CAF Russia launches first website for giving to Russian charities online

CAF Russia has launched a website (www.blago.ru) to enable people to give online to Russian charities from anywhere in the world.

Donors can search for and make secure credit card donations to a growing list of charities, making the website the first of its kind in Russia. Any charity in Russia can ask to be added to the list, provided they are recognised as a charity by Russian law.

A few large Russian charities already have the capacity for donors to make credit card donations online, but this new website allows people to give to a variety of different charities. CAF Russia validates all the charities, checks their reports on the use of funds and is working with credit card company Chronopay and banking provider UCS to ensure transactions are secure. There is a five per cent fee for donating via www.blago.ru to cover costs associated with transactions, security and website maintenance.

In August CAF Russia released the results of research on how the recession is affecting Russian charities that showed that 59 per cent were recording a growth in demand for their services while 61 per cent reported a drop in income.