SOS Children’s Villages International is an independent, non-governmental, international organisation that helps develop and protect childrens’ rights and best interests. Established in 1949 by Hermann Gmeiner in Imst, Austria. The organisation looks after over 2,500,000 children in 135 countries in the world.
The organisation came to Bulgaria in 1990 and it has been helping vulnerable families and children ever since. SOS Children’s Villages offers family-type care and support to families and is actively defending children’s and youngsters’ rights.
What is a Donor’s Journey?
Ivaylo Guyrov, Fundraising and Communications Director, says that they are not a charity organisation that is only trying to spend its budget. ‘We are a global organisation but we are run like a business. We are a business with social purpose, we look after children in need 365 days a year so we can’t just rely on seasonal campaigns. ‘ – said Guyrov.
In the first year of its existence in Bulgaria and Eastern Europe, the organisation operates mainly with funds, raised in the so-called ‘rich countries’.’ In the last 3-4 years, and up until 2019, all money that is necessary for the organisation’s functioning have been and will be sourced from local campaigns. ‘We are ambitious and we are doing anything in powers to do this, even though it’s challenging at times.’ – said Ivaylo Guyrov – We act as a business organisation and by doing this, we treat our donors as business partners. We go to a potential sponsor with our brand name and we say to them that we can make them more successful too. Basically, we treat our sponsors as clients, which is why we call it a Donor’s Journey.
A Donor’s Journey is basically a Customer’s Journey, where every client is going through different phases. The person donating to us goes through various stages – first, they start with a one-off donation, then they become a committed giver and every month they donate a little something, then they rise to the level of attracting others, willing to help, and finally, they teach their kids to donate to – they pass it down the family. To manage this whole process, and that means over 60,000 givers, we need a good and reliable system.
