I’ve volunteered for Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. First with a local organisation in the UK, collecting and sending humanitarian aid. In the summer of 2022 I stumbled across NAFO (that link is the founder’s post about my first fella). Then in Ukraine itself: cooking at the Lviv Volunteer Kitchen, and later driving donated vehicles across the border, first from Poland, then from the UK.
Along the way I’ve raised thousands of pounds for organisations listed on this site (at one point a pair of ladies’ yoga pants, modelled by yours truly on a dare, raised several thousand on its own), and funded a vehicle for the front. Through my time with the NHS, and some exceedingly generous donations from contacts at the trust I worked at, I also helped deliver more than £100,000 of medical supplies to Ukrainian organisations.
Four years of this taught me two things.
First: there are people of unending dedication out there. Ukrainian volunteers who have given every day since 2022, and foreigners who dropped their lives to help, many of them working quietly behind the scenes. Many of the people listed here I’ve met in person, worked alongside, or watched account publicly for every hryvnia, for years. And they are a fraction of the whole. There are dozens, if not hundreds, more I’ve met doing enormous work who aren’t listed here, and countless others around the world I’ve never crossed paths with. A missing name says nothing about someone’s work, and to anyone I’ve overlooked who belongs on these lists: my sincere apologies. Corrections and suggestions are always welcome.
Second: the grifters are real. I’ve watched fundraisers vanish, organisations unable to account for what they collect, and foreign “volunteers” whose funding doesn’t add up. Every scam sends donor money into someone’s pocket instead of to the front, and makes donors trust genuine volunteers a little less. And it isn’t only the outright scammers: easy money can drag even legitimate organisations off course. That’s why volunteers and organisations should always be held to account. The genuine ones never mind being asked.
This site is the culmination of a long-held ambition: one place listing volunteers, organisations and fundraisers that have been checked, alongside a register of documented scammers, so your donation lands where you intended.
The scammer register is short for now. It grows only with documented evidence, so if you have some, or feedback of any kind, get in touch.
This site takes no donations for itself. If you want to help, pick someone from the lists.
