CCSI Supports Fund-Raising Workshops
for Ukraine and Belarus Red Cross


In 1992 Robert Bowie, a professor of Russian at Miami University in Ohio, spent several months working with the Red Cross/Red Crescent Society of Kazakhstan. He became interested in returning to the region to offer workshops in techniques of fund-raising for indigenous Red Cross/Red Crescent groups. He enlisted the help of Dr. Lilya Wagner, associate director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indi-ana University and a specialist in fund-raising. This past June, with partial support from Center for Civil Society International, Bowie and Wagner traveled to the region and conducted workshops in Kiev and Minsk. Professor Bowie's report follows.

We held the first seminar on June 14-15 in Kiev for heads of oblast Red Cross organizations from all over Ukraine. (An oblast is somewhat comparable to a state in the U.S.) The second seminar was held in Minsk, Belarus, on June 24. Originally we had planned to include presentations in Kishiniev, the capital of Moldova, but economic and political conditions there were too chaotic.

Lilya Wagner and I worked as a team. Her strengths lie in her broad knowledge of fund-raising in the U.S. (she teaches the subject and has presented seminars all over the world). My strengths lie in my knowledge of life and culture in the area once known as the Soviet Union and my ability to communicate in Russian (the working language of the Minsk and Kiev seminars).

Lilya presented lectures on basic principles of fund-raising as practiced in America: how to organize a development office, why people give money, how to find potential donors and cultivate them, how to organize a successful solicitation, etc.

Practical Exercises Used

Part of her presentation involved a practical exercise in solicitation. Participants were divided into groups of three persons. The first two were designated fund-raisers. They were to draw up a plan for a solicitation and present this to the third person, who played the role of the potential donor. After going through this exercise, each group had the option of presenting its proposal in front of the whole seminar to Lilya, who then acted as potential donor. She awarded a prize of $10 to the most convincing project and best solicitation. The seminar participants acted as judges and voted on the presentations.

This exercise generated a lot of lively interest. It also showed that the leaders of the local Red Cross committees already have considerable experience in fund-raising and the ability to present their proposals convincingly. What they need now is to establish development offices that engage in fund-raising activities in an organized, day-to-day manner. From experts in the West they need information on specifics--on how development offices work most efficiently, on what activities generate funds most successfully. Ideally, they will take from Western experience what best applies to their own situation. Lilya's lectures were invaluable, in that they provided information on how organized fund-raising works in the U.S.

During Lilya's presentation I helped with problems in translation and periodically interrupted the lecture for direct interaction with the audience. Soviet audiences--I use the term "Soviet" advisedly--are accustomed simply to sit and listen (or sleep), and our groups obviously appreciated the chance to respond.

My own presentation was a two-hour lecture in Russian entitled "Possibilities for Receiving Charitable Donations from American Corporations Doing Business in the N.I.S." It outlined seven stages in the process of corporate fund-raising. For example, Stage One comprises compilation of a mission statement, a suitable project and a list of firms to consider soliciting. Stage Two comprises refinement of the mission statement (rewriting), research on a selected American firm, work on the budget for the project, etc. The final stage comprises appropriate follow-up in the event of either successful or unsuccessful solicitations.

Stressing the Creative Tie-In

My lecture also included discussion of the differences between American and Soviet psychology (dos and don'ts in dealing with American businessmen) and specific examples of creative tie-ins and fund-raising events. Finding a creative tie-in means finding ways to make the interests of a local nonprofit harmonize with the interests of a corporation. As an example, I indicated that Proctor and Gamble might be willing to donate its peanut butter to Red Cross orphanages in Ukraine, since this creates a good image in Ukraine and in the U.S., and since it may help establish a taste for this product and facilitate its future marketing in Ukraine.

In my presentations I used lists of American businesses already opera-tional in Ukraine and Belarus, suggesting how prospective donor firms from these lists might be approached. In Kiev I had visited the Johnson Wax Corporation in advance of the seminar and compiled detailed notes on its business operations, its foreign representatives working in Kiev, and its charitable inclinations. Using this company as an example, I discussed Red Cross prospects for approaching it in the near future.

Both Lilya and I suggested that now may be the time for the Red Cross to begin soliciting native individual philanthropists and N.I.S. businessmen. This led to some animated discussion of the difficulties of so doing. For example, the nouveau riche local businessmen are leery of research into their businesses and lifestyles (part of the donor cultivation process in the West), since they do not want "mafia" organizations to learn that they have money. On the other hand, organized crime figures may be willing to donate money to the Red Cross, but they make impossible demands in return. Recently there have been efforts to infiltrate the Red Cross and use its good name as a front for criminal activities. Therefore, the organization must be extremely careful about whose money it accepts.

The Troglodyte Factor

Our lectures were well received, both in Kiev and Minsk. The Kiev group was unruly at times, partially because some of the sixty-five participants may not have been eager to be there. It was important to keep in mind that almost all of these Red Cross officials had come out of the old Communist system. Most were now willing to adapt to new ideas, but we had the feeling that there were more "unreconstructed" old Communists in the Ukraine group than in the one from Belarus. This may have been a reflection of their leadership; the man who heads the Ukrainian Red Cross is a troglodyte. (In contrast to Chestnov, head of the IFRC delegation to Kiev.)

This is not to say that all former Communists are obstacles to progress. On the contrary, we were impressed by the eagerness to cooperate and learn mani-fested by the majority of participants. When working with the Red Cross, I always feel optimistic about the future of the NIS, because I meet so many intelligent and self-abnegating people.

Both Lilya and I believe that the most logical place to present our seminars next is the Russian Republic, since social and economic progress there seems more advanced than either in Ukraine or Belarus. We hope to be able to arrange something there in the next six months. We would like to express our appreciation to the Center for Civil Society International for its generous funding of our seminars.

Robert Bowie, PhD
Associate Prof. of Russian
Miami University

This article is from the July/August 1993 issue of
Civil Society ... East and West

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The URL for this page is: http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~ccsi/csew/93-07/redcrss.html
Last updated: May 1993

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