OREANDA-NEWS. A joint charity program between MegaFon and crowdfunding platform Planeta.ru that helped raise more than 3 million rubles from individual investors to support 18 social projects was recognized at the Digital Communications Awards 2016 as the best in the Digital Projects and Strategies (CSR communications) category.

The MegaFon Helps program was launched on Planeta.ru in spring 2015 to raise public awareness of social projects and effective ways to implement them. The program quickly demonstrated its effectiveness: one in ten of the more than 15,000 visitors to project pages in the MegaFon Helps section of the site made an average donation of some 2,250 rubles. MegaFon quadrupled all the private donations: as such, to raise the required amount to implement a project, it was enough to raise 25% through individual donations, with MegaFon adding the rest. The resulting total amount raised to support the projects at the end of the year was in excess of 13 million rubles.

“Crowdfunding helps us raise greater public awareness of social problems and solutions and, as such, increase the efficiency of our charity activities on the whole. We are pleased that our joint program was held in such high esteem by external experts,” said Yulia Ganina, Head of Corporate Communications and Charity at MegaFon.

The leading projects in 2015 in terms of money raised were a project to support sarcoma sufferers, the Skis of Dreams rehabilitation project for children with cerebral palsy and a project to publish illustrated books for blind children, It’s Not Your Eyes that See the Most Important Thing. The success of the joint program has been confirmed by charity and non-commercial organizations’ decision to continue cooperation: currently eight new projects are being prepared for launch on Planeta.ru with MegaFon’s support.

In total MegaFon supported 58 charity projects for a total value of some 180 million rubles in 2015. Support was provided to more than 20,000 people across Russia. Project implementation involved 166 partners (foundations and non-commercial organizations), 1,300 volunteers and 1,500 specialists and experts.