Over the past eight months, EWMI ACCESS has supported the development of an innovative crowdfunding platform for social initiatives – orbelianimeti.ge. This platform allows citizens to register their project ideas and launch a campaign to mobilize all the necessary resources through citizen donations. Once the project idea collects half of the needed amount through private donations, EWMI ACCESS provides the second half as part of a grant.
By launching this platform, the CSO – Orbeliani Georgia introduced a completely new approach to crowdfunding in Georgia – the so-called match-funding model. Evidence shows that collecting the target amount through match-funding leads to realistic and achievable objectives. Moreover, such an approach generates and increases interest and motivation from contributors to participate in the project implementation, which is a strong precondition for any successful project.
The platform, launched in July 2020, has already attracted over 1000 supporters who donated more than 30,000 GEL for various civic projects. Thanks to public and EWMI support, full funding for 13 social projects has been reached. For example, the tree-planting initiative in Rustavi collected the largest amount of money, around 6000 GEL through private donations, while setting up a playground in the mountainous village of Pachkha (Khulo municipality) gained the most supporters – over 245 people made donations in support of this initiative.
Apart from carrying out civic initiatives to benefit their communities and immediate surroundings, the project activists also got thorough knowledge and practical experience in the mobilization of public resources and the management of media campaigns. In addition, Orbeliani Georgia supported applicants in creating the campaign content and compelling audio/visual materials.
The match-funding initiative supported by EWMI ACCESS ended on December 15, but the platform continues campaigning to generate public funding in support of various civic initiatives. If you wish to support any of the projects, please visit www.orbelianimeti.ge.
