Friends, I’m proud to present the Anti-Corruption Foundation’s report on its work (and finances) for 2015.
https://fbk.info/about/reports/2015/
It was an eventful year: we worked flat out, and you supported us by funding that hard work.
17,000 people funded the ACF’s work over the course of the year. They made 40,463 donations totaling 39 million rubles.
Thanks to you—wonderful people—the ACF remains the country’s largest independent NGO, existing solely on donations from private individuals.
We did not receive a single kopek from grants, foreigners, the Russian state budget, or other NGOs. Only private individuals—and that is the main guarantee of our survival in a situation where we are not only the largest independent NGO, but also the one most hated by the authorities.
The section titled “criminal cases against foundation employees” is, sadly, growing year by year (there is already something new to write about in the next report), but despite that, in 2015, thanks to you, we were able to:
Run the #20 campaign against the illicit enrichment of officials. This is our core campaign and a clear political demand.
The ACF brochure with examples of illicit enrichment remains a perennial hit. Citizens love it, while the authorities declare it extremist wherever it appears.
Continue our investigations. In 2015, we published 56 completed investigations, including the blockbuster “Chaika”, which set a new standard not only for investigative work, but also for how such material is presented.
Our film became the first piece of material in recent years to break through the wall of censorship and reach ordinary people—beyond the media space of politically engaged urban audiences—and therefore caused a great deal of trouble for the regime.
We continued to actively involve volunteers in our work. ACF St. Petersburg released the absolutely brilliant “Municipal Clan.”
We updated RosYama (a civic road-defect reporting project), fought back in the “poster case,” and launched a new ACF website.
We took part in elections—and even in hunger strikes when we were barred from running.
The foundation’s polling service was on fire, and over the course of the year its volunteers made 2,185,925 calls, surveying people across the country on a range of issues.
Thanks to its high-quality polling, the ACF knows what citizens really think.
We faced searches and interrogations, and our employees had their phones and equipment confiscated, but we kept working and will continue to work as long as you continue to support us.
The average donation to the foundation is 985 rubles.
We spend your money carefully and wisely. We invest first and foremost in human capital; our spending structure remains simple: salaries for people and rent for the office where those people work.
We are constantly trying to improve our work with donors. For example, our regular donors received a printed version of the report before its official publication, if they asked for one.
All in all, we are pleased with our work in 2015. We are proud that you supported us and gave us real independence, and we will do everything we can to preserve—and increase!—your support.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation is not just the people sitting in the office. It is also those who chip in money, offer kind words, share links, likes, reposts, hand out leaflets, and retell our investigations to their grandmother.
Thank you very much—let’s keep working.
P.S. And subscribe to the ACF newsletter