Charity race DobroRun 2021

PRECONDITIONS FOR CREATING A PROJECT

Since 2015, Asters has been providing systematic pro bono legal support to Tabletochki Charity Foundation that helps children with cancer and their families in Ukraine. Over the 10 years of the foundation’s work, more than 4,500 children with cancer have received targeted assistance. 

In 2020, government procurement of vital medicines for children fighting against cancer failed and there was a shortage of essential medicines. In 2020, Asters and Tabletochki organized a charity race DobroRun, all registration fees from which were transferred to the fund. 1265 participants raised over UAH 1.14 million. 400 children from 19 oncology departments received the necessary medication.

One of the key tasks of charitable foundations is the development and implementation of systemic projects and the involvement of systemic partners. It helps foundations to plan their activities and effectively allocate funds for long-term initiatives and urgent assistance.

In 2021, Asters decided to turn DobroRun into a systematic project of Asters and “Tabletochki”, which can cover the urgent needs for medicines, materials and small equipment needed for children fighting cancer.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

“The energy, enthusiasm and support of DobroRun participants, partners and volunteers in 2020 was very inspiring, so we had no doubts and decided to hold DobroRun in 2021.” – comments Asters senior partner Armen Khachaturyan.

“Taking into consideration the success of last year’s project, we have set ourselves an even more ambitious goal – to scale the project, increase targets for fundraising and the number of participants.” – comments Lilia Yanovska, Asters Marketing Director.

Challenges

High competition: there was oversaturation of sports events offering which were postponed to summer-autumn due to quarantine

Launch of the Kind Challenge platform that specializes in running charity. During the spring and summer, the platform held a few fundraising events for various charitable purposes.

Annual charity Kyiv Chestnut Run which has been already held for 19 years

One of the key tasks was to develop a unique offer and engage participants to choose DobroRun among hundreds of other races

Solution

Inclusion & diversity:

Participants could register and donate as an individual participant or team (corporate, family, friends) at dobrorun.tabletochki.org

Target Audience: adults, regardless of age and gender, children, families, pets

Ways to overcome the distance: running, walking, biking, sleeping, kayaking, and rollerblading

Location: central fan zone at the VDNG in Kyiv, fan zones in Odessa, Kherson, London; any convenient place

Distances: from 500 m for beginners to 21 km for experienced runners, as well as the option “I do not run, but I help”

All participants received finisher medals 

Project communication and involvement of participants

“Grab your favorite toy, run for joy, do good for children!”

To show their solidarity with children fighting against cancer, the race participants overcame the distances with toys. DobroRun is not about sports competitions, but about kindness and benefits for the health of participants and children.

To achieve the set fundraising goals, the focus was on attracting corporate teams, which received full support at all stages of 1) registration and payment of corporate donations; 2) involvement and training of employees; 3) logistics.

Communication and fundraising among the business community was based on opportunities for companies to gain added value:

PR / HR: “Act together” – strengthen your corporate brand and enhance your reputation as a socially responsible business through various media channels

CSR + Wellbeing: “Help together” – Nurture a culture of charity by getting your colleagues involved in a healthy lifestyle

Networking: “Create together” – find soul mates in your professional network and engage your clients and partners in transformation projects

Teambuilding: “Achieve together” – go offline and unite for common goals. Every participant is a member of a wider community

Fun: “Have fun together” – create shared memories during preparation and training. Come for high spirits and eye-catching photos

Run & Compete: “Run together” – Make teams, train together, and enjoy fun with your colleagues. Remember that you may run, walk or ride any selected distance of your choice

Individual participants were involved through the social networks Facebook and Instagram. A huge audience – more than 9 million was acquainted with the project through social networks. The project was supported by more than 50 opinion leaders – athletes, bloggers, TV hosts, businessmen, show business representatives.

Participants published more than 2,400 publications about DobroRun, which collected over 75 thousand reactions. Popular Ukrainian business, socio-political, lifestyle, fashion and sports media talked about DobroRun for free.

The following people and companies joined as pro bono partners: host Anatoliy Anatolich, Morshynska, Decathlon, Nova Poshta, ice-cream Three Bears, Hi Snack, Peanut Butter TOM, ISIDA, Medical Network Dobrobut, Arley Sign temporary tattoos, RedBull. Employees of Asters, the Ukrainian Bar Association, the UBA Students League, Pulse Marketing, and Iron Volunteers Ukraine volunteered at the event. Asters has become one of the largest corporate participants. The company also combined DobroRun with a family corporate event.

PROJECT RESULTS

More than 3,000 participants (twice more than last year) from 20 regions of Ukraine and 7 countries took part in DobroRun 2021. The total amount of charitable contributions amounted to UAH 2.2 million (2 times more than last year).

105 corporate teams (3 times more than in 2020) joined the project, including manufacturing, IT, pharmaceutical, FMCG, retail, service, medical, legal, and agricultural companies. The biggest beneficiaries were: CRH Ukraine, MHP, Teva Ukraine, Oshchadbank, TECHIIA, Kernel, Ciklum, PUMB, Snapchat, Grammarly, Bank Sich, Henkel. Corporate video: Kernel at DobroRun>>

Asters’ clients were a significant part of the corporate participating teams, which allowed us to expand our cooperation beyond the consultant-client relationship and find additional informal points of contact. 16 other law firms became participants of the project, which allowed to unite the market, despite the competition.

We ran for their victories

We helped 341 children. 7 hospitals in 12 regions were provided with medicines, materials, and small equipment: Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, and Kyiv, Zakarpattia, Lviv, Donetsk regions.

DobroRun – much more than 2.2 million!

20 companies that participated in DobroRun 2020 became new partners of the fund and continued to its activities 2021. 60 participating companies in 2021 are new partners for the fund

DobroRun promotes charity and is an investment in the development of this culture in Ukraine

“Fantastic results of DobroRun 2021 again prove that Ukrainians know how to unite for the sake of children and for the future, where no child dies from cancer”, – points out Svitlana Pugach, Director of Strategic Partnerships of Tabletochki Charitable Foundation. “Such large-scale and engaging projects allow developing the charity culture in Ukraine in general and provide practical support to medical clinics fighting childrens’ cancer”. Video: DobroRun – how the most heart-warming race of the country took place >>

Insights for CSR projects of other companies

1. Synergy of partnership – 1) due to the exchange of contacts between “Tabletochki” and Asters, mutual strengthening of brands, as well as mutual efforts to attract corporate teams and holding meetings we managed to exceed the goals of fundraising; 2) partnership with law firms in Odessa and Kherson allowed to expand the geography of offline locations.

2. Synergy of Asters departments – the marketing, business development, HR and administrative departments worked together to implement the project in order to take into account the interests of all stakeholders. Proposals from other departments broaden the vision of the project.

3. “Steal like an artist” – many charity races used the “I’m not running, but I’ll help” option, which was first available at DobroRun. Studying the experience of others, its adaptation and implementation can add value and expand the audience of the project.

4. The emotional component – the emphasis on charity, fan, team building, and not sports allowed to attract more participants.

5. The power of social networks – thanks to thousands of publications on social networks, the project was able to acquire a national scale: coverage – 9,552,701 contacts, of which organic –8,134,382.