The war in Ukraine is on everyone's mind and we know what you've been thinking: how can I help, how can I get involved?
We know, that's how we feel as well. Our entire focus and all of our resources are now being directed toward helping the Ukrainian refugees arriving in Romania.
As soon as the war started, the Romanian United Fund and the Embassy of Romania to the United States launched The Ukrainian Peace Fund. One week later, we are coming back with an important update. Below, we tell you where we stand today, what our decision-making process has been and where the money goes.
Do you have any feedback or suggestions? Write back to us, we would love to connect. First of all, the good news.
RUF Donors Raised Over $122,000
In the first 4 days from launching our campaign, The Ukrainian Peace Fund reached our $100k target and we doubled our fundraising goals!
As of today, we have exceeded $122,000 on all of our fundraising platforms combined and we expect to reach $200,000 very soon. You are awesome! Help us get there.
Use of Funds
You gave because you wanted to provide relief to the people affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Also because RUF is a 100% pass-through organization.
The funds you raised will be used to purchase and provide Ukrainian refugees with:
- food & clothing
- medicine & hygiene items
- shelter, heating & necessary equipment
- psychological, educational, and asylum support
Recipient Organizations
100% of the donated funds will be transparently granted to Red Cross Romania, Save the Children Romania, and World Vision Romania.
We have a responsibility to remit these funds as soon as possible, however, we also need to help as many people as possible, where they need it most.
After careful evaluation of multiple organizations providing support to the refugees, we chose three already vetted non-profit organizations in Romania that are actively engaged in the crisis area and have shown a significant long-term commitment to the relief efforts.
We are proud to work with such highly reputable organizations and we are convinced their expertise in providing humanitarian support is critical in order to provide the best possible support to the Ukrainian refugees.
Selection Process
One of our first concerns was making sure that the money goes where it's needed and that it will be spent in the most impactful way, serving the long-term needs of the refugees and asylum seekers.
In creating the selection and evaluation grid for our partners we worked with independent experts from RUF's Board of Advisors.
The criteria for the selection of our grantee/recipient organizations were:
- Long term commitment to the relief efforts
- Actively engaged in the crisis area
- Institutional capacity to deal with international crises
- Commitment to transparency (budget, audit, reporting)
- Services offered (medicine, hygiene, shelter, etc)
- Experience in working with RUF
Help us spread the message
We still need your help and your engagement is critical. As of yesterday, over 53,000 refugees had arrived in Romania and they need support in the medium and long term. Right now there are a lot of initiatives supporting refugees, but we are taking the long-term view.
In raising these funds, we count on and we are thankful for the support of The Consulate General of Romania to Chicago, The Federation of Romanian American Organizations (FORA), Romanian Cultural Institute, RePatriot, the Founding Members of FORA, and many other organizations and individuals that have made this fundraiser so successful.
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