Serhiy Kolesnyk, president of the Charitable organization “Charitable Foundation Shchedryk”, spoke at the landmark networking event “Meeting of Change” held in Kyiv and organized by the National Network for the Development of Local Philanthropy, which brings together Ukrainian community foundations to promote local philanthropy and volunteerism in communities and activating residents and entrepreneurs in public initiatives.
The event was held in the format of a “World Café” and panel discussions, and was dedicated to finding ways to strengthen cooperation and discussing the idea of interchangeability between public and charitable organizations.
Serhiy Kolesnyk, who has a business background (manager/owner of IT projects), offered an analytical view of the humanitarian sector, comparing it to a monopolistic competition market.
Competition as a driving force for transparency
“There are many ‘sellers’ on the humanitarian market offering differentiated services, and there are virtually no barriers to entry,” Serhiy noted. With this in mind, he believes that most organizations are fairly interchangeable, which stimulates their effectiveness.
“Competition makes the distribution of resources as efficient as possible. This is competition in terms of budgets, salaries, and the effective use of qualified personnel and expertise. Even our organization is not unique; we provide a certain standardized list of services,” explained Serhii Kolesnyk.
The main challenge for the sector: According to Open Data Bot, 89% of public organizations and 77% of charitable foundations did not submit financial reports for 2024. This situation raises a difficult question: is such a large number of organizations necessary if most of them do not demonstrate transparency?
Shchedryk Strategy: Coordination and Standardization
According to the President of Shchedryk, the development of interchangeability and efficiency requires the standardization of principles, approaches, processes, and services. Clusters and international partners are actively engaged in this.
Commenting on the issue of coordination, Serhiy Kolesnyk emphasized that for NGOs, the real motivation for participating in coordination processes lies in a different plane than simply avoiding duplication:
- Information exchange: Understanding the system, stakeholders, and competitors’ activities.
- Training: Obtaining expertise, methodologies, and tools from the sector’s “collective mind”.
- Authority: Involvement in governing structures (as an elected representative) enhances the organization’s authority, which helps attract funding and visibility.
Vision for the future: Market self-regulation
When asked what the humanitarian sector would look like in five years’ time, assuming complete interchangeability, Serhiy Kolesnyk predicted that the market would regulate itself:
“Supply and demand will meet somewhere, and only those who can adapt to the available resources and opportunities will remain in the humanitarian sector. The most transparent (those that submit reports and undergo audits), qualified, and optimized in terms of associated costs will remain.”
Those organizations that cannot withstand this internal competition will return to the real sector of the economy, which is also a positive outcome for the country.
The CO “Shchedryk” confirms its commitment to maximum transparency, efficiency, and readiness to collaborate (in particular, to form consortia) in order to ensure the sustainability and benefits of its initiatives for communities.