Ukraine’s government sets up national fundraising platform
Howard Lake | 5 May 2022 | News
Two months after the Russian invasion Ukraine’s government has set up a fundraising platform to accept financial donations from around the world.
United24 was launched by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, as “the main venue for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine”. It is designed to accept donations from around the world.
The site is available in English and Ukrainian. It is a project of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the office of the President of Ukraine, and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
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Donations are being sought for three areas, which given the ongoing fighting and scale of destruction, go beyond traditional charitable activities:
- defence and demining
- medical aid
- rebuild Ukraine
According to the platform, “funds will be transferred to the official accounts of the National Bank of Ukraine and allocated by assigned ministries to cover the most pressing needs”.
Payment methods on United24
The site accepts donations via
- credit card
- bank transfer
- PayPal
- cryptocurrency
For donations to defence and demining, donations via PayPal are not accepted, presumably because of PayPal’s terms and conditions.
Why a new platform?
Many other appeals have been created to support a wide variety of causes in Ukraine, including appeals to support those in the armed services. The new platform states its goal is “to increase donations to Ukraine and ensure the efficiency and transparency of their distribution. The Official platform protects you from delays, intermediaries, and fraud.”
Transparency
The site emphasises that it will be transparent in its reporting on donations received and used. “We provide fund distribution reports every week” is its prominent pledge, and at launch it was announcing that “our first report will be available on 12.05.22”.
The creation of a national giving platform like this is unprecedented, especially given that the Ukrainian government is handling and distributing the donations. Other countries have suffered major natural disasters but not made this move, so this platform no doubt speaks to the scale and speed of devastation wrought on Ukraine and its people.
In announcing United24, President Zelenskyy commented that “other projects and programs will be added soon” to complement the giving platform.
- DEC launches Ukraine appeal (3 March 2022)
- Fundraising appeals launched for Ukraine (27 February 2022)
- Key Ukraine fundraising appeals see millions raised (4 May 2022)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.