AP

A new fund directs its support to Ukraine’s long-term needs

Mar 22, 2022, 12:00 PM | Updated: Mar 23, 2022, 3:05 pm

FILE - UNHCR staff load a truck with supplies for Ukraine in an aid warehouse at Rzeszow airport, i...

FILE - UNHCR staff load a truck with supplies for Ukraine in an aid warehouse at Rzeszow airport, in Rzeszow, southeastern Poland, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. As staggering as the immediate humanitarian need is for the more than 10 million displaced Ukrainians refugees, Open Society Foundations President Mark Malloch-Brown says their long-term needs will be even larger if they aren’t also addressed now. Experts say there has been an “unprecedented” outpouring of support for the humanitarian needs of Ukrainians. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

The humanitarian needs of more than 10 million displaced Ukrainians have quickly become staggering. Yet Mark Malloch-Brown, president of the Open Society Foundations, warns that longer-term problems resulting from Russia’s invasion will grow ever larger if they aren’t sufficiently addressed now.

Experts report an “unprecedented” outpouring of aid for food, medicine and other essential needs of Ukrainians. Comparatively few donations, though, have been earmarked for maintaining Ukraine’s culture or democratic foundations.

To address that cause, Open Society Foundations has launched the Ukraine Democracy Fund with a $25 million pledge, in hopes of raising $100 million. The foundations, launched by billionaire investor George Soros, are now one of the world’s largest funders of democracy, human rights and justice groups.

“Keeping their civil society alive absolutely is the key bit,” said Malloch-Brown, who has also served as the United Nations deputy secretary general. “Otherwise, it’s a hollow victory. If you neglect or lose that civil society piece, you’ve lost what this was ultimately all about.”

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the philanthropy research organization Candid has catalogued $440 million in grants and $333 million more in pledges for the victims. Those totals do not, however, include individual donations or donations from nonprofits and corporations that haven’t yet publicly reported their gifts, meaning that the actual amount of aid is much higher.

“By many measures, this has been an unprecedented philanthropic response by organizations, by individuals,” said Laia Grino, Candid’s director of data discovery. “Some groups have said that this has exceeded what they were able to raise for other crises or disasters, like the response to the refugee crisis in Afghanistan.”

Grino noted that the bulk of those donations are for immediate needs — food, shelter, safety.

“We haven’t seen a lot for longer-term efforts really,” she said. “And that will continue to be important.”

Malloch-Brown says Open Society has supported Ukraine with about $230 million in donations since the nation declared its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991.

“The $230 million has been primarily invested in developing the sort of civil society and democratic space that has made Ukraine so different from … Russia,” Malloch-Brown said. “Our feeling is that (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s) real target is exactly these values our investment represented and sought to build because that’s what threatens him — this sort of gloriously humorous, ironic, open, vigorous, debating world of Ukraine versus his locked-down, common, homogeneous values of Russia.”

Open Society believes its history within Ukraine and its contacts in the country are tools that must be used to keep the nation’s culture intact “by continuing to invest in human rights defenders and journalism and the civil society, which sustain the country’s democracy,” Malloch-Brown said.

It plans to continue to fund independent media throughout the war and to support journalists and scholars who are documenting war crimes or providing public health information.

“We recognize that it’s going to be harder and harder as the Russian military crackdown intensifies,” Malloch-Brown said. “A lot of people will be displaced — some into exile, some in the west of the country — but we’ve got to follow them and enable them to keep working and fighting for those values that they’ve been fighting to build for so many years.”

In two weeks, Open Society’s Ukraine Democracy Fund raised an additional $13 million from the Ford Foundation, the Oak Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation and other, anonymous donors.

“Philanthropy can and should anticipate what and where ongoing needs will be and step in preemptively to address them,” Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, wrote in a statement. “This crisis calls out for America to rise to the challenge and realize our promise — not just despite our missteps in recent years, but because of them.”

After all, Malloch-Brown said, there are plenty of compelling reasons to rally around Ukraine.

“Ukraine is a story about democratic success, not failure,” he said. “One can’t find many silver linings to this horrific situation, but under Zelenskyy, it was becoming this glorious, New York-like hodgepodge of opinions and views — a real rainbow of pluralism.”

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP

Image: A cargo ship is stuck under the part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after ...

Associated Press

Authorities identify 2 bodies recovered at site of Baltimore bridge collapse

A major bridge in Baltimore snapped and collapsed after a container ship rammed into it early Tuesday, and several vehicles fell into the river below.

11 hours ago

Photo: Mountaineer Jim Whittaker has died at 95....

Gene Johnson, The Associated Press

Lou Whittaker, among the most famous American mountaineers, has died at age 95

Lou Whittaker, a legendary American mountaineer who helped lead ascents of Mount Everest, K2 and Denali, has died at age 95.

12 hours ago

File photo: Former Sen. Joe Lieberman speaks in Washington on Jan. 18, 2024....

Associated Press

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Democrats’ VP pick in 2000, dead at 82

Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who nearly won the vice presidency on the Democratic ticket with Al Gore in 2000, has died.

12 hours ago

islamic state attack...

Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

What we know after the Islamic State group claims responsibility for Moscow massacre

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed at least 133 people.

4 days ago

Moscow shooting...

The Associated Press

Russia: 60 dead, 145 injured in concert hall raid; Islamic State group claims responsibility

Assailants burst into a concert hall in Moscow on Friday and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, killing over 60 people, injuring more than 100.

6 days ago

Photo: Britain's Kate, Duchess of Cambridge visits 282 (East Ham) Squadron, RAF Air Cadets, Cornwel...

Associated Press

Kate Middleton announces she has cancer, is undergoing chemotherapy

Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, says she is undergoing chemotherapy to treat cancer. She has been out of view since Christmas.

6 days ago

A new fund directs its support to Ukraine’s long-term needs