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The first dedicated platform for fundraisers started today, which will provide for junior and senior fundraisers and everyone interested in this field an opportunity to find relevant information about fundraising and other related topics.

In Fundraising.lt platform you will simply and quickly find:
– Fundraising.lt events, trainings and seminars;
– library with video trainings, conference records and publications;
– authorial articles written by experts with a longtime experience;
– self-check competency test created by professionals;
– the newest information about Fundraising.lt upcoming and ongoing activities.

The aim of Fundraising.lt is to strengthen the financial sustainability of Lithuania’s NGOs by creating a competency development model for fundraisers and providing opportunities to form professional community.

Project is implemented by VšĮ Geros valios projektai. Partners – „Slovenské centrum fundraisingu” (SCF) and „OVC Consulting“. Fundraising.lt project is a part of the “Active Citizens Fund” funded by the EEA Financial Mechanism.

As the public and donors place increasing demands on charitable and supportive non-governmental organizations (NGOs), their transparency, and the effectiveness of support raising, there is a growing need to attract professional employees to NGOs. The processes that are provided by sales or marketing specialists in a business company, in NGOs have an equivalent that is fundraising. Unfortunately, the professional field of NGO fundraising in Lithuania has developed chaotically so far, and many employees in the sector are self-taught, who developed themselves using a costly and resource-intensive method based on tests and lessons.

Fundraising.lt initiative is launched in Lithuania, the aim of it is to lay the foundations for the fundraising profession, professionals’ community and to help every non-governmental organization, even the smallest, to find its donor.

According to the data of the survey of NGOs conducted by Aukok.lt at the beginning of 2020, even 75 percent of organizations raise less than 10 thousand euros support from natural persons during a year, therefore, they do not have sufficient independent funding for their activity. 79 percent of NGOs do not have dedicated fundraising staff, and 9 percent have only 1 employee each. More than half of the NGOs representatives’ have admitted that they did not participate in any event related to NGO communication and fundraising in the last 6 months.

According to the initiators of Fundraising.lt project, this survey data shows that opportunities for improvement for the NGO sector’s representatives in Lithuania have not yet been discovered. “During the 11 years of Aukok.lt portal activity, we see that donors and their behaviour are changing. The pandemic has shown that Lithuanians are willing and can contribute financial support to the help provided by non-governmental organizations to those who are in need. Now is the time for the organizations to increase their professionalism to meet all the expectations of donors”, states the head of Aukok.lt portal Giedrė Šopaitė-Šilinskienė.

Within 27 months, the project implementing organizations –  donation portal Aukok.lt, Slovak NGO “Slovenské centrum fundraisingu” and the Lithuanian management consulting and training company “OVC Consulting” – together with the strongest NGOs in the country will lay the foundations for fundraising specialist’s profession. The development of the description of the fundraising specialist profession has already started, next year the information platform Fundraising.lt and the continuous competency development program will be launched, which will be accompanied by the conferences Fundraising.lt for NGOs and the informal activity of the fundraising practitioners club.

“OVC Consulting” activity development director and partner Inga Radzevičienė believes that the strength of Fundraising.lt project lies in a long-term perspective. “We rely not only on a strong desire to seek knowledge and improve professionally. We are valuably interested and see the meaning of participating in such projects, helping proactive people to achieve long-term goals, creating and improving their activity in the context of the community, society or the whole of Lithuania.” According to the project expert, “OVC Consulting” consultant and partner Diana Palivonienė, people are the foundation of NGOs: “We ensure smooth processes and achieve great results when we have people who can achieve results, have the energy and the will to act. And there are as many people as we need. Therefore, the three most important things are to attract these people, to raise them, because usually there are no trained specialists or they are not available to NGOs, and to keep them.”

Fundraising.lt project is a part of the “Active Citizens Fund” funded by the EEA Financial Mechanism.

The Aukok.lt announces an updated selection process, which will henceforth shorten and facilitate the organization’s way to raise funds on the Aukok.lt

Key changes of the updated selection:
- there are no more selection invitations published several times a year. From now on, applications are accepted all year round and project selection is continuously ongoing;
- there will be no two-stage selection process. It is enough to submit one completed application form and wait for a response;
- responses to applications are provided within 10 business days;;
- a simpler and more convenient application form;
- new agreement for project implementation on the portal;
- updated final report form.

As before, non-governmental organizations and public institutions are invited to submit projects which would aim to solve a relevant social or environmental issue.

Detailed information about access to Aukok.lt and project implementation rules can be found in the Submit project column and in the Aukok.lt SELECTION RULES.

3 million euros has been donated over a decade via the special online portal Aukok.lt by people of good will and businesses. Visitors to the portal have contributed to more than 400 different social projects. “This news is the best Christmas gift to our team. We have collected a sum equal to one euro per capita. From now on we can say that we live in a country of donors,” Giedrė Šopaitė-Šilinskienė, the manager of the portal, said about the 10-year result.

Over the lifetime of the portal, more than 140,000 donations have been made for children and family welfare, education, reduction of poverty and exclusion, integration of people with disabilities, emotional aid, health and treatment, animal welfare, civic responsibility and youth social projects implemented by 175 organizations. Among them, well-known organizations such as: „Maisto bankas“, „Gelbėkit vaikus“, „Jaunimo linija“, „Niekieno vaikai“, „Rimanto Kaukėno paramos grupė“, „Rugutė“, „SOS vaikų kaimų Lietuvoje draugija“, „Krizių įveikimo centras“, „Raudonos nosys Gydytojai klounai“, „SOPA“, „Socialinis taksi“, „Vaikų linija“, „Linksmosios pėdutės“, Maltos ordino pagalbos tarnyba, Lietuvos Raudonasis Kryžius and many others.

According to the manager of Aukok.lt, the different ways of making a donation offered by the portal over the past years have reduced the seasonality of donations. Donors not only make donations throughout the year, but also initiate their own fundraising campaigns using the tool Tapk ambasadoriumi. “This functionality has opened up opportunities for people to invite others to become part of their  fundraising campaign. I am delighted that we have an increasing number of visitors who prefer to exchange their birthday or Christmas gifts or holiday decorations for donating kindness to others. These certainly serve as examples of a new donation tradition in Lithuania,” Šopaitė-Šilinskienė said.

According to the 2018 World Giving Index, 19% of the population in Lithuania made cash donations; Lithuania is ranked 94th out of 144 countries with respect to this indicator. Among leading countries are The Great Britain, which has a profound traditions – there is made 68% cash donations. Australia – 71%, Malta – 64 %, and Myanmar – even 88% of population. Even though Lithuania's improving annual indicator shows that the willingness of Lithuanians to donate money is increasing, we are still far behind our neighbors: Latvia ranks 88th, Poland 78th and Estonia 66th.

Aukok.lt is the only donation portal in Lithuania where non-governmental organizations present their social projects and donors have the opportunity to support them by donating a selected amount of cash in a simple and transparent manner. The donations reach beneficiaries quickly and conveniently and the project implementation reports are sent to each donor.

“Give on Tuesday” is the motto of the Lithuanian donation portal Aukok.lt. Giving Tuesday began in 2012, inspiring hundreds of millions of people globally to share and to celebrate generosity.

This global generosity movement aims to create an international charity day which is commemorated each year after Thanksgiving Day traditionally celebrated in the US and the popular Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping.

“In Lithuania we are well aware and actively participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, but we have not yet imported the great tradition of generosity – Giving Tuesday. We believe that it is a beautiful invitation after taking care of the Christmas gifts to yourself and your family, share kindness with those who are in need,” Šopaitė-Šilinskienė said.

Portal Aukok.lt is calling for the Giving Tuesday tradition to be launched in Lithuania. The aim is simply to encourage people to do good deeds. According to Šopaitė-Šilinskienė, each person can choose the most appropriate way to share: “a supportive word to someone next to you, help to a stranger in the street, attention to a social problem, donation to those in need – all sharing ideas are excellent. The most important thing to know is that every generous gesture is valuable and everyone has something to give.”

You can find out more about the initiative at the special platform www.antradieniduosiu.lt, and for those who do not have an idea, can donate for a social projects. We have 48 social projects at Aukok.lt. Among them, well-known organizations such as: „Maisto bankas“, „Gelbėkit vaikus“, „Jaunimo linija“, „Rimanto Kaukėno paramos grupė“, „Rugutė“, „SOS vaikų kaimų Lietuvoje draugija“, Maltos ordino pagalbos tarnybos, Lietuvos Raudonojo Kryžiaus and many others.

The team at Aukok.lt hopes that the Giving Tuesday idea will spread in Lithuania and will become as popular as it is in the rest of the world.

The survey of the behavior of donors performed at the request of portal aukok.lt showed that Lithuanians tend to do good deeds quietly, to not seek to get any symbolic gift in exchange or any other remuneration for the donation. Lithuanians consider themselves as rational donors who are particularly concerned with the financial accountability and fairness of the charitable organization. Lithuanians donate for those social initiatives they personally trust. One of the strongest reasons to donate is where the beneficiary is in a difficult situation through no fault of his own.

“For the first time we asked Lithuanian donors what motivates them to donate money for charity. While some of the responses confirmed the information we have acquired over a decade, there were some surprises. Lithuanians see themselves as very rational donors who are very concerned with the objectives of the organization and its financial standing, however their donations are actually based on emotions. Lithuanians most frequently donate by selecting a product where some of the proceeds go for charity and donate cash into collection boxes. Most support is donated for sick children and the poor – this illustrates that Lithuanians primarily donate from the heart,” Šopaitė-Šilinskienė director of aukok.lt portal said.

The representative survey was conducted between 23 August and 4 September by UAB Rinkos Tyrimų Centras. A total of 802 respondents of different age groups who donated money in the past 12 months took part in the survey. The survey methodology was developed by Indrė Radavičienė, a lecturer at Vilnius University and a consumer behavior and marketing expert. The survey assessed how donors are motivated by various factors: environment, characteristics of the beneficiaries, trust in a charity organization and its reputation, remuneration for the donation, and personal benefit.

Today we start with a fresh and user-friendly design. It is not just an attractive look, new functions are coming up. Try it out and share your opinion with us!

Today is the day when a national campaign, initiated by the President of the Republic of Lithuania. We are very proud to be a part of the "For Safe Lithuania".

We are inviting everyone to share their ideas and good deeds to become inspiring examples for other people, communities and organizations and take part in variuos initiatives. For more information click here.

Today NGO Goodwill projects celebrate 8-year old birthday!