We stand with Ukraine!
And we want to make it easy, immediate, and efficient for you to stand with Ukraine, too.
Who we are
We are a group of New-York based volunteers, deeply disturbed by the horrible war in Ukraine who set out to look for ways to help. Most of us are Americans who came here as children from the former Soviet Union. Many are from the Ukraine, but many are immigrants from Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia and other former republics as well.
What we do
We monitor the situation in Ukraine and continuously identify the kind of help that is needed most, be it general aid shipments, refugee assistance, evacuation information, shipments of critical items to underserved locations in Ukraine, direct help to struggling families, or whatever comes next. And then we find the best, most efficient ways to solve the problem and recommend them to you.
Why not just rely on established aid organizations?
There are many great aid organizations out there. Unfortunately, many of the best known ones are not set up very well for an efficient rapid response operation in war-torn Ukraine. They are the big, reliable highways of aid infrastructure - but what Ukraine needs right now is people who can bushwhack through the woods and haul supplies on their backs - sometimes literally! - to those in need.
So who do you work with?
We use both our American and Ukrainian networks to quickly find, support and connect people across Ukraine, Poland, Romania, the UK and the US, to name a few. Some of these people are just volunteers like us, others are part of non-profit organizations that have longer term experience lending a hand in a crisis. What all of them have in common is the passion to help Ukraine and to do so very nimbly and with as little waste as possible.
Is this trustworthy?
We do fairly extensive vetting of all channels we recommend on this site. This means vetting the people involved as well as their methods, and getting independent verification that items or money were delivered to the target destination as expected. Having said that, we understand that all networks involve a certain element of trust, especially when dealing with smaller players. We do our best to ensure trustworthiness in the context of a grave crisis where delays can cost lives.
Is all of this tax deductible?
We try our best to connect you to organizations that have non-profitable status and can therefore offer the convenience of a tax-deductible donation. However, this is not possible in every case. Sometimes, we find a simple volunteer group that does such amazing work that we believe it deserves your attention even though a donation to them may not be tax-deductible. You get to make the final choice yourself.