I have to admit that the common claim by Kremlin pundits that ACF makes pretty good money from its investigations is absolutely true in the case of Chaika.
As I wrote, filming the documentary cost us 250,000 rubles. When we released it, we added “Support ACF” buttons to the video itself and to the investigations page. We also sent out a fundraising email and I wrote a special post.
Here’s my report on the “box office receipts.”
Chaika brought us 3,075,000 rubles in one-time donations.
654 people signed up to make monthly donations to the foundation totaling 425,000 rubles.
So it’s fair to say that Chaika, Russia’s prosecutor general caught up in a corruption scandal, brought us 3,500,000 rubles.
If you look at the cost-to-revenue ratio, 250,000 rubles spent on production brought in 3,250,000 rubles in donations. Hollywood is nervously smoking on the sidelines.
Seriously, though, the investigation cost ACF much more than that: it wasn’t just the filming, but also many employees’ work over long months. It’s impossible to calculate exactly, although I’m sure the final balance is still strongly positive.
A huge thank you to everyone who supports ACF — without your contributions, we wouldn’t be able to do this work.
I especially want to thank those who sign up for monthly payments — you’re giving us not just money, but the ability to forecast and plan our budget. Long-term investigations like Chaika can only be done this way.
It’s the season for New Year’s gifts, and if you don’t forget about us by signing up for a monthly payment, you’ll be giving a very unpleasant gift to various crooks and thieves. You can sign up here