Charity for Charity: How IT Companies Can Donate Their Expertise

Since February 2022, the volunteer movement in Ukraine has reached its peak. It is probably difficult to find a Ukrainian not currently donating to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Individuals and companies are meeting thousands of military and civilian needs. During a year of military operations in Ukraine, P2H completed many small projects: we bought cars and delivered equipment to the front lines, transported teams to safe places, and provided ammunition to those who defended the state.

In the summer of 2022, we noticed a request on Facebook from one of the volunteer organizations that sought to create a donation website and realized that we could help with our knowledge and skills. This is how the first project of the P2H Charity Foundation, “Stantsiya Kharkiv” (Station Kharkiv) emerged, for which P2H developed a new website enabling voluntary contributions. P2H completed this project for charity without charge. 

And then, a series of such “pro bono” projects continued. The company recently completed a website for the international organization GLOBAL 2000, which has a branch in Ukraine.

Nataliia Kovrega, PM Assistant at P2H, shared the peculiarities of non-commercial IT development.

GLOBAL 2000 And P2H

The main goal of P2H was to develop a website representing the GLOBAL 2000 organization in Ukraine. The website features the project’s history, descriptions of charitable programs, reports, and, most importantly, a simple and convenient donation system that allows anyone to make a charitable contribution in any amount.

Typically, work on commercial projects begins with discussing the client’s vision of the final result and a clear statement of work. But when working with charitable organizations, the process begins differently:

Unlike another charitable project P2H did for the Ukrainian Stantsiya Kharkiv fund, this was a subsidiary of the global organization GLOBAL 2000. So, while everything was built from scratch in the former case, the team had to stay within certain stylistic guidelines for this project.

Quality communication is the key to success. This rule applies to both commercial and non-commercial tasks.

It should be noted that clients of pro bono projects often accept work without any revisions, considering that it’s done for free. But this doesn’t always mean that the work is perfect, so in such cases, it’s better to turn on your inner critic and try to look at your work through the eyes of a commercial client and the product’s end user. In our case, that would be the website visitor, who may donate to help children in need.

Key aspects of working on non-profit projects:

• First and foremost, clarify all details regarding the final product’s vision. This will help you clearly outline the necessary tasks and determine what constitutes a finished product and quality work.
• Request as many references as possible. This will help you better understand what the client wants and also give you a rough idea of the level of detail and complexity required for its implementation.
• Assist the client in structuring information. Sometimes the flow of ideas and ambitions can make it difficult to differentiate between what you’re realistically planning to work on and what simply needs to be taken into account. In such cases, it’s better to create a shared document and jointly list all the items the client wants to achieve.
• Offer suggestions for how to best realize the client’s vision. You can discuss anything, but as a professional, it’s up to you to determine what needs to be done for the best outcome and explain to the client why that’s the case.
• Create simple and clear instructions. In our case, this means providing instructions on how to work with the website’s backend and ongoing support for the project after its launch. This helps the client’s team become more independent and able to address most issues independently without spending time communicating with us.
• Be your own critic. Try to view your work as a commercial project and consider what you would want to see as a client or user. Even if you receive no feedback, it doesn’t mean that your work can’t be improved. The only question is, at which stage will you be satisfied with your work?

History Of GLOBAL 2000

GLOBAL 2000 is an independent Austrian environmental organization and a member of Friends of the Earth, the largest international network of environmental organizations. In 1996, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster, the organization conducted a separate campaign for children who suffered from this catastrophe and were treated at a children’s hospital in Kharkiv. 

After launching the initiative, the project’s ideologist, Christoph Otto, organized wide support from Austrian philanthropists to help children with severe chronic illnesses, orphans, and children from families in difficult life circumstances, especially in the Luhansk and Kharkiv regions. In 2021, GLOBAL 2000 founded the Charitable Organization “Charitable Fund GLOBAL 2000 for Children of Ukraine”.

GLOBAL 2000 in Ukraine

The Ukrainian branch of the foundation is engaged in:

• Addressing aid – treatment, examination, food, clothing, etc.
• Providing children’s medical facilities – medical equipment, furniture, and other equipment, consumables, and sanitary-hygienic materials.
• Psychological support for patients, parents, and medical personnel in the hematology department of Kharkiv City Children’s Clinical Hospital No. 16.
• Providing drinking water to children’s medical facilities and educational institutions.
• Assisting children’s institutions in the Luhansk region, where orphans and children with different degrees of vulnerability are located.
• Emergency assistance – after February 24, 2022, the Foundation joined the assistance to children from Kharkiv and the region.

In 2022, children affected by the war received assistance in the amount of more than 5 million hryvnias.