First Student Projects Successfully Raise HSEcoins

On the last week of September, two student projects, HSE App and #poboltaem? conversational club, raised 100% of HSEcoins they requested and can go forward to implement their ideas. Another four projects approached the ‘safety net’ limit of 70%, which guarantees financial support.

We have talked to creators of HSEcoin’s first successful projects about their reasons for participating in this new crowdfunding initiative and tips on raising the necessary amount of HSEcoins fast (it took one of the projects less than five hours to collect the necessary amount).

Projects That Have Already Raised All HSEcoins

The first successful project, HSE App + HSE Bot, was created by developers of the app that helps quickly check the timetable and look for free classrooms in HSE buildings. The team is going to launch an Android version of the app and a Telegram bot. HSEcoins they raised will be spent on improving the services’ operations, since, due to the high inflow of users, the servers do not always cope with the load.

This project holds the HSEcoin record: all funds for its implementation were donated by HSE community within 4.5 hours. Matvey Kavtorov, IOS developer and project participant, spoke about his team’s success: ‘Our goal was not to get the money, but rather to demonstrate that our project is really popular and supported by students. The secret of our success is that we create and maintain a high-quality product. In other words, there is no secret. Our slogan is “Work well – and everything will be good!”’.

The second successful project is #poboltaem?, a multi-language conversational club for those willing to discuss pressing themes in a foreign language. The topics are chosen according to the participants’ interests, and the languages change every meeting.

The organizers will spend the raised HSEcoins to create a cozy atmosphere at their meetings: to buy coffee, tea, cookies, and stationery. Kristina Suzimova, the team administrator, shared her impressions of the successful HSEcoin-raising process: ‘We are happy that we’ve raised the necessary amount, but I can’t say we’re surprised. We were expecting that the people who have attended our first event would share our desire to make our meetings cozier. Our project on HSEcoin is something really useful, and the participants could feel it. Many of them were happy to donate their HSEcoins to come back to the next event and enjoy the results of this simple act of donation’.

What HSEcoin Is

On September 13, HSE launched HSEcoin, a crowdfunding platform for financial support of student initiatives. Each student, can donate their HSEcoin to the project that seems interesting to them, via the HSEcoin section on the HSE Family website. HSEcoin exchange rate is 200 roubles, and it can be divided to hundredth, so one can support several initiatives at a time.

If a project raises over 70% of the requested HSEcoins in 30 days, it is recognized a success, will get the raised funds, and will be able to spend them. In addition to the two projects that raised all HSEcoins, there are already several projects on the platform that have passed the 70% limit or will soon pass it.

How to Participate

All details on HSEcoin are available on the project website. If you haven’t supported a project, you can visit StudLife HSE group to learn more about donating your HSEcoins.

In order to start your project on the platform and get support from HSE students, you don’t have to be part of a student association. Your project should be non-profit, with a requested amount at least 15,000 roubles. Read the manual on how to start your project on HSEcoin.

Fund raising for projects on HSEcoin is finishing on November 20.

Spend your HSEcoin wisely! If you have questions, ask Ekaterina Savitskaya and Ivan Chernyavsky, project coordinators.

Author: Angelina Reshetina

 

October 08, 2018