Yandex.Money Creates New Tools for Online Fundraising

October 22, 2014

Yandex.Money has launched the platform Vmeste (meaning ‘together’ in Russian), a comprehensive solution for online fundraising. The solution makes crowdfunding simpler and thus more available to the masses. The project Vmeste (“together” in Russian) combines three new payment tools that will benefit both individuals and charity funds. Now users and companies can organize a comprehensive collection of money on their own payment pages. No technical knowledge is necessary, and there are no additional costs.

“Even now, many charity organizations still do not offer the option of making donations via online payment,” said Anna Savchenko, Director of Products at Yandex.Money. “Until now, only the largest charities could afford to set up the kind of full online payment process that is convenient for donors. The same was true for private initiatives. Very few fundraising solutions available on the market right now are both simple and technologically advanced. Our platform shortens the distance between the initial desire to help and the actual donation, on both the user’s end and the charity’s. This could potentially upend the market.”

The first tool is a page for accepting payments. The tool is suitable for absolutely anyone who wants to raise funds no matter the purpose—whether it be a group birthday gift or the release of a music album. Individual pages can accept payment funds from bank cards or Yandex.Money accounts and transfer them to the user’s e-wallet. A link to the page is easily shared on social networking sites.

Two other tools, which have been designed specifically for charity funds, allow users to collect funds directly on their organization’s bank account. Fundraising forms are designed to be convenient; in a matter of a few minutes fundraisers can set up funds collection from e-wallets and bank cards. Another tool, Yandex Payment Solution, is a full payment suite, which has recently been adapted for charitable organizations. Without requiring technical integration, Yandex Payment Solution allows fundraisers to accept all the most popular payment methods including bank cards, e-money, mobile phone account funds, and cash via payment kiosks and mobile retailers. This tool also provides the option of setting up automatic payments. Organizations can sign up for the Yandex Payment Solution by filling out an online application. Within a few days, Yandex.Money will create and maintain a payment page for the charity.

New convenient tools for charities are expected to appear soon on the Vmeste website, including widgets for counting the number of donors, fundraising directories, and informational webpages for charitable organizations.