More than €35,000 raised as part of the #WhiteFriday campaign

This month, the charity organisation Ziedot.lv, together with the Mobilly platform, held the #WhiteFriday fundraising campaign for the second time. Its aim was to support the day-to-day work of more than 70 different charitable and non-governmental organisations and to highlight the importance of regular donations. The nationwide charity campaign served as a symbolic response to the shopping frenzy of Black Friday, and with the support of people across Latvia, a record amount—€35,500—was raised on the Mobilly and Ziedot.lv platforms over the course of a week.

The first #WhiteFriday campaign took place at the beginning of February this year, and the organisers aim to turn the campaign into a regular tradition so that it reaches an ever-wider segment of society each time, achieves even more ambitious goals and makes donating a regular everyday habit. During this campaign, €28 133 was donated through the Ziedot.lv platform, while €7,366 was donated through the Mobilly platform. In addition, people supported organisations using other donation options, meaning that the total amount donated is even greater. 

“We greatly appreciate every donor’s responsiveness and willingness to help others, because people facing difficulties ask for our support throughout the year, not only at Christmas. We can be as strong a society as each of us is individually, and, despite all the challenges we face at present, Latvian society is very responsive and truly big-hearted,” comments Rūta Dimanta, head of the organisation Ziedot.lv.

Some of the organisations that have received the support they need through donations include the Children’s Hospital Foundation, to which the donated amount will help cover 37 regular ABA therapy sessions for children with autism spectrum disorders over a period of more than four months. The amount donated to the MARTA Centre will be used to provide eight psychological consultations for women who have experienced violence; the funds donated to the #Vieglipalīdzēt volunteer movement will be used, in cooperation with the Latvian Language Agency, to develop and launch in the near future a distance-learning Latvian-language course for 20 asylum seekers from Belarus, helping them integrate more successfully into the labour market. Meanwhile, the donation to the Dzīvesbiedri movement will be allocated to explaining the Life Partners Law in order to secure legal support for several families.

“We are convinced that the support provided by society will help our voice be heard more clearly. It will help us explain the need for the Life Partners Law and ensure that decision-makers do not let up. We will try to prove that not everything can be resolved through powers of attorney and that all life-partner unions deserve to be socially stable and legally protected. We are truly delighted by every donation made to us so that we can continue the work we have begun,” comments Kaspars Zālītis, head of the Dzīvesbiedri movement.

The organisers of #WhiteFriday remind everyone that donations can be made every day on the ziedot.lv and mobilly.lv platforms, including through the Mobilly app, outside the campaign period as well, while various organisations can also be supported individually through direct donations.