Donor Fatigue? – Ukrainian Civil Society Aid to Armed Forces Shows Upward Trend

It is about the fact that at the beginning of a full-scale invasion, society was more active in helping the army than it is now.

As someone who is quite often involved in holding fundraisers for various military causes, I have also noticed a general decrease in support as the war drags on. The big exception to that trend is immediately following a Russian atrocity or terrorist act when there is greater enthusiasm to help. For example in October, when Russia first began its campaign of mass shelling against Ukrainian infrastructure, three of the most popular Ukrainian charitable funds, United24, "Povernys Zhyvym (Return Alive)" and the Prytula's Fund, collected HR. 1.5 billion in just one month. 

Over the course of 2022, these three funds managed to attract almost Hr. 34 billion in donations but almost half of that, Hr. 15.8 billion, was collected in the first three months of the full-scale invasion. Contributions began to reduce thereafter.

What about current donations?

In the first half of 2023, the three funds I mentioned above collected Hr. 8.4 billion, according to data compiled by the Opendatabot platform. This represented a decrease of 22% compared with the first half of 2022. Thankfully the ongoing drift downwards was reversed in June when the number of recorded donations reached Hr. 2.4 billion in the United24 platform, which was the largest single month total since the illegal war started. This was a record with the next largest amount collected in one month being the HR. 2.24 billion in donations made in July 2022.

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The same positive growth was noticed in two other charitable foundations. “Povernys Zhyvym” (Return Alive) collected 17% more funds in June than in the “average monthly” total from January-May 2023, collecting HR. 0.34 billion against Hr. 0.29 billion. Collections to Serhiy Prytula's fund increased by 37% in June, with Ukrainians donating Hr. 0.22 billion, compared with an average of Hr. 016 billion per month over previous five months.

The funds raised by these charities are directed to defense, medicine and reconstruction costs within the country, which has suffered as a result of military operations.