Digital solution for “Stopify”, the donation platform for Ukraine

Author Māris Upenieks, Mārcis Miķelsons-Germs, Miks Miķelsons
Contractor: Voluntary initiative
Date created: November of 2022

Brief description of the project

In February 2022, Russia brutally attacked Ukraine. At first, the civilised world was united in support, but as time passed, enthusiasm slowly began to wane - it became clear that the war would not end soon. So in our spare time, three friends working in communications started thinking: what could we do? And we came up with a very simple idea. Nowadays, we subscribe to various streaming services to watch TV series and films for a monthly sum of a couple of coffee cups. What if you could "subscribe" to something more important? The security, freedom and future of Ukraine and, by extension, of ourselves? Meet STOPIFY. A platform that allows you to "stream" a small monthly donation to help the Ukrainian army end this war sooner. Visually, it looks like a typical streaming service, but instead of TV series, you can learn about the equipment needed by the Ukrainian army and decide to donate.

Originality and creativity of the idea

Nowadays, it's common to subscribe to various streaming services to watch TV series and films for a monthly sum of a few coffee cups. What if you could "subscribe" to something more important? The security, freedom and future of Ukraine and, by extension, of ourselves? Meet STOPIFY. A platform that allows you to "stream" a small monthly donation to help the Ukrainian army end this war sooner. Visually, it looks like a typical streaming service, but instead of TV series, you can learn about the equipment needed by the Ukrainian army and decide to donate. While automatic donations are not new, STOPIFY offers a fresh, creative, informative and engaging way of looking at donation and its communication.

Definition of the problem and the relevance of the applied solutions

At the beginning of the war, the civilised world united in support, but as time passed, enthusiasm slowly began to wane - it became clear that the war would not end soon. STOPIFY's aim was to create a simple way to provide regular support to the Ukrainian armed forces. Using the metaphor of streaming services and a very easy to understand technical solution, STOPIFY continues to attract new donors, without any promotional campaigns. STOPIFY has proved that you can do a lot with small means. So far, more than one million euros have been donated, which have regularly been used to deliver essential items to the Ukrainian armed forces.

Co-creation, stakeholder involvement and cooperation during the realisation process

To test whether the idea would have supporters, a short description was initially posted on social networks to get feedback from people in the community. After receiving overwhelming support, we realised that we are not and will not be experts in the charity sector ourselves and that we need to bring in trusted partners who are professionals in their field. Ziedot.lv knows best about donations in our country, while the Embassy of Ukraine in Latvia is able to communicate with the Ukrainian army about its needs. We approached both organisations, they were happy to respond and have been organising the procurement and logistics together until now. Once we had found partners, a prototype website was created and tested with an international audience to see what could be improved. Even after the site was published, we invited visitors to share their suggestions.

Functionality and technological solutions

The STOPIFY solution is based on three aspects. Creativity - the streaming metaphor draws attention to the problem, informs about the needs of the army in an engaging and transparent way and offers a solution by donating. Convenience - three simple subscription plans and a few clicks to start a monthly donation. Security - the technological backing to fend off attacks from the detractors.

Aesthetics and other experiential dimensions

To emphasise the seriousness of the initiative's purpose and not to unnecessarily tie up communication, the visual language of the project is direct and clean. Bright yellow texts and elements, documentary photographs and videos. A creative twist: the menu of donation targets on the homepage. Users can explore it in the same way as they explore TV series and their annotations on a streaming platform.

Economic significance, sustainability and circularity

STOPIFY ir pierādījis, ka kopā saliekot arī mazumiņu, var izdarīt daudz. Kopā saziedots vairāk kā miljons eiro. Uz Ukrainu jau ir nogādāti 110 droni, 10 apvidus auto, 92 ģeneratori un portatīvie akumulatori, kā arī kvadracikli, laivas, termovizori, nakts redzamības monokļi, metāla detektori un daudzas citas frontes līnijā akūti nepieciešamas lietas. Saņēmēji ir dažādas Ukrainas militārās vienības, kas cīnās frontes Austrumu un Dienvidu flangos.. Pateicoties abonēšanas principam, kas nodrošina paredzamu līdzekļu apjomu, nepieciešamo lietu sagāde notiek regulāri un to iespējams laicīgi plānot.

Social relevance, inclusion, availability and accessibility

The service will run until the day of Ukraine's victory. Despite the fact that the war has entered a difficult phase and there are voices of cautious concern around, we believe that helping the Ukrainians is self-evident and non-negotiable. Therefore, everyone should be given the opportunity to become a supporter of the Ukrainian defenders, giving the feeling that you are doing something for the cause and not just a helpless bystander to the world news. New donors are signing up to STOPIFY without any promotional campaigns - currently 8382 subscribers from 49 countries. Credibility and transparency are important - we organise a monthly shipment for Ukrainian defenders and regularly receive photos and videos from Ukraine. We share all this on social media and in email reports to subscribers. The platform has been translated into 12 languages to make Stopify accessible to people abroad.

Link to video or other link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSvaqO3SqoU