Donating? Choose wisely
The recent Red Cross controversy marks a widespread problem: international aid is too bureaucratic, has high overheads, and sometimes (as with Red Cross) aids someone other than Ukrainians (say, Russia-operated refugee-camps-turned-labor-camps in Rostov-on-Don).
From the very start of the war, many friends asked where to donate to support Ukraine. I provided the list (one version of it is below), and since then, I’ve been monitoring through social media whether these charities are effective on the ground: Do they know the exact needs? Convert money to supplies fast? Are transparent in their reporting (formal and informal)? Are led by trustworthy people? (this last one I already knew before sharing the list) So here’s the list again (all of these organizations have already completed one or more rounds of delivering humanitarian supplies in the past month):
- Kyiv School of Economics Fund (now focused on humanitarian needs in Kyiv) https://kse.ua/support/donation
- Come Back Alive Foundation (addressing the needs of the army and civilians in war-affected areas) https://savelife.in.ua/en/donate/
- Special accounts for Humanitarian needs and Army needs at the National Bank of Ukraine (there are daily updates on how much money was raised and spent) https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-spetsrahunok-dlya-zboru-koshtiv-na-potrebi-armiyi
You’ve probably seen headlines with astronomical figures of US and EU aid to Ukraine. Truth is, that aid takes a while (months? years?) to arrive on the ground in Ukraine. So, over the first month of war, most of the money for Ukrainian Army and humanitarian needs came from individual donors —from inside Ukraine and from overseas. See, for example, this Twitter feed by Tymofiy Mylovanov of Kyiv School of Economics who’s organizing the logistics of humanitarian and defense aid in Kyiv.
So where do large fancy brand-name charities fit in supporting Ukraine?
In the early days of war, a friend of mine (working in an Australian investment bank in London) asked me for Australian charities that send money to Ukraine. Her employer was happy to donate, but wanted an Australian-registered charity to be a benefactor. I was at a loss to answer (since then, the Australian Federation of Ukrainian organizations has partnered up with Caritas for Ukraine Crisis Appeal — I would’ve recommended that one, if asked now). My friend’s employer ended up sending money to UNICEF. I’ve seen this story repeat itself with many institutional donations.
“ The problem with large humanitarian agencies is not just that they are bureaucratic but also that they divert an unconscionable proportion of aid to their own internal costs. The UN agencies such as UNICEF are the worst, using almost half of aid for internal needs. I would never donate money to any UN affiliated agency. The money we raised went directly to the National Bank account and I recommend that to everyone.” — that’s a colleague of mine with extensive experience in Ukraine, now running a consulting firm out of Sydney.
In Australia, two factors affect firms' choice of where to donate: (i) whether a given charity has a status of a deductible gift recipient, or DGR (meaning donations are tax-deductible for Australian taxpayers), (ii) legal aspects (which is an umbrella term for what firms are comfortable doing, given the guidance from The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade).
Many Australian firms also match employee donations, and that is also likely subject to the fancy-brand-name-charities framework (again, for donations to be tax-deductible, a charity must be registered as a deductible gift recipient in Australia). The Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) provides a list of various charities as part of Consolidated Ukraine Appeal. And many organizations (say, Universities) use that list in promoting ways to donate to Ukraine.
The trade-off: fast, targeted (non-tax-deductible) help through Ukrainian charities vs slow and less effective (tax-deductible) through big-brand charities
All that is good and well, but keep in mind the trade-off. On one hand, if you choose the fancy-brand-name-charities, that makes your donations “cheaper” for you through tax deductibility (aka you “save” 30% of the donation amount that you would’ve otherwise paid in tax) and maybe through employee matching (aka you effectively donate 200$ for each 100$ of your own money if the employer matches 1-to-1). But big-fancy-Red-Cross-type charities are slow, have high overhead costs (meaning up to 50% of your donation would go to cover their employee and admin costs) and often provide help that does not match the needs on the ground (e.g., delivering general-purpose first-aid kits instead of tourniquets for fast stoppage of blood loss which is common after explosion-related injuries).
On the other hand, there are Ukrainian charities with knowledge of the needs on the ground, low (or non-existing) overheads, and which are converting money to supplies fast (I picked three, based on my research, see the list above). They might not have the right status for tax deductibility or employee-donation-matching scheme, but they certainly make a greater difference in Ukraine.
In the end, you can trust my word for it, or you can do your own research. As the war goes on, the needs and timeframes will change. Potentially, new charities might emerge / speed up their response etc. In some places like the US and Europe, there are local charities that have both: a tax-deductible status and an efficient, fast-responding supply chain of delivering aid. Case in point is the US-based RazomForUkraine: donations to them are tax-deductible in the US, and they’ve been operating for years (since 2014 at least), with good results and transparent reporting.
What I try to do here is follow a framework akin to Effective Altruism, but for Ukraine-specific donations, based on my knowledge of who does what on the ground (including through social media posts of people coordinating aid in Ukraine).
Btw, if you’d like to hear what Effective Altruism folks have to say on the matter, see the forum here (I second their suggestion: if in doubt, use Special accounts for Humanitarian needs and Army needs at the National Bank of Ukraine — point 3 in my list). Even better if you use crypto (yes, there’s that option) — that’s the fastest and cheapest way to send money to Ukraine now. The second-best (in my experience) is using wise.com (low fees and good exchange rate) to transfer to any Ukrainian bank account. Or you might find that where you’re based, some companies waive fees on money transfers to Ukraine.