Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, as Ukrainians continue to endure air raids, displacement, and deep uncertainty, your generosity through the GlobalGiving Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund has strengthened community-led action—supporting local leaders and reminding communities across Ukraine that they are not facing this war alone.
The war against Ukraine is no longer front-page news. It is an enduring reality, one people wake up to each day.
And still, Ukrainians persist. They hold communities together as they organize essential services, keep classrooms open, sustain local economies, and continue to show up in civic and political life. They do this not because it’s heroic but because it must be done.
Two Ukrainian survivors embrace amid the crisis. Photo: US Association for International Migration
Tetyana, a 60-year-old teacher from Kherson, is one of millions of Ukrainians living daily life in the midst of war. While she was cleaning her yard one morning, an explosive device detonated, costing her an arm, damaging her leg, and nearly taking her sight.
Funding sources for warzone survivors like Tetyana had dwindled—an ongoing challenge in the midst of this protracted crisis—and fear set in that she would not receive help. Thankfully, the Deminers Association, supported by GlobalGiving grants, stepped in to provide urgently needed medical care and help relocating her to a safer area.
Life in the long middle of a crisis is not glamorous. It is surviving the blast—and then beginning the work of living afterward.
A Ukrainian walks in front of destroyed buildings. Photo: AP News
Throughout the four years of this war, GlobalGiving has continued to focus our response on listening, staying in close contact with local partners responding to urgent needs. People on the ground understand tradeoffs, urgency, and risk in ways no outside plan could anticipate. Through the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, millions of dollars have been—and continue to be—distributed in flexible grants.
GlobalGiving’s ongoing response in Ukraine has been shaped by this understanding:
Recovery cannot be carried by communities alone, and it cannot be directed from afar. It must be shared: through trust, partnership, and presence.
There are no lengthy approval procedures. Just flexible resources continually placed in the hands of trusted, community-based organizations.
A group of volunteers serving food, comfort, and supplies. Photo: Food for Life Ukraine
Over time, this strengthens Ukraine’s civil society: the web of community organizations sustaining daily life through four years of war.
Two volunteers assembling beds for Ukrainian refugees in Moldova. Photo: Katalyst
Copy of 2020 Impact Report By the Numbers – mini infographics (1)
So, why are we so passionate about offering grant flexibility? It boils down to this simple concept:
The Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund is not about supporting projects in isolation—it’s about strengthening an intelligent network of organizations.
Flexibility means some partners can regrant funding to smaller grassroots groups, reaching communities that larger institutions can’t always access. Others can receive coaching and mentorship that helps them secure new funding, hire staff, and stabilize their operations. A webinar on fundraising might mean an organization can raise its own unrestricted funds next year. Funds that support timely conversations might unlock further diversified donor support within weeks instead of months.
In a crisis entering its fifth year, this kind of flexible infrastructure matters.
Earlier this year, GlobalGiving partner Let’s Help needed to pivot funding from household supplies to charging stations and battery systems for critical equipment as shelling intensified. Because the relationship and grant were already in place, $4,550 was redirected within days. No new proposal, no lengthy processes.
Similarly, during winter energy crises, emergency grants were sent ahead of schedule to help the Ukrainian Food Banks Federation, Blagomay, and Happy Paw provide meals, winter supplies, and shelter support to those who needed it most.
“This winter is the hardest in Ukraine’s modern history due to record low temperatures and attacks on energy infrastructure,” said a Happy Paw employee.
“Your support turns into warmth and gives people a chance to survive.”
Blankets and sleeping bag help Ukrainians through cold winters and power outages. Photo: Pallottine Missionary Foundation Salvatti
This fund strengthens the connective tissue that allows communities to respond to whatever tomorrow brings. And that connective tissue has a human center.
Oksana Plakhotniuk, GlobalGiving’s Strategic Ukraine Grants Consultant, lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine, where she is in daily exchange with local partners.
“Many propose projects they think will appeal to donors,” she says.
“But through conversations, we uncover unmet needs and show how GlobalGiving can provide rapid support, even for programs outside standard funding criteria.”
This approach allowed support for Mission Kharkiv, which provides medicines and comprehensive care to adults living with cancer—services that are typically excluded from disaster response and recovery frameworks. Because most humanitarian funding does not cover long-term cancer treatment, programs like this often fall outside standard funding criteria. With support from GlobalGiving, Mission Kharkiv is both delivering life-saving care and advocating for more inclusive recovery models—ones that recognize chronic and life-threatening illnesses as essential, not optional, in times of crisis.
“Our listening approach helps us respond as quickly as possible to urgent requests,” Oksana says.
Listening to communities has informed GlobalGiving’s support for a wide range of responses specific to local needs, including:
What matters most is not having all the answers—it’s listening and moving resources in response to local priorities.
Reconstruction in Ukraine does not unfold in a straight line. Schools reopen and prepare their basements. Energy systems are repaired, and then retargeted. Basic needs—heating, power, medical care, shelter—are the infrastructure of survival.
Local organizations maintain networks, preserve trust, document damage, and plan for rebuilding. When conditions allow broader reconstruction, they are ready to lead.
In the coming months, the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund will grant $3 million USD, guided by the GlobalGiving team’s close daily contact with partners. With sustained donor partnership, this commitment will extend through 2028 and beyond.
While many organizations have moved on as the crisis continues, GlobalGiving remains, standing with local partners for the long haul.
Because of your continued generosity, this is not just a fund. It is a coordinated network of local organizations able to respond immediately to emerging needs. It is flexible, sustained support that ensures when the window opens—whether through gradual stabilization or a negotiated end to active fighting—Ukrainian civil society is prepared to move at once, with plans in place and communities intact.
In the midst of so much uncertainty, your partnership is the constant.
Thank you for standing with Ukraine—not only in moments of urgency, but in the ongoing reality of the crisis.
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