At Svitla Systems, we believe in making a positive impact in the communities where we work and live, thus we support many organizations and initiatives that bring value to those who need it most. We are even more proud when our developers devote their time and intelligence to social initiatives, adding their input for a better future.

For this piece, we introduce Dmytro Dehtiariov, our Senior Developer with over 5 years in the software development industry and solid experience across commercial projects as a Senior Engineer and Team Leader. 

Today, we shed light on his own non-profit project Monofond Charitable Foundation where he acts as the owner, manager, and developer. We welcome you to read his story and join his awesome initiative as a partner, contributor, supporter, or follower. 

How we came up with idea of a charity monofund

Even though we are a fairly young foundation that began its journey on October 21st, 2019, we have a lot of energy and purpose to bring significant changes to the entire charity sphere in Ukraine so we can help those in need. This project began as a collaboration with only one partner, my friend Oleksandr, but now it has grown to several volunteers who support our activities.

Being friends for more than 5 years, this is actually the first project where Oleksandr and I work together, and it’s safe to say that this is a very meaningful experience for us.

It all started when Oleksandr talked to me about an idea to create a charity service for regular assistance to prove funds. At first, I admit I was hesitant because I believed charities involved a lot of administrative work, bureaucracy, and all that fun stuff. It took me a month to agree to join the idea. While preparing the grant, things began to take shape, we conducted surveys and attended social events. While we didn’t receive the grant on the first try, we did receive an acknowledgment that the type of service we were offering was needed.

According to the CAF World Giving Index, Ukraine ranked as the 101st out of 126 countries in the world in terms of charity development in 2018. Even more distressing than this statistic is the distrust that people have towards charity and helping others. When we were exposed to this situation in Ukraine, we had only a few questions left:

1. If not us, then who?
2. Why not us?
3. When, if not now?

We realized that we wanted to give our best effort to try and change this situation. With small, sometimes uncertain steps, a few mistakes along the way, and learning every day about the world of charities, we gradually began to build and share the idea with others and realized that this service was greatly needed for all parties involved.

Ukrainian aggregator of charitable organizations

With each passing day, our passion for this challenge grew and the name Monofond Charitable Foundation came to us, a foundation that could unite and help other foundations, proven organizations, and social projects in Ukraine.

Our goal was to digitize charities, making them transparent and understandable. Since there were many foundations that conduct offline events, help hospitals, children, local animal shelters, etc., we wanted a service that helped secure those activities. This was where our skills proved useful.

The Monofond Charitable Foundation is not just a charitable foundation; it’s an aggregator of Ukraine’s charitable organizations, combining private and public initiatives in its platform to support and develop them.

On top of fundraising, the Monofund team aims to promote and develop a culture of charity in Ukraine. We think it’s important to convey to the public and to businesses that charities are not about big expenses and incredible efforts, but about the desire to help. Each of us can contribute to helping solve social problems. That is why the main project of the Foundation HryvniaVden was launched.

HryvniaVden, simple, easy, trustworthy

From the user’s standpoint, making a donation on the #HryvniaVden platform is very simple. All that’s needed is a phone or laptop, internet access, a card from any bank, and one minute of free time.

We cooperate with charitable organizations by placing a fund or social project on our #HryvniaVden platform to receive regular and irregular payments from philanthropists who are interested in the organization's projects and activities. The service works like a subscription: the user subscribes and chooses the amount they want to donate to any fund each month, and once a month, we will transfer these funds to the account of the organization.

It should be noted that our service does not withhold any commission - 100% of donations are transferred to selected funds. Also, funds are not charged for accommodation.

This is how small but regular donations make up tangible sums to fight poverty, diseases, and injustice. And each of us can join this cause and contribute.

Join us in changing our charity culture!

We are always looking for partners for our project. After all, among over 18,000 registered non-profit organizations in Ukraine, there are only a few hundred organizations that actually work and, more importantly, work openly and transparently, submitting relevant reports and publishing constituent documents. Among these hundreds of organizations, people have only heard of dozens of foundations that have access to the media, have the finances for advertising, and so on.

We are grateful to the foundations that supported our initiative, became members of our platform, and will receive monthly assistance from our users. Some of these include the Social Service of Assistance, the Kvitna Charitable Foundation, the Ty Anhel Charitable Foundation, and many more.

We happily welcome new ideas, proposals, and volunteers who are ready to contribute to the development of our idea.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram!