Giving Tuesday is a global initiative with the goal to bring people's charitable activities to light. In contrast to other decisions, we often make our choice of charitable fund after getting opinions from family and friends. This exactly why it is important to explain to others whom and how exactly we help. Our actions can serve as an example for others.

VK traditionally supports charitable organizations and social projects. A year ago, we opened a "Charity" department and here's how things have gone since then.

For both charitable funds and organizations VK is the most comfortable platform because it is free, intuitive and it allows them to constantly stay in touch with their audience since everybody has a profile on VK. Thousands of charitable projects: organizations, funds, volunteer initiatives and student organizations are registered and active on VK. Over the last six months, more than 30 initiatives have already received grants from VK. This helps these projects to not only be able to talk about their actions, but also invite other motivated people to join them in their good deeds.

Here is a list of all of the charitable organizations' verified communities.

Sharing knowledge

This summer, we launched our first educational program "VK Tools for Charitable Projects". Over the course of eight weeks, experts shared their knowledge and skills. Over 130 representatives of charitable organizations attended the educational course and learned how to most effectively utilize VK to promote their social projects.

This educational program is now available to everyone in the VK Charity community.

Uniting as one

In October, we held VK For Good, the first charitable auction for digital promotion services. Representatives from advertising agencies competed for the opportunity to provide their services, free of charge, to non-commercial organizations. 972 hours — this is the amount of time social projects received from advertising experts. Following the event, professionals will work out promotion strategies for charitable organizations and offer creative concepts. We in turn will give these funds the necessary tools they might need.

Solving problems

This year, two charitable organizations partnered with VK Hackathon. Each of them provided participants of the event with an important task.

Research has shown that 70% of Russians participate in charitable activities, however 60% of them do not tell anyone about it. CAF, an international charitable organization which works to provide philanthropic support and growth, asked the participants to shine a spotlight on the #GivingTuesday initiative. Hackathon participants presented their solutions to simplify the constant participation in charitable works. For example, doing so with the help of transferring the monetary remainders or doing "good deeds" on a special app.

The UNESCO appealed to think about elegant solutions to the problem of cyberbullying (threats and harassment over the internet). Participants worked on creating an account for psychologists and algorithms to recognize aggressive and negative content.

Helping people

On June 14th, World Blood Donor Day, in collaboration with the DonorSearch project, we offered everyone to fill out a special form and indicate their blood type and Rh factor in order to find "blood buddies". Additionally, there was an option to register as a potential blood donor.

Caring for animals

In the beginning of the year, VK Support team launched #VKkindness campaign. Anyone who wanted could join the movement and do good deeds to our smaller brethren. Over the course of three months, people performed acts of kindness and shared their stories of helping others on VK.

As a sign of appreciation from the VK Team, participants received 600 thousand unique virtual gifts and the ability to share them with friends to help bring them to the campaign as well. The authors of the most touching stories received special prizes with VK logos. We continue to publish the best stories in the campaign's community.

Everyone in the world does the best they can. Charitable funds solve social problems and help those who need it the most. We in turn bring together talented and passionate people from various spheres of life. By means of VK people from different cities, parts of the country and the globe can come together to do something greater.

Share stories of good deeds you've done and inspire your friends to do the same in this app.