This year, for the first time, the Ukrainian language will be spoken at an official Nobel Prize award ceremony. Yevhenia Kubakh, organizational development and fundraising coordinator of the Center for Civil Liberties and MIM-Kyiv Management and Leadership Pre-MBA program graduate told us that the news about the Nobel Prize was quite unexpected.

She told us how the Center is run, what the changes were after the russian full-scale invasion, and how donors and partners can better understand the non-profit sector. She also discussed the role of business education for those who work there. 

- When we learned about the Prize we were stunned. Our leadership was traveling at that moment and had very limited access to communication, so we could not even discuss it. The media started actively contacting us when we were not ready for that. We did not even remember about the nomination. 

- You faced a serious challenge because of the “three brotherly peoples” concept promotion. How did you cope with it?

- We do have a lot to ask from the Nobel Prize Committee. Their communications rather than their choice caused public resentment. We seem to view that differently. We were partially involved in this discussion and to a certain extent because of the public officials’ reaction. After understanding who we shared the Prize with public reaction changed for the better. People should learn more about the Memorial and Ales Bialiatsky, the political prisoner and founder of the Center for the Human Rights Protection “Viasna”. 

- The Center for Civil Liberties is known for its comprehensive and large scales campaigns such as support of then-imprisoned Oleh Sentsov, and the Euromaidan SOS initiative just to mention a few. How did your activities change after February 24? How did the war start for you?

- All those who could make it came to the office. We decided to enhance our Euromaidan SOS activities. The initiative was launched as a reaction to the violence against the peaceful students’ protest in 2013. Several thousands of volunteers participated in the initiative and made it successful. So, we revived their work. We created a communication platform for those who suffered from the war and those who help. For several months it was actively promoting communications. Soon we launched the “Tribunal for putin” initiative aimed at keeping a record of military crimes and promoting the idea of prosecution of all war criminals, from the immediate doers to those who gave orders and russian leadership. 

We also continue our ongoing projects. We are adjusting to the new conditions, and accounting for the new situations but it is only natural. Good adapters are winners.

- Please tell us about your role in the Center.

- I started as a fundraiser. I was MIM-Kyiv’s student at that time. Soon, I added organizational development coordination to my scope of responsibilities. I am in charge of balancing different areas of activities to make our work timely, efficient, and sustainable. It integrates finance, business processes, and communications. It is very challenging because of the unpredictable situations, especially now. To keep going we need to have all our internal mechanisms working properly. 

- You took our Pre-MBA “Management and Leadership” program which is about people’s side of organizations. When the war started, businesses faced various people-related challenges ranging from security and safety to psychological problems. How appliable are the skills and tools that you mastered at MIM-Kyiv?

- M&L program is a true people- and communications-oriented program. I use a lot of what I learned at MIM-Kyiv. If you have the knowledge, you can build patterns and behaviors. People, especially those who work remotely need attention. At a certain point, we decided that we should encourage people to work from the office because it gives more sense to the activities and communications are better. Online Purely remote working may be efficient for a limited period and for face-to-face created teams rather than virtual ones. The courses on running virtual teams are very useful. They help to understand how virtual teams operate, manage the hybrid format of working and choose the format right for the current circumstances.

- We were discussing business-like management of the civic organizations before the full-scale invasion. How business processes in non-profits are working during the war?

- I would not call it business-like management. It is about business processes meaning that they are fine-tuned and produce the expected outcomes. Currently, it is especially important for finance, communications, and administration. Any internal processes need to be run as business processes. It makes the work less stressful for people and promotes internal communication. People understand how to do things and who to ask if something goes wrong. Many civic and charity organizations are created with emotions which is good. However, if you want to sustain its activities, it needs to be run systemically. Those organizations can make it work efficiently, and people are less stressed out if they understand what they are supposed to do. This shift from emotions to management provides further non-profits development. Moreover, businesses, donors, and other stakeholders who can support such organizations better understand well-run organizations.

- In your opinion, will Nobel Prize change the organization? On one hand, it is recognition, but on the other hand, it is a new challenge. 

- It was the first question we asked ourselves after the announcement. We will have to change some of our approaches because the Prize opened so many new platforms for advocacy and raising awareness. We are more visible. That’s why we need to be very thorough in our communications. Better communications and clear and relevant messages are expected from us. I was looking at how the lives of Nobel Prize winners changed after the Award. Not so much. I think it is more about our perception and our approach to changing our activities. We will continue working in the areas that we believe to be our priorities such as human rights development, international solidarity, and involvement of the ordinary people in our activities. We think that the country will need our expertise to quickly transform the country following its application to the EU. We need to amend our legislation to align it with the European one. Quality communication is our other focus.