Reflecting on Impact: One Year After the Invasion of Ukraine

February 21, 2023

| By:

Brooks Reed, CAP®

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As the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches, we’re taking a moment to step back and recognize the commitment of our donors to humanitarian relief stemming from this conflict. Since the beginning of the invasion, CAF America has made over $37 million in donor-advised and restricted grants; our donors have funded 998 grants to 78 charities in 14 countries. This includes over $3.75 million in grants to charities incorporated in Ukraine itself.

We’ve seen a few key trends develop over the past year as we review CAF America’s grants data:

Poland emerged as a hub for humanitarian action to help Ukrainians in need. CAF America has granted over $10 million to 22 organizations incorporated in Poland since the beginning of the invasion (26% of total response grants). Poland is the largest beneficiary country of our cross-border grants for response to the invasion. Key humanitarian partners in the country, who have each received over $1 million in grant funding from CAF America, include:

Charities in other countries bordering Ukraine are also providing substantial assistance to those in need: grantees in Bulgaria, Czechia, Austria, Romania, and Hungary received a total of $2,042,890 in the past year for supporting response and humanitarian efforts.

Beyond response to the invasion and assistance for those displaced or physically injured, Ukrainian civil society continues to thrive in the face of extreme disruption. While most of the programs funded within Ukraine have adapted to help those affected by the invasion, many are continuing to also provide valuable social support services that are more needed than ever before.

We asked our partners in Ukraine to share some of their stories so we could understand how they are doing. While serious challenges remain, we’re inspired by their stories and the resilience of their teams as they continue to serve their fellow citizens—often in the midst of active conflict.

February 2023 Update:
“Sadly, in war-torn Ukraine, cancer remains the #1 cause of death among children’s diseases. Pediatric cancer treatment is long and expensive, and with a reduced 2023 national healthcare budget as a result of the war and devastating crisis, even more treatment costs will fall on families’ shoulders.

Even prior to the conflict, the average family income in Ukraine was insufficient to cover these expenses. Now though, the only source to finance the oncology treatment for these families is the support of charitable organizations and donors. That is why at Tabletochki we fight to protect children’s right to survival, recovery, and the quality of life and provide Ukrainian children with holistic, comprehensive support.

To assist these children and their families during the war, Tabletochki provides targeted family support to ensure they survive a winter without electricity, gas and heating. We also deliver psychological support to families to help them cope with the exhaustion, devastation, fatigue, anxiety, and panic they face every day as the war drags on. Additionally, Tabletochki provides systemic support by transporting children to hospitals, where pediatric cancer treatment is concentrated, allowing these children to safely continue treatment and experience the simple joy of returning home after months of treatment at the hospital.”

About the Organization:

The volunteer-based organization is engaged in activities such as: managing the logistics of humanitarian aid cargo from other countries, documentation and transportation across the border, unloading, further delivery to the coordinators of regions, cities and settlements. More than 2,300 activists from different parts of Ukraine are participating in the project.

February 2023 Update:
“Even during wartime, the Let’s do it Ukraine team managed to realize both humanitarian and environmental projects that united 9,430 volunteers across 18 regions both in danger zones and relatively safe areas of Ukraine. Many activities coincided with difficult times of massive rocket attacks, without light and stable communication. People were volunteering and recycling, and school students constructed hand-made, reusable eco-bags instead of plastic ones throughout blackouts and in bomb shelters to be distracted from the war. We understand the importance of doing such events for the whole country because this makes people feel connected to peaceful life, each other, and the planet again.

The organization also continues helping those in need by providing essential resources. As the destruction continues, people lose their homes, we started actively working on making a network of humanitarian shelters and co-working spaces out of old buildings, so that civil people, volunteers, and activists had a secure place to live, grow and work remotely. Houses like this were created in Kyiv, Chernivtsi, and Dnipro regions. Our humanitarian mission will continue in 2023: We wish to expand places to shelter internally displaced persons in more regions.”

These are just two brief snapshots of the powerful work funded by CAF America donors, whose contributions helped local organizations fund their essential programming, ensuring that Ukrainians continue to receive the vital support they need.

For more information on CAF America’s response to the war in Ukraine, please take a look at the following resources:

Our resources page, which serves as a hub for the latest on our response work, including a list of all vetted charity partners approved for grants to support Ukrainians in need.
Our December 2022 podcast episode, which was recorded with partners Polish Polish Humanitarian Action, the Polish Center for International Aid and People in Need, on what to expect in Ukraine this winter.
A firsthand account of CAF America’s trip to Poland this past fall to meet with our grantee partners and see the impact of their work.
Our press release sharing this grants data with the wider philanthropic community.

About the Author

Brooks Reed, CAP®

Brooks Reed serves as CAF America's Vice President of Thought Leadership & Philanthropy. He has worked with the CAF Group in a variety of roles since October 2015, when he was a co-author on the report titled Beyond Integrity: Exploring the role of business in preserving the civil society space (Charities Aid Foundation, 2016). After briefly working with CAF UK’s International Team in London, he joined CAF America in 2017 and has led the Department of Business Development since January 2018.