Ukraine’s crowdfunding aims to keep donors’ interest in war

By THALIA BEATY
Associated Press

Ukraine is marrying some digital marketing tools with crowdfunding and other incentives for giving to keep global attention trained on its war efforts against the Russian invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tasked the minister of digital transformation Mykhailo Fedorov with setting up a new fundraising campaign to encourage donations to the country’s defense, humanitarian aid and reconstruction. That resulted in the United24 website and campaign. Donors can send funds via PayPal, cryptocurrency, credit card or direct bank transfer to Ukraine’s accounts. They gave around $27 million in a recent seven day period, a small amount compared to the billions Ukraine has received from governments.