When part of the world was actively preparing for Christmas, and the other part was actively finalizing all possible things and looking forward to New Year night, we were having our fundraising training. Small group of volunteers met in Svyatogorsk on December 14^th to have five intensive days of learning program. Our trainer Oleg Grishin from Youth Employment Center (Donetsk) has prepared extensive program, covering such issues as strategic planning, branding and PR, different types of donors and how to work with them, differences and similarities of fundraising from governmental and business at local level, and international foundations; reporting and communication with donors. The training had also a practical approach – participants could work on specific projects which will hopefully be realized in their organizations. SVIT members Katya Vlasova and Maud Gustavsson could plan in detail fundraising campaign for New Year Celebration, which resulted in two generous donations from Artemovsk businesses.

The training has also offered opportunities for networking and cooperation regarding projects with long-term volunteers. SVIT members shared their experience of being mentors and work coordinators with Youth Employment Center (hosting organization for EVS volunteer from Poland since January 2008) and her future mentor, discussed possibilities to develop hosting projects in resource center “Most” working on HIV/AIDS prevention issues, and in ecological organization “Friends of Gomolshansky forest”.

The training was organized in the framework of “Creation of coordinating centers on long-term volunteering” project with financial support of Zukunftsfonds Berlin.

As follow-up, in January 2008 SVIT has welcomed two new long-term volunteers: Barbara Chmielowska in Center of conscious parents “Sem-Ya” (Lugansk) and Joanna Niedzialkowska in Youth Employment Center (Donetsk).