A closer look at humanitarian aid for Ukraine
Anna Nevm is on a mission to change how you think about giving to humanitarian organizations, showing how higher impact can come from overlooked places.
If you were asked to name some really great humanitarian aid organizations, could you name any? Perhaps you could name one or two really big ones, but but do you really know what they’re doing with the donations they receive? These are the questions that Anna Nevm, a San Francisco-based student-turned-activist, wants you to ask.
Getting aid to the little guys who make a big impact
The question of how effective massive aid organizations are, and how efficiently they’re deploying capital to make real impact happen, is surprisingly not easy to answer. Anna, who is a Ukranian transplant, found this question central to her own mission when the war in Ukraine broke out. Simple questions like, “How can I help my people?”, or “Which aid organization should people give to?” became increasingly complex to answer.
And yet, in part by being Ukrainian herself, Anna did know that there were amazing, but small, grassroots organizations and groups doing great work in Ukraine. Why wasn’t anybody giving to them?
The answer was quite clear. “People have a problem trusting these smaller organizations, and so if you are afraid that money is not going where it should, you won’t donate,” Anna told me on a call recently. And of course there are schemes our there that are simply looking to funnel well-intentioned money into scammer bank accounts.
“I wanted to create something that people could trust, so that they could give to these smaller organizations that make such a huge impact,” Anna said as she described the inspiration to make Help Ukraine Now. Her organization highlights high impact, vetted fundraisers and volunteer groups providing humanitarian aid.
“Usually, the people who know best what they need in a crisis are the ones on the ground, and those things change regularly,” Anna said recently. It’s true, one week a small village may need bandages and medicine, another week it may need canned goods. Yet another week, it may need logistical help to move its people as the front-line of the war moves closer.
The specific locations are always changing as well, and prioritizing aid in a rapidly evolving crisis is no small feat. Towns on the interior of Ukraine, away from the war, are experiencing massive influxes of refugees. Those towns now need more food deliveries, but roads or logistical paths may be down due to active fighting or roadblocks. So, now some other people may need to go around these roadblocks to find food in neighboring towns, to bring it back to the town that is in a shortage. All this to say, the situation on the ground is messy and granular.
And who will support those people who are taking matters into their own hands to go source and deliver aid? Or who give people rides out of a town because they have a car and someone else doesn’t? “Those people should get support too, but what government or huge organization will send a check to one person in the middle of a small town in Ukraine?” Anna wonders aloud.
The Peace DAO as a blueprint for a high-impact aid vehicle
Not long after the outbreak of war, Anna started working with The Peace DAO, a DAO focused on delivering high-impact aid to war-torn Ukraine and any other future areas of need.
The pitch was simple: the DAO raises capital and is operated by its token-holders and aims to bring together donors, aid organizations, activists for peace, subject matter experts, and those in need of funding. The DAO members should then be able to direct aid to where it’s most needed in a fast and efficient manner and is able to drive contributors to help run operations, such as by helping to vet funding recipients.
The Peace DAO was founded by Ryan Breslow, a notable tech leader and visionary who has family roots in Ukraine, who has offered to match funds coming into the DAOs treasury up to 100 ETH.
Anna participated in The Peace DAO, helping to funnel funding to organizations that she knew were doing great things.
“It really was a perfect connection, because for me, I had the organizations that needed aid but had a hard time finding any, and for The Peace DAO, they had the aid but were not sure where to send it,” Anna told me on a call reflecting her origins with The Peace DAO.
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What the future holds
The War in Ukraine has no end in sight as of this writing. The Peace DAO continues to provide aid to high-impact organizations with Anna holding weekly Peace Talks in the Movement DAO discord. Anna hopes to see an end to the war, but in the mean time has no plans on slowing down her efforts.
To learn more about Anna Nevm’s organization, visit www.helpuanow.org. Want to help the Ukrainian relief efforts? Join the Discord and tune in Wednesdays at 8:00pm UTC to listen in to a Peace Talk hosted by Anna.
