Beyond Humanitarian Aid: Philanthropy Catalyzes Ukraine’s Recovery
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Philanthropy is crucial for Ukraine's long-term recovery advocating a strategic shift from centralized aid to locally-led initiatives to build economic resilience and foster future prosperity
- The strategic significance of this approach lies in empowering local non-profits and actors, ensuring more effective sustainable human recovery and maximizing philanthropic impact
- Despite ongoing donor fatigue, critical next steps involve prioritizing strategic philanthropy, supporting local non-profits and addressing long-term recovery needs including economic opportunities and psychosocial support
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sparked an outpouring of philanthropy from across the globe with $1.6 billion pledged in just over six months.1 Although giving has slowed since then, philanthropy can help drive Ukraine’s human recovery – which we argued in our note on the role of the private sector will underpin the country’s long-term economic resilience and future prosperity.
To unlock its full potential, philanthropic capital must evolve. Long-term recovery will be best supported by a deliberate shift from centralized aid toward support for smaller, locally led non-profits working alongside civil society peers and government institutions.
Citi Institute discussed the current status of giving to and in Ukraine and opportunities for strategic philanthropy in the recovery with Karen Kardos, Head of Philanthropic Advisory for Citi Wealth, Rachael Barber, Citi’s Director for International Community Relations who has responsibility for the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Olga Lebedyeva who chairs the committee of Citi colleagues that disburses the firm’s charitable donations in Ukraine.
Donors continue to support Ukraine’s resilience – but fatigue has set in
Philanthropy has already made a huge contribution to Ukraine’s wartime resilience. Total grants and pledges have now reached $3.4 billion according to the latest data from Candid. This is about the same as all-cause giving in the Netherlands each year ($3.2bn)2 and equal to Ukraine’s recovery needs in both the Emergency Response & Civil Protection and Justice & Public Administration categories ($3.3bn) on the most recent estimates.3
Individual donors whose contributions are not tracked in this data are also continuing to give to Ukraine after breaking records for the amount given in early 2022.4
Domestically, polling shows that 85% of Ukrainians gave to charity in 2024 and many give monthly.5 Outside Ukraine, Kardos observes that the country is “still very much in the psyche of American donors”. Evaluators like Charity Navigator have continued to maintain lists of international non-profits working in Ukraine, signaling sustained engagement.
But giving has clearly slowed. Ninety-four percent of the pledges tracked by Candid were made in 2022, and Kardos, Barber, and Lebedyeva all point to signs of “donor fatigue”. A higher level of giving often accompanies the early weeks and months of a disaster and tends to peter out as media coverage subsides and other global emergencies come to the fore.
Economic pressures have compounded this effect. Lebedyeva highlights that domestic donations have been constrained by a cumulative rate of inflation of 63% since 2022, pushing many Ukranians below the poverty line.
While donor fatigue is real, it does not diminish the importance of philanthropy in Ukraine’s recovery. Instead, it increases the need for funding to be deployed more strategically.
Philanthropy can also contribute to Ukraine’s longer-term recovery
Even as emergency funding subsides, the opportunity for impactful philanthropy in Ukraine extends well beyond the cessation of hostilities. Ukraine’s recovery requires rebuilding livelihoods, demining land, and addressing the collective trauma of living through war – each of these is an opportunity for donors.
Barber focuses on the human component of recovery, highlighting how non-profits can help families access economic opportunities and generate an income as Ukraine rebuilds – for instance by supporting entrepreneurship or re-skilling workers. She anticipates that non-profits will also contribute to psychosocial support – like providing help with post-trauma mental health issues and enabling access to education.
Lebedyeva notes that voluntary organizations will play a key role in meeting the needs of vulnerable groups. Both children and elderly people have lost caregivers as a result of the war, and this has created an urgent demand for social support services. Veteran reintegration is another critical priority. Lebedyeva says that “it's crucial to prepare society to welcome veterans.” In part this means pathways to employment to reintegrate veterans to civilian life, but public infrastructure will also need to become more accessible for people with injuries – lamentably including veterans and civilians.
Our first note on Ukraine’s recovery argued that a resilient human recovery is not only a standalone challenge, but also a hurdle that must be cleared in order to encourge private sector investment.
While the Ukrainian government will likely act on these issues when peace comes, Lebedyeva expects that volunteer movements and NGOs will remain vital to the recovery efforts. A report published by Chatham House in July 2025 agrees, arguing that the whole of ‘Team Ukraine’ – including civil society, the public sector, and citizens – must be mobilized for an effective recovery.6
Funding should shift to local actors, for a more effective recovery
As Ukraine’s needs evolve, so must philanthropic strategies. Experts in disaster philanthropy increasingly conclude that a locally led recovery is a more effective one.7 Barber underlines this: “While the early days of an emergency require a swift influx of capital, figuring out how to get grants to local actors is important for philanthropy to contribute to an effective longer-term recovery”.
Local actors that could absorb philanthropic support now abound after extraordinary growth in Ukraine’s non-profit ecosystem. The number of non-profits in Ukraine has increased by 70% since 2022.8 “Ukrainians have shown great ingenuity, resilience, and a capacity for self-organization,” Lebedyeva notes, as demand for an engaged civil society has created supply.
Yet funding has not followed this growth. One examination of the $10 billion in humanitarian funding tracked by the UN (which includes donations by international governments) found that only 1% of this sum has gone to Ukrainian civil society organizations.9 Chatham House reports that Ukrainian civil society organizations see this approach to philanthropy as “giving people fish, rather than a fishing rod”.
Analysis of data from Candid – which tracks foundations, corporations, and affluent families, but excludes individual donors and governments – reinforces this picture. Since 2022, the share of philanthropic grants for Ukrainian non-profits has decreased, even as the number of such organizations has increased (Figure).10
Majority of pledges go to international – rather than Ukrainian – organizations
Giving to smaller or newer non-profits can be challenging, especially for institutional donors who are writing larger checks. These donors have high due diligence requirements, and their donations may be too large for smaller charities to absorb. However, these barriers are not insurmountable – collaboration between smaller non-profits with related missions could be part of the solution. Innovations are also emerging, like databases of pre-approved non-profits which have already met funders’ standard due diligence assessments.
Looking Ahead
Philanthropy has already played a meaningful role in supporting Ukraine through acute phases of the war. Now, it stands to contribute enormously to Ukraine’s recovery. Experience teaches that an efficient and durable recovery is one that is owned and led by local actors who are more aware of community needs and cultural nuances. Funding local actors has so far been challenging, but clearing this hurdle is vital if philanthropic donors are to maximize the value of their contribution to a resilient and prosperous Ukraine.
[1] We described this in detail in our Citi GPS report Philanthropy and the Global Economy 2.0.
[2] According to our analysis in Global Giving – https://www.citigroup.com/global/insights/global-giving
[3] According to estimates in the World Bank’s RDNA 4 from February 2025 – https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099022025114040022/pdf/P180174-ca39eccd-ea67-4bd8-b537-ff73a675a0a8.pdf
[4] For example, the British public set a world record for the most raised in a single week for an online campaign with their donations to the Disaster Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal in March 2023.
[6] https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/07/mobilizing-team-ukraine-successful-recovery
[7] For instance, see Global Giving, 2021. ‘The Future of Disaster Philanthropy’. One reason is that local organizations are more cost-effective than international actors. See Refugee International, 2024. ‘Passing the Buck: The Economics of Localizing Aid in Ukraine’.
[8] https://opendatabot.ua/en/analytics/non-profit-2023
[9] Refugees International - ‘Annual Ukraine Localization Survey 2024’.
[10] There are limitations to this analysis: first, data on giving is always patchwork so this picture is incomplete. Second, donations to International NGOs (INGOs) are not incompatible with a locally led recovery as INGOs often have local delivery partners.