On 22 May 2025, the fifth event within the program “Doing Business in the EU: Strengthening Business Support Organizations Month” took place. Yurii-Volodymyr Blavt, Partner at Civitta and Co-founder of Challenger AI Accelerator, an expert with over 10 years of experience in fundraising and building Ukraine’s innovation ecosystem, led an online workshop “Financial Opportunities for Business Support Organizations.”

Ukraine’s private sector operates under high uncertainty: the ongoing war, shifting priorities of international partners, a difficult economic environment, and limited domestic resources. This complicates strategic planning and forces businesses to react more and more to daily challenges. At the same time, new opportunities are emerging: unprecedented international attention to Ukraine and growing support for small and medium-sized businesses from international partners, particularly the EU.

 

“This is a situation of double pressure: on the one hand, a high level of uncertainty,  on the other, unprecedented international attention to Ukraine. Financial and organizational sustainability are critical for effective impact, and fundraising is the pathway to this sustainability. Ukrainian business support organizations are a key intermediary between enterprises and opportunities provided by the state and international partners. As business needs grow and competition for resources increases, a strategic approach to fundraising becomes not just desirable but essential,” stressed Yurii-Volodymyr Blavt.

 

Ukrainian business support organizations must develop new skills and institutional capacity to fully leverage these opportunities. Financial literacy, organizational resilience, diversified funding, expansion of services, and partnerships in the EU are the pillars of transformation, growth, and development for Ukraine’s private sector.

10 Steps to Building an Effective Fundraising Strategy (by Yurii-Volodymyr Blavt)

1. Assess your previous fundraising strategy or describe how you raised funds before.
2. Define clear fundraising goals: how much funding you need, for what activities, and by when.
3. Choose approaches (or a mix of approaches) that best fit your structure, resources, and goals.
4. Compile a list of potential donors, including government programs, corporate partners, and international organizations.
5. Evaluate and plan your resources (human, financial, time, technical) for implementation.
6. Set priorities: identify the most important directions and allocate resources accordingly.
7. Develop a fundraising roadmap: a step-by-step action plan with tasks, deadlines, and required resources.
8. Create practical tools, such as proposal and letter templates, donor databases, and task calendars.
9. Plan marketing and communications: define key messages, select channels, and prepare outreach plans.
10. Take action: fundraising is not only about money but also about building partnerships and ensuring sustainable growth.

“Many organizations fail not because their project is weak, but because they learned about the opportunity too late or underestimated the workload. Fundraising must not be a one-time effort but a consistent part of a business support organization’s development strategy,” the expert emphasized.

AI as a Tool for Fundraising

Participation in large EU programs requires careful preparation, which is time-consuming and time is often in short supply, given the strict, non-negotiable deadlines of funding calls. That is why learning to use artificial intelligence productively is crucial.

 

AI can help simplify fundraising by:

• summarizing complex funding calls;
• identifying relevant funding opportunities;
• analyzing previously funded projects;
• extracting key details from funding guidelines;
• scanning multiple grant databases and suggesting best-fit options;
• summarizing trends from CORDIS and other sources;
• optimizing the search and application process to improve efficiency and chances of success. 

All workshop materials are available in the presentation.

The program “Doing Business in the EU: Strengthening Business Support Organizations Month” is implemented under the EU4Business: SME Policies and Institutions Support (SMEPIS) project, carried out by Ecorys in consortium with GIZ Ukraine, the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), and Civitta, with financial support from the European Union. Information partners: the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and EasyBusiness NGO.