Specific question about financial help for Ukranians

March 22, 2022 8:49 PM

If and only if you make or have made monetary donations to help both Ukrainian warfighting and humanitarian work for Ukrainians, how do you divide the donations?

Helpful answers could be that you give X amount for one and Y amount for the other; certain percentages for different organizations; or your rationale is informed by A, so you now do B, although you had done C before; those types of things. Rationale is especially helpful.

posted by NotLost to Work & Money (5 answers total)

I gave directly to the National Bank of Ukraine for their Department of Defense. I want 100% of my funds to go directly to their military because:

1) Time is of the essence.
2) If they can defend themselves properly right now, there will be fewer casualties and refugees.
3) I can fund their military because I'm not in the public eye. Many celebrities, corporations, NGOs, and governments are giving only to humanitarian needs because of optics. They can't be seen to fund arms, even in self-defense. I don't have that constraint. I trust Zelenskyy and his team to make the best use of my donation.

My thinking is that if someone is getting beat up by a bully, they need a stick now, not just bandages later.
posted by dum spiro spero at 9:45 PM on March 22, 2022 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I paid directly for apartments for refugees that I personally know and flights for friends of friends to get to further safe havens in the first week.

Then I switched to slightly less personal, but still diaspora linked... I've donated to RazomforUkraine, since I've worked with them in the past. My family has also donated funds for armor and night vision goggles, as well as volunteered with Meest (shipping company with longstanding ties to ukraine-ukraian American diaspora) via our local community. One of my sibling's friends got a local police department to donate riot gear, which made me very happy; demilitarize our police and get bulletproof vests and helmets to Ukraine? Yes pls. I helped pay to shipping on that.

I also donated to World Central Kitchen with my work donation match which has been feeding refugees the world over, and have been recommending them to those less connected to the community.

My split is maybe 30/70 with the split towards humanitarian aid. It's what I currently feel comfortable with.
posted by larthegreat at 5:13 AM on March 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I donated 100% to UKR defense, via the account set up for that purpose at the Central Bank of Ukraine. Not because I don't think that humanitarian causes matter, but because I think that if the Ukrainians don't win the war, the ensuing humanitarian situation under Russian occupation will be horrendous (possibly genocidal), and the ability of anyone in the West to help will be extremely limited.

If there was anything else I could think of to help the actual war effort, I'd do it, but that's what I've come up with right now.

I don't fault anyone for contributing to humanitarian aid/relief, but my read of the situation is that the most important thing right now is killing Russians and breaking their shit.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:04 AM on March 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My rationale for how I have donated is predicated on the (possibly inaccurate) premise that any assistance I provide that is targeted at military assistance is potentially poorly directed and a drop in the ocean of strategic military need. In this realm I have instead bombarded my elected officials to direct more strategic military support because the Ukrainians MUST win. I believe a US and Nato coordinated military response would be by far the most effective, and they do not need my pittance against the billions Nato can provide. If I had the fortune of Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos I would probably reconsider my hesitation, but alas, I do not. If I knew and trusted a specific military support organization I might add it to my list, but I have no personal knowledge and don't trust that pop-up organizations are effective.

If the threat of nuclear weapons holds us back enough to allow Russia to take Ukraine, why would it stop them retaking the Baltic countries, Poland, etc.? This and the immorality of abandoning the Ukrainian people are the basis of my appeals to elected officials.

I have donated to Doctors without Borders, World Central Kitchen, Unicef, and Save the Children approximately equally. These are organizations with missions that align well with my personal values and I am confident they are already deeply invested in the region.
posted by citygirl at 2:17 PM on March 23, 2022

Response by poster: I agree that a stick now is better than a Band-Aid later.

I have tried several times, and failed, to donate to the military account at the National Bank of Ukraine. The wire bounced and the credit union couldn't fix it. And I wasn't able to donate directly online, either; just got an error.

Please let me know if you have any advice on that. Otherwise, it's Army SOS or somesuch.

Thanks for your thoughts.
posted by NotLost at 10:12 PM on March 23, 2022