Non-monetary Donations to Ukrainian Refugees

March 1, 2022 6:07 AM

My daughter is in middle school in the U.S., and she is interested in organizing student efforts to assist Ukrainian refugees in Europe. Being students, they won't have the ability to donate money. Are you aware of any charities who are collecting and sending other things? (For example, clothing, hygiene products, etc.)
posted by starkraven to Society & Culture (11 answers total)

Best answer: That is a very kind thought. I've worked in humanitarian aid in a variety of settings, and have friends working on the ground right now. It costs a lot of money to send items so far away, and it also means that people can't choose what they want. I have seen people try and donate things like party dresses to Haiti post-earthquake -- that's not appropriate, and not acceptable for Haitians. It also means that the organizations you're sending things to have to pay to ship, store, and distribute things -- when instead they could buy them locally and make sure they were useful. Money can pay for anything; donated shampoo can only help if people need shampoo.

Would your daughter be able to organize fundraising? A bake sale is a classic for a reason - who doesn't want cookies? Sending money would be preferable and much more useful for affected people.

Here are some good articles on the topic.

One study led by José Holguín-Veras, an expert on humanitarian logistics, found that 50% to 70% of the goods that arrive during emergencies such as the 2011 tornado in the US and the earthquake in Japan, should never have been sent and interfere with recovery efforts. In these cases, excessive donations of clothing and blankets tied up relief personnel. The situation was similar after Hurricane Katrina.

posted by quadrilaterals at 6:46 AM on March 1, 2022 [28 favorites]

Best answer: At the moment, everywhere I look on social media, there are people trying to do the same thing - down to random people in my city 2000 miles away doing lots of shopping and throwing it in a van in the hope of driving it to the Polish border. The trouble is, that if you multiply that all over Europe, there are going to be thousands of vans turning up with relatively small amounts of stuff, maybe not what's needed, and with no thought as to the infrastructure needed to sort or store or distribute it at a location where things are already logistically difficult and chaotic.

I think in these situations, money is always the best thing to send, because buying items locally means purchases will be exactly what's needed, where they're needed, bulk discounts can be obtained, and purchasing can be done by charities with the infrastructure to store and distribute them. It's an understandable urge to want to pick up a warm coat and send it to someone who is cold, but it's unfortunately not the best way to achieve what's desired.

So I'd encourage your daughter and her friends to think about doing fundraising activities - sponsored events, bag packing, bucket shaking, whatever they can to raise cash to send to organisations with the expertise to do the work on the ground. Good for them!

On preview: What quadrilaterals said.
posted by penguin pie at 6:54 AM on March 1, 2022 [9 favorites]

Best answer: In Paris the Ukrainian churches are coordinating collections. Perhaps check if there's one in your neighbourhood and see if there's any way to help.
posted by bwonder2 at 7:05 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Maybe use those items in a tag sale to raise money to send cash?

You might also explain that there are large amounts of money flowing to the refugees right now, and sometimes when something like this happens, more local charities lose momentum, so maybe there's a local refugee organization, or a homeless shelter, or maybe a foster care agency that could use the donations?
posted by dpx.mfx at 7:10 AM on March 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks, all of you. I've shared all of this with her, and she is going to redirect her mental energy to organizing a fund raiser, perhaps a bake sale.
posted by starkraven at 7:54 AM on March 1, 2022 [15 favorites]

Bless her, what a good project and a kind heart. Perhaps she and her friends could research some Ukrainian desserts to make and sell? Sharing food is a lovely tradition and it might help to bring a bit of Ukraine to life for them.
posted by fight or flight at 8:03 AM on March 1, 2022 [8 favorites]

The churches in the Cleveland area have moved towards financial donations due to issues stated above. I like the idea of a tag sale or something involving the making and selling of pierogi. I would buy those, they're hard to make in small amounts :)
posted by greatalleycat at 8:24 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Other ideas for fundraising: Penny drive (each classroom starts a collection of pennies; most pennies wins a pizza party. Pennies go to Ukraine.) Aluminum can drive (or maybe just bottle tabs if those are worth something locally)
posted by hydra77 at 8:30 AM on March 1, 2022

As everybody already explained, it's much easier to send money, then to physically ship item to Europe, and from there to Poland or any of the neighboring countries.

There were sometimes exceptions, like the Tonga earthquake, the island obviously relies on shipping and many ships head that way anyway. Same thing, unfortunately, can't be said for Ukraine.
posted by kschang at 11:54 AM on March 1, 2022

Being students, they won't have the ability to donate money

Back when I was a young and motivated broke student surrounded by other young and motivated broke students, 50/50 raffles were always the (second*) best money for effort fundraiser. You sell tickets at whatever dollar value, the winner of the draw gets half of the raffle pot, the other half goes to the fundraiser. All it costs you is the tickets and the payoff is as big as the interest.

*When I was in college the most successful fundraiser was Chinese buns. Someone who knew an older student with a car would drive to Chinatown at 6am, buy several hundred inexpensive buns in various flavors, and then sit out on the quad and sell them to folks going to morning classes at big markup. Everyone loves a bun.
posted by phunniemee at 12:02 PM on March 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

Following phunniemee's suggestion, I'd recommend selling 50/50 raffle tickets right at the bake sale table if that's possible (of course, it would depend on the rules at your daughter's school). I just know that a local group recently raised over $1500 in very short time with a 50/50 draw.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:14 PM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]