Irina Foundation questions & concerns
Hi everyone! I hope this is an okay place to share this, I’ve just been wondering if anyone else feels similarly to me or has similar questions about the Irina Foundation announcement. I know this is a pretty long post, but I hope some people will read this in full and share their opinions, as I’m truly curious what others think.
First of all I want to be clear that I am in no way a hater, this is coming from a place of genuine curiosity. As a huge fan of both the book series and the TV show I truly have nothing but respect for the Heated Rivalry team. I have personally worked in non-profit advocacy spaces and given fairly significant contributions to numerous charitable causes, and I would genuinely love to contribute to any efforts this team creates. However, in the wake of the foundation announcement, I have been left with some questions and frankly don’t yet feel comfortable contributing financially, and I believe that any non-profit organization raising this much money this quickly with this little information should be cause for some well-meaning questions.
I have found the information provided overall to be inadequate. I think that their ideas are great and that this is important work, but what they’ve put out is basically just advocacy buzzwords with no concrete projects or goals. I have seen zero information about where the money will actually be going, if there are any concrete initiatives in the works, or what their overhead percentage is. The donation page says that the money will be going to other organizations that support creating spaces with the ideals they describe on the Irina Foundation site, but nowhere does it identify what any of the specific organizations the money will be going to are. (If I’m wrong about this and they have publicized any of this information somewhere other than their website or donation page, I would love for someone to share that with me so I can eat my words, though I would maintain that that information should absolutely be included on their own website).
On another note, I was also incredibly thrown off by the website, which, while not technically indicative of their actual charitable efforts, seems a little unprofessional, and honestly just generally incomplete. There is minimal information, no media (even though the desktop version clearly has blank spaces where an image would be inserted), and the formatting is very poorly done both on desktop and mobile. I would find it difficult to believe this was made by a web designer, which is absolutely fine, and not at all a necessary expense for a small/new non-profit, but as someone who has made many websites using website creation services, which this site feels like it may also have used, and would consider myself fairly good at, I could make a better website than this in less than 10 minutes (and I mean that 100% genuinely, no hate intended). I would personally never publish or consider a website that looks like this to be complete and ready for launch. Obviously a bad website doesn’t mean a bad organization, but it does seem very quickly made with very low effort, which doesn’t necessarily feel like a good sign for a well thought out and planned charitable concept.
I want to give them the benefit of the doubt because I am such a huge fan, and this is important work, but if anyone else published this website/announced a foundation with this little concrete information, I would think it was a little scammy, and I am finding it difficult to support or get excited about the Irina Foundation with how little information they’ve published thus far. It feels like they felt the need to do this quickly in order to take advantage of the hype around the show, and they maybe haven’t really fleshed out the details, which is disappointing to me, as I feel any legitimate charity effort should at least somewhat solidify their plans and goals for public consumption before launch. I really hope I am wrong and that they have great plans for this foundation, but personally I can’t give money to something without any information on what organizations that money will then be given to. I hope to see more concrete details soon, because I would truly love to donate. Would love to hear other people’s thoughts on this.