Foundation Giving to Ukraine Peaked at Beginning of Invasion, but Has Stayed Steady Since
By Sara Herschander
Contributor
February 27, 2023 | Read Time: 2 minutes
After a burst of donations right after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and a bump up in December, donations to Ukraine-based causes have remained otherwise steady, according to the activities of nearly 300 private foundations tracked by Foundation Source, a major provider of philanthropy management services.
The 273 private foundations analyzed by Foundation Source have given a total of $12,254,923 to support Ukraine over the past year, more than half of which occurred in March 2022 directly following the invasion. The foundations included in the data set come from Foundation Source’s own client base and are not necessarily representative of total foundation giving. The company declined a request for an interview about the data.
The same set of foundations gave roughly $1 million per month in April and May of 2022 before settling into an average of $362,250 in donations each month. In December 2022, donations ticked up again, to $605,887, as many foundations boosted their giving to mark the holiday season. The three largest beneficiaries were Unicef, which received over $2.5 million, followed by World Central Kitchen and the International Rescue Committee.
The foundations’ consistent giving over the past year reflects larger trends in philanthropy toward Ukraine-based causes. Since March 2022, the Open Society Foundations has worked with partners like the Ford Foundation and the Schmidt Family Foundation to raise $45 million for its Ukraine Democracy Fund. The fund supports Ukrainian-based groups like 100% Life, which supports Ukrainians living with HIV, and the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, which has been documenting war crimes and other abuses during the war.
“Russia’s war against Ukraine is an assault on democracy,” a representative for Open Society Foundations said, adding that the fund has “supported Ukrainian civil-society groups working to provide direct support to civilians caught in the horror of Russia’s war, as well as efforts to bolster international solidarity with Ukraine.”
The Open Society Foundations contributed an initial $25 million to the fund in March 2022, with the additional $20 million raised by partners over the past year.
