Earlier this year, Daria Chervona, a photo retoucher from Kyiv, was busy raising 78 million UAH (about $2 million) for the Ukrainian army, posting daily on social media urging friends and acquaintances to donate. . This is a high bar. , but a few weeks later she announced she had cleared it and achieved her goal.
“You did it,” she told her fans on Instagram in late January, displaying the eight-figure amount raised in large black letters in her post.
Ms. Cervona attributes her success to a system she adopted last summer: assigning work to dozens of people, each tasked with collecting money from friends, a process she said can bring in big bucks. Each fundraiser then featured their photo prominently in social media posts, tapping into civilians’ desire to be seen as active participants in the war effort.
“They need to be able to tell themselves, ‘I’m doing something, I’m helping,'” Ms. Cervona, 28, said in a recent interview. “I just understand that anyone who is reasonably active on Instagram can make $50,000,” she added, referring to 50,000 Ukrainian hryvnias, or about $1,300.
Since the early days of the war, thousands of volunteers have led crowdfunding efforts that have been crucial to providing critical equipment to the Ukrainian military. A recent survey showed that they have become part of the social fabric of Ukraine, with nearly 80% of the population currently donating money.
But as the conflict drags on and momentum shifts toward Russia, fundraisers say it’s become more difficult to raise money. That’s prompted people like Ms. Cervona to borrow heavily from sales and marketing techniques to keep donations coming. They hold auctions, organize raffles and invite influencers to participate in promotional videos.
While donations of cutting-edge weaponry from the West have attracted much attention, items raised through Ukrainian crowdfunding – such as warm clothing, bulletproof vests and drones – are what soldiers need and help boost morale.
The most ambitious crowdfunding campaign raised enough money to purchase not only small items like gloves, but also heavy battlefield equipment. For example, Ms. Cervona’s most recent initiative was dedicated to raising funds to purchase five armored personnel carriers for military brigades. The Ukrainian government said in September that crowdfunding had accounted for 3% of Ukraine’s total military spending since the war began.
Oleg Gorokhovskyi, co-founder of Monobank, Ukraine’s largest online bank, said the key is to adopt technology that has worked in other areas. “You should do it like a business,” he said, adding that his bank had processed nearly $1 billion in donations since the war began.
He and Ms. Cervona provided The New York Times with copies of financial documents they said showed their fundraising totals.
People have embraced the broader approach they use, which Ukrainians call “team fundraising,” because of its potential to scale operations and reach untapped donors. Nearly $115 million was donated through campaigns using the system in December alone, roughly the amount of Germany’s latest short-term military aid package to Ukraine, according to Monobank.
Crowdfunding for the military in Ukraine dates back to 2014, when civilians began raising funds to help the out-of-arms army fight off Russian proxies fomenting a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine.
But Kateryna Zarembo, an associate researcher at the New Research Center in Kiev, said the activity took off dramatically after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and became “by far the most popular form of civil resistance among Ukrainian civilians.” Way”. Eurocentric.
Today, any Ukrainian with a social media account receives daily calls asking for help purchasing a pickup truck, walkie-talkies and other necessities for a frontline combat brigade. Force commanders sometimes contact their followers directly to urge them to help them purchase new attack drones.
“You scroll through your news feed and you see your friends asking for donations and you think, ‘Okay, I’ll donate. Okay, I’ll donate again. Okay, I can donate a third time.'” the 28-year-old says designer Illia Pavlovych.
Simply tapping into Ukrainian spirit and patriotism — and anger at Russian President Vladimir V. Putin — worked at the start of the war as a wave of unity swept through the country. But as the fighting continued, people began to feel fatigued and their ability to donate decreased.
“I tried to raise money using traditional methods,” said product manager Valeriy Tkalich, who recently organized a crowdfunding campaign to buy a Jeep for the military. “It’s getting me smaller and smaller results.”
To circumvent the problem, fundraisers got creative: A famous Ukrainian performer adapted the song “Just the Two of Us,” changing the chorus to “Just Drop the Donation.” A former Kiev city council member held a raffle where the top prize was his Porsche.
But perhaps no initiative has been as successful as one that builds a ladder of giving from friends and acquaintances.
Ms. Cervona led fundraising efforts while seeking work as a groomer. She said she and some friends decided to try the system while looking for ways to grow their donor base so they could continue to raise large sums of money through smaller donations. .
Last July, she published an Instagram post saying she was looking to assemble a team of 100 people, each tasked with raising about $1,300 among friends to support the Ukrainian National Special Forces’ 12th Special Forces Unit Azov. Brigade buys drones. guard and have a nationalistic heritage – total goal is $130,000.
Team members, known as “Azov Rearmen,” had their photos posted on social media with the promise of receiving tokens similar to military badges upon completion of the crowdfunding campaign.
Within a month, the operation far exceeded its goal, raising a total of $860,000, Ms. Cervona said.
“It’s very effective,” Mr. Tkalic, who participated in Ms. Cervona’s crowdfunding campaign, said of the approach. “I wonder why we didn’t do it sooner.”
Tkalic said the process mimics the marketing techniques he used in his work in the games industry: “virality,” which prompts participants to get others to join; the “social validation” people seek when buying popular products; emulating yours Friend’s wishes.
Soon, multiple crowdfunding campaigns appeared in Ukraine using the same technology. Monobank data shows individual donations more than doubled between July and December 2023.
By highlighting participants on social media, the crowdfunding campaign taps into a growing sentiment in Ukraine: a desire to be seen as an active participant in the war effort amid calls for greater civil society involvement.
“Donating has become a social ritual now,” Ms. Zarembo said. “It’s about highlighting a person’s reputation.”
Ms. Cervona created stickers with photos of participants, highlighting them as contributors, and attached QR codes to scan for donations. On a recent afternoon in a trendy neighborhood in central Kiev, a cafe was covered with several stickers. Participants sometimes post photos of their stickers on social media.
She said many Ukrainians are now wondering, “After two years of war, am I still a volunteer?”
Tkalic, who has launched dozens of crowdfunding campaigns since the war began, said the donations were “like little life preservers” to ease the guilt of not joining the military.
“While I’m not involved in direct combat, I’m involved in these other meaningful actions,” he said in a recent interview, wearing the token he received from Ms. Cervona around his neck. “You either join the war or help end it.”