base of the British team Arsenal, co-owned by our shareholder Alisher Usmanov. There they have the opportunity to get acquainted with the life of a professional football club.
For most, this is their first trip abroad. This is a fantastic experience for the kids, a real Christmas fairy tale. After all, for them even leaving the orphanage is already an event. They play with peers from the Arsenal youth academy. By the way, they play almost on an equal footing; the professionals highly appreciate the training of our athletes.
Final of the “The Future Depends on You” Championship. Victory of the Tajikistan team
The project has been running for seven years. How do you evaluate the results? How many children took part? Is there data on who then started doing what, etc.?
Of course, we look at the results. At the initial stage, several dozen children participated. Now this is about 7,000 people. This is already quite a large coverage, and maybe even more.
What then... We involve sports specialists, and, for example, representatives of the Football Union come to the final in Sochi. They look after their own children. I know that two of those who have already graduated from school entered sports universities. Several were invited to youth teams and offered to play sports professionally. This best result, when for children sport becomes a path to life and guaranteed social adaptation.
Some do not go further along the path of professional sports, but we are following their fate. Statistics show that there are much fewer unsettled people among this audience. If, according to official data, only 10% of orphanage graduates adapt normally, then among ours this percentage is much higher.
How do you manage to track their fate, who is doing this? Does the information come from orphanages or maybe you cooperate with some NGO?
We cooperate with the Football for Children charity foundation. There gathered people who are professionally involved in charity work and have sports training. We monitor it ourselves, because there are branches in almost every city. There are specialists in the company who are responsible for holding competitions at the regional level. They are in direct contact with orphanages and coaches. Since this is not a one-time event, we receive information that this helps the guys...
It became clear about this championship. Please tell us more about sports for the disabled.
We have another long-term project that we started from scratch and are also very proud of – supporting disabled athletes. For people with disabilities, such athletes are real heroes. We sincerely believe that supporting such people helps solve not only their problems, but also the problems of other disabled people. Their examples give people strength and self-confidence.
Unfortunately, it is very sad that public interest in the Paralympic Games is, as a rule, an order of magnitude lower than in the Olympic Games. MegaFon, by the way, is one of the few partners of the Olympics that is also a partner of the Paralympics...
In addition, we support specific sports. With the participation of the company, a national sledge hockey team was created in Russia.
Sledge hockey as a sport was born in a rehabilitation center in Stockholm in the early 1960s. A sledge hockey player's equipment includes two special sticks with a metal end with teeth at one end. Instead of skates, hockey players ride on sleds with runners.
Until recently, our country did not have a national team for this sport. We invested significant funds - about $2 million - in creating such a professional team and inviting a coach. In the 2 years that this team has existed, the guys have already begun to participate in international tournaments, where they are among the winners and even take first place. The team has a high chance of winning the Paralympics.
Victory of the Russian sledge hockey team at the World Championships in Serbia
We also support boccia competitions for disabled children (cat: sport game on precision, belonging to the family of ball games, close to bowling, petanque and bowls having common origins in ancient games common throughout the Roman Empire). This is one of the few sports that is available to people with cerebral palsy. We support amputee football tournaments, wheelchair tennis...
We make a clear division: large sport events, such as Olympic Games, is not charity. This is sponsorship and an opportunity to reach an audience of potential clients and announce yourself. This is a purely commercial project, because interest is traditionally very high. As for Paralympic sports, which certainly has a smaller audience, we do not solve advertising problems here. The main task is to attract attention to these people and solve social problems. Because these are people who need help.
Big companies should be beacons for other companies. Charity is not a zone of competition, but a zone of synergy and cooperation. It's always better to do things together. Then the result will be better. Our task is not only to try to solve social problems, but also to find like-minded people and attract them.
Which charity project, in your opinion, gave the greatest result in terms of reputation bonus?
From a reputation point of view, it is important that the company does not limit itself to one-time promotions. Children's football sounded loud. Partners are joining: both government agencies and clubs. Everything is for real at the games. These players are not spoiled fixed matches, everything is fair. If it’s a victory, it’s a victory, if it’s tears, then it’s tears...
We have many other projects: creating a barrier-free environment for people with disabilities, and special services for them, and environmental campaigns, and educational ones, when children and elderly people are taught, for example, how to protect themselves from telephone scammers. There is also the “MegaFon Gives a Legend” program, when “city events” are created in the Volga region: monuments associated with the legends of a city. For example, in Saratov a sculpture-monument appeared of the same married guy from the song, whom some girl loves very much. They become city landmarks, places of pilgrimage local residents…
Yes, orphans with orphans are something. Why ONLY orphans, because most often these are no longer available to them after leaving the orphanage. And it would be better if children from families could go to football boarding schools. It's time to change our attitude towards this process. Otherwise, it will be “orphans with orphans” - “orphans for orphans.” Orphans again... well, Roman already
November 17, 2016This fall, the “I'm Without a Mother” foundation for the protection of abandoned babies opened an inclusive playground in Rostov-on-Don. Now in the center of the city there is a small island where a variety of children play together. Even a child in a wheelchair can build sand castles and ride on swings here.
To create such a platform for the laureates of the National Award for Good Deeds “We Can Do It Together!” MegaFon helped. Head of Corporate Communications and Philanthropy Yulia GANINA told us about how social projects change the consciousness of orphans, children with disabilities begin to love sports and communicate with healthy peers, and young football players from orphanages and boarding schools find new parents.
– Yulia, what projects does MegaFon support? What are your selection criteria?
– We have been involved in charity work almost since the founding of the company, and at the beginning it was a somewhat chaotic story. We supported everyone who turned to us, carried out our own projects: environmental, sports, for children - but they were practically not connected with each other, they were united only by our personal sympathy and desire to help.
Over time, the number of requests for help increased so much that we decided to systematize our efforts. We talked a lot with experts, government officials, company analysts and employees of large NPOs with extensive experience in charitable activities. As a result, we received several key recommendations: increase transparency and systematicity in the selection of projects (so that it does not come down only to an emotional impulse) and strengthen their connection with the specifics of our business. MegaFon is one of the largest federal telecom operators, and we have no competence, for example, in the field of baby nutrition or medicine. But we unite people across the country, bring innovative solutions and technologies into their lives, and remove barriers to communication. Therefore, our projects are related to topics such as barrier-free environment, socialization through sports and culture, distance learning, inclusive programs, and we mainly help orphans and children without parental care, and people with disabilities. For three years now, MegaFon has had a Charity Policy, which clearly defines our key areas and criteria for selecting projects, so now our work has become much easier and clearer.
As an example, I’ll tell you about one of our projects, which fully meets the criteria of efficiency, transparency and consistency. This is the “Sports Together” program. For real!”, which was born from the initiative of the public organization of disabled people “Perspective”. Volunteers organized a parafestival in an ordinary school near Moscow and realized that healthy children and children with physical disabilities communicate well with each other, and all the barriers are in the heads of the parents. “Perspective” and I took this idea of unification as a basis, attracted physical education teachers and began conducting joint physical education lessons in schools in different regions of Russia. Now, during classes, children with disabilities do not sit on a bench, but try a variety of sports available to them: boccia, handball, wheelchair volleyball, sledge hockey. Powerlifting is suddenly gaining popularity among girls! In the first half of the year, the project involved almost 700 children from 23 schools in six cities: approximately two thirds of the participants were children with disabilities, and one third were their healthy peers. Dozens of specialists and volunteers helped organize hundreds of additional lessons on physical culture and six sessions of sports exclusive camps. Major events are also held - Parasports Days and city Parafestivals. The fact that the Ministry of Education has become interested in it and is supporting the initiative in the 2016-2017 academic year speaks volumes in support of the project.
Another interesting project is a mobile application for orphans “Life Guide”, which we developed together with the “Our Children” foundation. This is a kind of guide for graduates of orphanages throughout Russia who are just starting to live independently, without daily supervision and care. Here you can get answers to many questions, from everyday to global. What to do if you have lost your passport? How to choose products and prepare meals? How to meet a girl? Where is the best place to go to study? There are also tips on money, shopping, safety, and personal relationships. The application is based on a book previously published by the foundation; it can be downloaded to your phone for free and always kept at hand, which is much more convenient than a printed edition. Before launching the Life Guide application, our employees tested it, many of whom noted that they themselves would not mind using such an application.
I can’t help but tell you about another project that I personally really like. This “Living for Real” program , which we conduct together with ANO "New Development Technologies". It helps to get rid of one of the most important problems of upbringing in orphanages - a dependent approach to life. Orphans get used to the fact that everything is done for them and for them. Three or four students will be put up, placed in a technical school, New Year Five smartphones will be given as a gift from large companies; after reaching adulthood, they will be given an apartment. What then? You are an adult, no one tells you what to do every day, and you are sure that everyone around you owes you. We are changing this attitude towards the lives of children in orphanages and forming a different consciousness in them! Together with specialists, the guys are engaged in social design: they develop charity projects and implement them throughout the year. By doing good for others, they begin to believe that they themselves can do a lot - and not without reason. For example, one of the teams built a playground in the courtyard next to the orphanage: the guys themselves wrote official letters to the administration, received permits, sought funding, built, painted, organized a grand opening and invited the head of the city to it. He came, cut the ribbon, and then residents from the neighboring yard began asking: “When will we have such a site?!” This project is good because it creates ripples in the water: there are more and more good deeds. Today, six regions and 30 orphanages participate in it: we train teachers and volunteers - we pass on knowledge to them, and then our investments continue to live independently.
Total for this moment we implement projects together with 40 foundations and interact with more than 80 NPOs in all regions of the country. Partners are selected by our Charity Committee, which includes representatives of a variety of departments and departments. For example, representatives of the economic security service check the transparency of the fund in terms of documentation and financial activities, the lawyer examines the presence of potential risks and compliance of the project with the law, and the HR manager and public relations specialists evaluate the proposed methods for solving social problems and their potential effectiveness. It is important for us that successful experience can be extended to other cities and that the project becomes better and of higher quality thanks to our help, but at the same time can develop independently in the future.
– Systematic projects are generally in trend now. But no one cancels situations when people need one-time help. Paying for an operation, buying a prosthesis, renovating emergency housing... It is clear that in the context of global changes this is nothing. But in the context of one person's life, it means a lot. What about one-time support?
– I understand that we receive a lot of such requests on [email protected]. But to really make a difference, private transfers of money are not entirely effective: unfortunately, sometimes cases of improper spending of funds or even fraud still arise. To solve these problems more effectively, we find a specialized fund and redirect the person there. When in trouble, people begin to act emotionally: they make fan mailings, write “to the whole world.” But it will be much more effective and faster to contact the address - an organization that deals with your problem (helps the poor, collects money for treatment, and so on). You can also try raising funds on crowdfunding platforms - this method has recently been very effective.
MegaFon has a certain budget for charitable activities - 180 million rubles per year, and it is mainly distributed among system projects.
– Have you ever met any charitable organizations that left a bad aftertaste after collaborating with them?
In the beginning it happened like this. We were sent requests duplicating government grants; we were asked to renovate a kitchen or room in an orphanage, although the state budget was allocated for this, or to train doctors who would then give paid consultations. But we simply do not enter into such projects. Due to the fact that MegaFon works with thousands of contractors in all areas of its core business, the company has a well-built inspection and control system, which helps us in selecting partners for charitable activities.
– When talking about the “Guide to Life”, you mentioned that the application was tested by your employees. How do you involve them in the company's philanthropic activities?
– Our employees participate in the company’s social initiatives voluntarily – the most active of them even create their own charitable movements! There are about ten people at the head office who have been supporting an orphanage and an “adult” orphanage near Ryazan for many years.
The role of the Charity Committee here is to assist and guide employees by spreading the word about smart philanthropy. Is it worth giving alms on the street or is it better to send monthly, albeit small, deductions from your salary to a charitable foundation? Should I buy gifts for the orphanage or is it better to help the children prepare for exams? In addition, we have a good notice board where information about charitable events in which you can participate is published.
And, of course, employees are involved in MegaFon’s most famous project - the All-Russian football competition among teams of orphanages and boarding schools “The Future Depends on You.” These competitions have been held since 2005 and are built according to the traditional pattern football championship: pass first regional stages, then the final in Sochi. Winning teams in senior and younger groups are awarded a prize trip to London, to visit the legendary Arsenal club. Over 11 years, more than 30 thousand children took part in the championship. The additional value of the project is that it also helps our young athletes find new parents. The tournament involves children from the most difficult age group for adoption - from 10 to 14 years. Together with the “Change One Life” foundation, we create their video profiles, thanks to which future mothers and fathers see children with different eyes: with the will to win, determination, and thirst for life! The fear of an almost adult child recedes. In three years, we have already filmed about 1,400 video profiles, and 279 children have found families. This allows us to be truly proud of this important project and happy to talk about it.
You know, I often hear the question: is it necessary to talk about charity at all? And the answer to this is often negative. But in vain. After all, the goal here is not at all to create additional features for PR. We are not trying to sell more of our services through social activity - we are simply talking about the most successful practices that we have tested in our experience so that they become more widespread, become more powerful, and attract new partners.
That is why we are always looking for new ways to communicate with all potential participants in the charity market in Russia. For example, for the second year in a row we are one of the organizers of a training conference for foundations and non-profit organizations “DOBRO”. The purpose of this event is to increase the effectiveness of the dialogue between all participants: in April of this year, the conference was attended by dozens of business representatives and almost one and a half hundred foundations and NGOs from all over Russia.
In September 2016, we invited federal and regional media and bloggers to take part in our competition for the best material on a social topic #help for real. The authors attend dozens of events organized by us together with partners across the country, from Moscow to Khabarovsk, take exclusive interviews with project participants and organizers, and share stories with their readers and viewers. Thanks to this, not only our employees, but also thousands of people throughout Russia learn about the real state of charity in the country, begin to become interested in this topic - and as a result, a society is formed that really cares. And together we can truly do more!
Charity experience from MegaFon
For three years, MegaFon interacted with NGOs and charitable foundations throughout Russia, together with which it implemented many useful social significant projects. The charity curator of the Siberian branch of MegaFon talks about how this interaction is structured, what philanthropists expect from representatives of the non-profit sector, what manifestations of unprofessionalism they encounter, and how they try to fight them. Maria Malkina.
Please tell us how it all started? How did a business company, which is a priori aimed at making a profit, come up with the idea of doing charity?
In 2005, MegaFon launched a children's football tournament among teams of children from orphanages and boarding schools, “The Future Depends on You.” Then we realized that this category of children needed to be dealt with, we got to know them, learned about their interests, needs, and decided how we could really help them. Originating in St. Petersburg, the tournament developed and eventually appeared in other cities and regions of Russia.
In addition, many people began to contact us with various requests for help: they asked for help in implementing a project, to provide targeted assistance to a specific person, to public organizations... It gradually became clear that if we want to develop this area, to help people effectively, competently and professionally, we need a regulatory document. So MegaFon adopted a policy on charitable activities. It spells out three areas of assistance: support for orphans, people with disabilities and employees of our company, of whom we have 32 thousand people. This is our conscious decision, because we are sure that unsystematic charity, in which they try to close all the gaps at once, does not produce any results. We have allocated a separate budget for charity, which comes from the company’s net profit. This is the money that MegaFon is ready to invest in the development of social well-being.
What amounts does MegaFon allocate to charity?
The program's budget is federal and is not divided by region. In 2014, the MegaFon company in Russia spent 150 million rubles on charity, in 2015 - already 180 million rubles. Not without pride, I can say that 16 million rubles of this amount were transferred to charity in Siberia. They went to projects related to supporting orphans and people with disabilities in Novosibirsk, Tomsk and Kuzbass.
You help those in need through NGOs and charitable foundations. How do they find out about opportunities to get financing from you?
We have established partnerships - we have been cooperating with many foundations and NGOs for several years, both in Novosibirsk and in other regions of the country. These partnerships began with occasional assistance and grew into real, beautiful projects. For example, we have been friends with the Solar City Foundation for a long time, support various events of the foundation, and attract employees as volunteers. Having become more familiar with the activities of the “Sunny City”, we found a project that seemed to us very important and necessary for the region. This is the “Like Home” project - modernization of family-type children's homes. We supported him in 2014. In addition, we always try to take part in forums, conferences, and round tables on charity. We find different foundations and public organizations ourselves, we come to them and get acquainted. For us, such meetings are very important, they give us an understanding of the situation - what the current mood is among charitable foundations and NGOs, what areas and projects they are involved in.
How does your system for selecting lucky recipients of funding from MegaFon work? Who makes the decision - who to give money to and who to refuse?
Each branch of MegaFon has people responsible for charity who collect applications and interact with foundations and NPOs. I am a charity curator in Siberia. I collect projects, see if they run counter to company policy and if they are relevant. I send all selected projects to Moscow, to the MegaFon charity committee.
The committee meets approximately once a quarter. Behind round table TOP managers of the company, representatives of the public relations service, and charity curators sit down. For several days they study the projects, discuss them, and debate them. I and other regional charity curators participate in committee meetings, present projects in our regions, and prove their importance. The committee then approves the projects that receive funding. But those projects that have not received approval are not sent to the box. If we see that the project is good, but something is missing, we send it for revision. If the project does not suit us at all, but it was submitted by a good, reliable fund with which we want to work, we send the application back and request a new one.
How do you assess the level of professionalism of NGOs and foundations that approach you? Do they know how to present themselves correctly and structure a conversation competently? Are they more “supplicants” or “partners”?
Unfortunately, the NPO sector still lacks project vision and skills to competently present itself to business. We still meet foundations that do not present their projects, but only ask and tell us what complex problems they have to solve. Such stories rarely work. It is much more interesting to support a promising, bright, lively project. By the way, various organizations and private donors are much more willing to give money for such projects.
Communication with other business representatives shows that the biggest need for us is consistency and complexity. I'm not saying that you shouldn't bring gifts to orphanages or diapers to children's homes. It is very important. But these areas can be covered through volunteerism and private donations. If a business company undertakes to help, then it can solve much larger problems.
When we receive requests from foundations and NGOs, we first of all look to ensure that the projects are long-term, systemic, working with the cause, not the effect. For example, working with disabled children. Help them, do things for them sporting events, of course, it is necessary. But how to attract attention to the sport of a “special child”? The answer is - you need to create sports schools, go to rehabilitation centers and attract experts, doctors, trainers who will start working with children and their parents every day.
In addition, when proposing even a very complex project to a business, it is necessary to show a development plan, describe the desired result, successful examples of people who have gone through the path of rehabilitation. In this case, the business will immediately see the prospect and will undoubtedly invest in the project.
What does the business community expect from representatives of the non-profit sector? What should I come to you with?
Today, businesses have a great need to receive a specific request from the NPO sector. You need to formulate your needs, provide an estimate, an implementation plan, possible risks and specific proposals. This just sounds scary, but in fact, when you look at the problem comprehensively, the answers come naturally. At first, funds sometimes don’t understand why we make their work so difficult. But later everything falls into place, and there are no blank spots left in the presented projects.
How and where can representatives of the non-profit sector learn all this? How to turn from “suppliers” into “equal partners”?
It is obvious that the issues of acquiring skills and design thinking in the non-profit sector need to be addressed in a comprehensive manner, and we are trying to work in this direction. That is why each branch has charity curators who personally interact with local foundations. Our contacts are on the company’s website; we try to promptly respond to all requests and suggestions. If, for example, we receive a project that is not complete enough or is not transparent, but we see something in it that we can “catch on to,” we will work together with representatives of the fund, we will try to create a competent description of the project, we will delve into the numbers and its significance.
In the spring of 2015, we held a large-scale conference for philanthropists in Moscow, brought there many representatives of NGOs and charitable foundations from all over Russia, and trained them for three days. Experts from various fields told how to create projects, what tools to attract funding, and how to attract the media to your activities. I can say unequivocally that the knowledge gained at the conference helped many foundations improve their professional level.
And last year we first started working with Planeta.ru and entered into a partnership agreement with them. This is an excellent platform on which foundations and NGOs learn to talk about themselves and their projects, find like-minded people, and act together. Projects that have co-financing - donations, business money, government grants - are much more readily supported. In these cases, we understand that the fund really works. Therefore, we welcome it if projects approved by our charity committee first go to Planeta.ru and collect certain amounts there. MegaFon is ready to multiply the funds raised in this way. For example, the Novosibirsk Spasibo Foundation provided us with a project for the construction of a playground for children with disabilities. The requested amount is 1 million rubles. The project has received our approval. And then, during the 40 days that he spent on Planeta.ru, he managed to collect 250 thousand rubles from private donations. MegaFon brought them to a million, multiplying each ruble raised by 4.
Are there any other ones in our region? weak sides in the field of charity?
In many regions, there are big problems with the media being willing to talk about charity in general and about companies that support NPOs. But for the latter, this is always significant; these people want to receive some kind of return for their good deeds. And in this case, society will be more informed, which means we can hope that there will be more volunteers, and simply caring people. It is the media and open discussions that can help all participants in charitable activities find and solve many pressing problems and help each other develop.
What are MegaFon's strategic plans? What do you plan to do in the future?
We want to expand the geography of our charitable projects so that they are long-term and effective. By and large, business has now come to the point that it is necessary to engage in conscious charity. When communicating with my colleagues from other commercial companies, I often hear that they are ready to help solve pressing problems and invest in complex projects, but for this they want to see a clear plan and strategy, results, public attention, and the willingness of the authorities to participate in projects. Constructive communications will be achieved when NPOs can speak the language of business - the language of results and a competent, complete report on each point of the work done.
