United Ukraine makes it official

Another milestone is important news for our donors

Hello, this is Nathan, United Ukraine, co-founder with a weekend update on a very busy and unusual week for us. First up is that we’ve completed the lengthy, complicated process of becoming a registered 501c3 non-profit in the eyes of the IRS. Adam filled out forms and drove to various offices around the state of California, we formed a board, adopted and amended bylaws and we’ve now officially received our approval. What this means for you, is that if you have or ever will donate any money to United Ukraine is now tax-deductible.

But the change will go beyond that because it will also change how we’re able to raise money and operate. We’ll now be able to apply for grants and access things that we couldn’t before like raising money officially through platforms like Facebook. Other organizations and individuals, seeing the results have reached out with new opportunities to collaborate.

It also helps us jump the bureaucratic hurdles in terms of moving goods into Ukraine. United Ukraine’s co-founder Adam’s house is now overflowing with hard-to-find high-quality emergency medical supplies. We tried to frame all of the medical supplies into a single selfie, but there were too many:

And over half of the medical supplies have yet to arrive.

We beg the forgiveness of his cats.

And this is important because the war in Ukraine presents new challenges that will require creative uses of resources to solve. One of my closest friends in Ukraine, who I’ll call Alexandra (not her real name), grew up in the city of Kherson one of Ukraine’s large port cities on the Black Sea. It had a reputation amongst Ukrainians as a sort of quiet city filled with families and not much excitement. But it’s now under Russian occupation which has turned life there upside down. I have been in communication with several friends currently living there and it’s a difficult situation. Russian soldiers are quick to take action against anyone they feel may resist occupation and what they might classify as resistance is incredibly arbitrary. My friends are afraid to go outside. And the occupation has made normal day-to-day activities into a dangerous ordeal. Getting food involves standing in line for hours and prices are skyrocketing. Alexandra’s family is there. Alexandra’s grandma, who cooked for Adam and me the last time we were all in Kyiv, is there. And she’s unable to stand in the long lines to get supplies. As you can imagine, it’s hard to get support to people in such situations, but that’s exactly what is happening. Alexandra is getting us in touch with people that are helping people in her grandma’s situation and we’re finding a way to help informal groups that are now helping elderly people survive in this environment.

Speaking of help, our partners in Ukraine are still at it through our partners in unoccupied Ukraine.

And even some dogs got helped this week courtesy of Vlad.

We, honestly, never thought we’d be starting a non-profit. But the reason we did was because of the tremendous support and trust we felt from you. Knowing there were people willing to help gave us the courage to try to do something to help. Thank you for being a part of this and we hope you feel the part of the gratitude Ukrainians express not only for the material support but also from knowing there are so many people with them. As always you contribute in the following ways:

Via Debit, Credit, or Paypal:  At this link
Via Venmo: @UnitedUkraine (under the business tab)
Our Website: http://www.united-ukraine.org

And we accept checks via mail at:
225 Bright Poppy
Irvine, CA 92618

Thank you very much everyone and have a great Mother’s Day.