The idea of the International Charity Day, or the Giving Tuesday, first appeared in 2012. Since then, the initiative was taken up by more than a 100 countries, and joined by well-known actors, musicians, politicians, and more than 300,000 commercial and non-profit organizations. The Giving Tuesday has become an open platform uniting non-profit organizations, businesses, the media, and local communities, invigorating the development of charity programs all over the world.
Russia has only recently joined the initiative: this year, it will be only the second time that the Giving Tuesday is conducted in our country. ITMO University will participate with its ITMO.DoBro challenge. This will be a flashmob open to everyone - from the university’s students and staff to graduates and representatives of partner companies, as well as anyone interested in collaborating with the university.
Why participate?
“The project aims to bring the new trend in charity in Russia - support of universities - into the public eye,” – explains Konstantin Astankov, general manager of ITMO’s endowment fund – “We will talk about the opportunities to support applicants, students and staff members - the whole ITMO.FAMILY community via the university’s endowment fund.”
The activity of university’s endowment funds in Russia is regulated by Federal Law 275-ФЗ "On the Procedure of Establishment and Use of Endowments of Non-commercial Organizations”. Simply put, an endowment fund is a non-profit organization that collects donations from benefactors. Upon collecting donations, the fund transfers them to a managing company that invests these funds in the course of 1 year. After a year, the profits are returned to the fund. In accordance with the law, the endowment fund is to transfer the donations to the university, which spends these funds on projects and tasks identified by the fund.
For instance, in June 2017, the Vladimir Potanin Foundation donated two million rubles to the fund. Each year, the university’s graduates and partner companies donate to the fund. Recently, students and staff members of the university have started supporting ITMO, as well. Now, anyone can join the many philanthropists who support Russia’s first non-classical.
Every participant of ITMO.DoBro challenge can give their vote to the best projects and support them financially. What’s more, they cannot just choose an existing project and support it, but also propose their own ideas.
How to participate?
ITMO.DoBro challenge starts on November 28. The event will be opened by ITMO’s Rector Vladimir Vasilyev, and last until December 1 - in that time, participants need to record a short video message and upload it online. In short, they are to:
-
explain what ITMO University is to them, which educational, research or student projects need support, as well as to pass the iniative along to at least three of your friends, colleagues or peers;
-
donate any amount of money to ITMO’s endowment fund and talk about their chosen projects;
-
publish the video message in any social network from November 28 with hashtags: #fundITMOfamily #ITMODoBro #ITMOFamily #ЩедрыйВторник #itmo.
A raffle will be held among the most active participants and philanthropists - members of the https://vk.com/itmostudents community in VK, with the university’s symbol - a bicycle - as a prize.
