A Collaboration Platform for NGOs That Help Ukrainian People Escaping From War
The client
Forum Razem is a Polish NGO forum, set up by Polish Humanitarian Action and Ashoka: Innovators for the Public so that non-governmental organisations could work together properly.
Its purpose was a platform supporting the organisations that help Ukrainian people in Poland, and the Polish communities hosting them — sharing knowledge and tools, connecting the Polish NGO ecosystem with international bodies, and putting organisations in need next to institutions that can fund or otherwise help them.
The challengeWhat the teams actually needed
When Russian forces entered Ukraine in February 2022, Polish NGOs moved immediately — but hundreds of them were operating independently, in almost every Polish city and at the border crossings, with help spread unevenly across the areas that needed it.
Challenge 01Coordination that seemed impossible
Pulling all those operations into one coherent plan looked out of reach, which is exactly what made a shared platform necessary.
Challenge 02Speed above everything
Polish Humanitarian Action and Ashoka applied to Tech for Ukraine for support, and the platform had to exist in a very short time to be any use at all.
Challenge 03National scale from day one
The forum had to serve hundreds of organisations across the country rather than start small and grow into it.
What we did
From invasion to kick-off in a weekend
Netguru had already delivered several pro bono projects through Tech To The Rescue and joined this one quickly, scoping the MVP over the weekend.
A team assembled by Monday
By Monday morning almost ten people — designers, DevOps, developers, project managers and consultants — were in a kick-off meeting starting development.
MVP defined before the build
The weekend went on determining what the first version of the web collaboration platform actually had to do.
A common space to share
Forum Razem gives organisations somewhere to share information, make new connections and solve problems together instead of separately.
Still maintained
Development finished, but the team continues to support the client and keep the platform running.
Client testimonial
The Netguru team was very committed to making this happen as quickly as possible, and it supported me through every stage of developing the Forum. Despite such a hectic situation, after a few months, we had a ready product that streamlines our work immensely. Their work was incredibly helpful.
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What’s next