Donme: a platform supporting young talent in Uzbekistan, and the ×2 Fund

Donme is a platform in Uzbekistan where you can discover young scientists, athletes, musicians, IT enthusiasts and other creators and support their projects with money. Every author goes through identity verification and reports back to supporters after a campaign. Its key feature is the "×2 Fund" programmes: a partner foundation or company adds its own money to every soum given by people, so support is doubled. The platform is available at donme.uz.

Here is how the platform works, who it is useful for and how it differs from asking for help on social media.

Why a dedicated platform is needed

Talented school and university students in Uzbekistan keep running into the same problem: there is an idea and a result — an olympiad win, an invitation to a competition, a finished film script — but no money for travel, equipment, a course or recording an album. Such fundraisers usually run through personal pages and Telegram channels, and they have two weaknesses:

• Trust. Someone who wants to help does not know whether the author is real and whether the money will reach its goal.
• Transparency. After a campaign, few people explain exactly what the money was spent on.

Donme addresses both: authors are verified, and a spending report is part of the platform's mechanics rather than a matter of goodwill.

Whom you can support: areas

Projects on Donme are grouped by area:

• Science — research, labs, olympiads;
• IT — programming, robotics, startups;
• Music — performers, bands, albums and concerts;
• Film — short films, animation, video;
• Art — painting, crafts, theatre;
• Sport — athletes, competitions, equipment;
• Design — graphics, fashion, architecture;
• Education — schools, courses, study camps.

The home page features collections such as "Talents of the week" and "Almost at the goal", new projects, success stories and a section with bloggers and streamers, including those who are live right now.

How to support a project: three steps

For someone who wants to help, the process comes down to three steps:

1. Find a talent. Filter projects by area, region and the "Verified" mark.
2. Choose an amount. Pay with a convenient method — no registration required.
3. Follow the result. The author sends you updates and a final report.

You can add a short, warm message to the author. For safety reasons, comments cannot contain phone numbers, links or @usernames. If you do not want your name to appear in the supporters' ranking, you can turn that off.

The ×2 Fund: how doubling works

"The ×2 Fund doubles every soum you give" — that is how the platform describes its main idea. The mechanics are simple: a partner foundation or company opens a programme and allocates a budget. While the programme is active, for every soum people give to a participating project, the partner adds its own soum from the budget. The multiplier can vary between programmes, but the core scenario is doubling.

For the partner it is a way to support young people in a targeted way: it sets its own budget and limit, chooses the area, and the money goes only to verified authors. The contract, budget and reports are kept in a single dashboard, and authors are checked by the platform's moderators.

Matching changes the psychology of a small donation: someone who gives a little knows their contribution is doubled within the programme, and the partner sees its money going where people have already voted with their own soums.

We explain in more detail why the matching model works so well in "Why support young talent, and how donation matching works".

Trust: author verification and reports

Donme builds trust into its rules, not just its promises:

• Identity checks. Every author's identity is confirmed with a document (via MyID before they can receive money), and pages are moderated manually. Verified authors carry a badge.
• Age. Authors can be 14 or older; under 18, they need the consent of a parent or guardian.
• Goal and report. A project states in advance what the money is for and then reports back with receipts.
• Even if the goal is not reached, the money goes to the author, who still has to report.
• Complaints. You can report a project right from its page. If complaints trigger a review, the account is temporarily suspended and funds cannot be withdrawn until the review ends.
• Payments go through licensed payment systems with PCI DSS and 3D Secure protection; the platform does not store card details.

There is also an "Openness and reports" section showing amounts raised, matched funds and fund movements; according to the platform, the figures come directly from the system and are updated daily.

The 1% fund: support within the platform

A separate mechanism is a pooled fund. One percent of every donation, subscription and purchase goes into it, and grants and support for talents are paid out of it. This is part of the platform's service fee, so the amount for the donor and the author does not change.

For companies and foundations

Donme has a separate "For organisations" page with a partnership programme. It is designed for foundations, companies and other organisations that want to support young people but are not ready to find, vet and follow every recipient on their own. What a partner gets:

• A choice of focus. You can support only IT, sport or science, for example, or specific regions and age groups.
• Budget control. The partner sets the programme's overall budget and matching limits.
• Verified recipients. Money goes only to authors whose identity has been confirmed and whose pages have passed moderation.
• Reporting. The contract, budget and a report on every soum in one dashboard.

In essence, it turns corporate social responsibility from a one-off campaign into a clear, measurable programme where you can see exactly whom you supported and what came of it. For authors, taking part in such a programme is an extra argument for people who are unsure whether to help.

For authors: how to start

If you are a young creator who wants to raise support:

1. Sign in with Telegram or Google — no password needed.
2. Create a page: photo, description, social media links. Opening a page, a project and a shop is free for authors; a service fee is taken only from donations received.
3. Get verified: MyID before receiving money, and a phone number at your first withdrawal.
4. Describe your project: the goal, the amount and what the money is for.
5. Share your page, post updates and submit a report after the campaign.

The platform says you can start accepting donations in about 15 minutes. For tips on making a page people want to support, see our article "How young talents should present their project".

Who is behind Donme

The platform is operated by Dasta LLC — the same team behind the Dasta Creative design agency and other in-house products. For us, Donme is a way to test in practice how an interface, a brand and a set of rules build trust in a service where people give money to authors they do not know. If you want to support the platform itself rather than a specific author, there is a dedicated page: such donations fund author checks, moderation, fraud protection and new programmes.

In short

• Donme is a platform supporting young talent in Uzbekistan.
• You can support a project in three steps, without registering.
• Authors are verified with a document, and pages are moderated manually.
• The ×2 Fund means partner programmes that double donations.
• A spending report is a mandatory part of the mechanics.

If you are building a platform where payments, user verification and transparent reporting matter, the Dasta Creative team can help with web development.