Interview for the Russian national radio with Ms Sandra Antonovic, the Chair of Nektarina Non Profit /transcript in English/ RR: Ms Antonovic, thank you very much for your time, and for having this interview via Skype. Nektarina Non Profit is an organization based in Zagreb, Croatia, but you have been active in Russia for almost three years now, tell us something about your work. SA: Thank you for having me with you, it's an honour. Yes, you are right, although we are based in Croatia, we have been active in Russia, and in other countries of Central, Eastern and South East Europe as well, since 2009. One of our first projects was Roma Integration Programme that we tag lined “Integrate, Don't Isolate”. The UN Roma Integration decade is still ongoing, and being based in a region where there are many Roma people, it came up as one of the issues we felt was important to address in our work. Our project is ongoing, since 2009, in the entire Balkan region, in Romania and Bulgaria (with Romania having the highest number of Roma people), Poland, Hungary and Russia. RR: Your organization has established itself as a great practitioner of education. SA: Yes, even our logo contains three words we find very important – educate / connect / inspire. In all our projects our main goal is to educate – education is the connecting thread. You can promote a certain idea or a project, and you can even get enough people involved, but if those people are not educated on that certain topic or idea, you will never make a significant change in the society, which is, or which should be, the ultimate goal. Once you make a decision to step into the non profit world you have a great responsibility towards your community and the public, and a great part of that responsibility is in the area of education – different NGOs address different issues, but at the end of the day we should all educate the people we address – it is, in the long run, the only way to get them inspired and engaged, and without long term public engagement you cannot really achieve anything. RR: Many NGOS complain that lack of funds presents an obstacle in their educating people on the projects or issues they advocate for.
SA: Sure they do. If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse. We are operational in so many countries, yet our annual budget is under 100 K euro. So many NGOs waste resources on so many useless things that do not really have a point, so many of them are overstaffed and with a lack of a clear vision and a good strategic and operational plan. RR: Where do you think that problem is coming from? SA: One of the problems is that NGOs keep forgetting that running an NGO is not so much different than running a profitable business. You cannot just run around like a bunch of zombies – there has to be a clearly defined plan, you have to lay out time lines and strategies how to achieve that plan, and then you have to find funding for that, Once you have all four things in place – execution is the key. So many NGOs start with a good plan, and with a solid funding, and then start changing things midstream. People need consistency and they need something solid to be involved with. That is why UN and all its daughter organizations have been so successful in establishing themselves as an important body – they set a few topics for the entire year and they work with that, they don't make too many changes, they do not deviate from the initial project. RR: But what about smaller local NGOs? SA: The principle is the same, small or big. If you don't have a concise long term plan, you are just planning to fail. There are so many good examples, no need to re-invent the wheel here: Good Planet from France does amazing work in educating people on climate change and environmental issues – and if you look at their work in the past few years, there is such an obvious sense of strategy. Everything they do is connected – in the UN year of forests they present a documentary about forests, they offer free posters for schools covering forest topics and they do public events talking about forests. All three – the film, the posters and events have one clear goal in mind – to educate a wide audience. By educating them, they enchant them. And that is the “secret”, if you will, of the success they have been having with their projects. That, and the generous funding. You can persuade people into something up, but it is much better to enchant them. Then it becomes a chain reaction.
RR: What other projects do you find enchanting? SA: I think freerice.com is an amazing project, very low key, no-nonsense, and with such a strong and enchanting message – learn and help feed. Amazing idea. RED does an amazing job, and they have mastered cross promotion. Cross promotion is another thing NGOs never seem to learn. Then, Lance Armstrong's Livestrong foundation – they do amazing job, and they have excellent marketing strategy. Greenpeace “help Facebook unfriend coal” is excellent campaign, it targets wide demographics very well. There are so many good campaigns going on, and the web changes things in campaigning, for the better. RR: We have talked about your Roma Integration project. Which other projects are you involved with? SA: Roma integration project, alongside with other work we do regarding minorities integration, is our biggest project, but we are very much active in the area of climate change and carbon reduction. In 2009 we launched a regional project EverGreen, in four countries in the South East Europe Region. The project targets educational organizations that are recognized by the state, but are not state financed, like private schools, private universities, and offers extracurricular activities where students can learn more about the environment, sustainable living and similar topics. We are very happy by the way things are going so far, and we are especially content with the response we've had from the children and students. RR: Yet, it seems like you don't like to advertise your work and projects. SA: True. But it is usually the case with educational projects – you focus on teaching and on the concept – if you do it right, you don't really need to advertise yourself, your pupils do it for you. RR: Last year Nektarina non profit became a 24 country hub for the UK originated 10:10 campaign – tell us something more about the campaign and your involvement. SA: 10:10 is a campaign that focuses on inspiring people to make a positive change in their lives and commit to reducing their carbon emissions by 10% during a period of 12 months.
Nektarina non profit acts as a hub for 24 countries in Central, Eastern and South East Europe and Russia. We are happy to be a part of it, and it has been a great experience for us, as the campaign is more “out in the open” and targets basically a total universe in terms of demographics. RR: This is also the campaign that you have taken to social networks. SA: Yes, it has been a lot of work for us, but I think marketing a non profit campaign is as exciting as marketing can get. Sky is the limit, and nowadays we have all these amazing platforms and social networks that offer so many possibilities. It does not work for all countries, but it adds to the marketing mix. RR: In this project you are again educating people, if I am not mistaken. SA: Yes we are. We are trying to interact as much as we can, and we are doing it in a very local way – targeting each country or a region separately. It may not always be understood or accepted by the “west”, but it works for us and our demographics. RR: Russia is taking a lead in one specific project within 10:10 campaign in your hub. SA: That is true. This year we, as a hub, are going forward with four simple concepts: low carbon travel, everyday efforts, tree planting and a project for teens. Low carbon travel promotes and educates on the low carbon travel option – trains, everyday efforts are small educational bits we do, like monthly posters, low carbon food recipes etc, tree planting is actually our honoring the international year of forests, and it is also a continuance of the tree planting challenge we started last October for 10:10:10 wave. 10:10 teen project is something that we've just launched. We are actually using social networks to inspire and engage youth towards positive action in reducing carbon footprint, creating thus a new way for young people to interact, express themselves and be creative – all with a joint goal of reducing carbon emissions. 10:10 Teen Project targets teenagers, but is equally open to all who'd like to get involved. Participants are challenged with simple, yet educational bi-weekly tasks related to carbon reduction.
RR: Sound amazing! Where can interested teens find out more about the project? SA: The best thing is to visit our Facebook page facebook.com/1010teen, where they can find our contact details, project description and the first set of tasks. We are so happy to be able to offer them incentive in terms of prizes, and we hope to educate them and have fun with them in the process. RR: Any plans to come to Russia yourself? SA: Actually yes, I have been invited by the Russian State Forest University, as we are working with them on Cut Carbon, Plant a Tree project, so I will come to Russia this year, probably during summer, or early autumn. RR: We would love to have you here when you come, and do another interview. SA: Thank you, I would be honoured . RR: Ms Antonovic, thank you very much for your time and this great conversation. SA: Thank you for having me, and many regards to all your listeners. Thank you. ###