What should small groups of Ukrainian volunteers and military personnel, who are collecting funds, prepare for? How has the situation changed, and what should be done in 2024?

From the beginning of the full-scale war, it was clear that the state could not meet all the military’s needs. “Come Back Alive” and a few other large charity organizations were buying armor and weapons. There were organizations legitimately purchasing communications, drones, or tactical medicine. Newly established charitable foundations and individual volunteers initially focused on quantity rather than quality of aid, but most of them gradually developed their own specialization. The main areas included transportation, communications, drones, uniforms, tactical medicine, medicines, and support during treatment, dry food, optics, psychological and legal consultations. This was a time for building a reputation.

This also applies to those who have been volunteering since 2014, as a significantly wider circle of people, who did not donate money at the time, learned about them. “Volunteering” became a quality mark. It did not always mean quality, as some might have embezzled money then and now, and some provided substandard help. Monobank made a significant contribution to the volunteer movement with its technical solution “Bank from Monobank”. Donating with a single click through a link greatly increased the number of donors. Unfortunately, Meta, on the contrary, struck a blow to fundraising when it lowered the visibility of those who write about the war.

The army consists almost entirely of yesterday’s civilians, who naturally wrote about their experience on social networks. Some of them began to collect money for their unit’s needs. However, attempts to “clamp down” on freedom of speech in the army began in the summer. There were quite real reasons for this, as careless texts and photos “leaked” positions, provoked scandals, and created public pressure on command. Units were “handed down” explanations about the prohibition of photos in military uniforms on social networks. There were attempts to ban photos with weapons, writing one’s position, area of performance, battalion or brigade number. But all this was almost in vain due to the size of the army, the prevalence of social networks, and the nature of the war.

By the end of last year, some units categorically banned fundraising on individual soldiers’ cards and using cars that were not on the official car numbers. But soldiers needed collections and cars to perform tasks and save lives, so mostly the bans did not work.

Meanwhile, volunteer groups formed their regular donor groups, the culture of supporting collections with reposts spread. Sufficient reporting for 10 stretchers became a photo of these stretchers in a box at the new post office and the text “stretchers went to the brigade at the front”. The destination began to play a more significant role throughout the year. If in the spring it was enough to write that stretchers were going to soldiers, then in the autumn it was necessary to indicate “to the hot front line”. “Star” places appeared. People were interested in specific points on the map, volunteers followed their wishes, as a result, at one point in Bakhmut, there were ten times more rubber slippers and elastic bandages than under Avdiivka.

The hopes of combat medics that the state would start buying quality tactical medicine were not fulfilled. The command of medical forces did not adopt standards for tactical medicine tools, so the state had no basis to distinguish quality from poor quality during the purchasing process. Brigades received Chinese tourniquets, and the provision of soldiers almost entirely depended on volunteers.

In 2023, the amount of donations gradually became much smaller than the number of open collections. This was influenced by factors such as:

- an increase in the number of collections,

- people in Ukraine began to earn less or lose their jobs,

- more and more refugees abroad stopped considering their status as temporary and began to invest more in their new life in another country,

- from the fall of 2023, many people changed their opinion about the duration of the war, the term “multi-year war of attrition” began to be heard in public discussion, not everyone was ready to continue donating “to the process”, rather than “victory”,

- the experience of ATO and especially OOS distorted the perception of war in some civilians, it seemed to people that the danger had passed and the war would again be “somewhere far away”, and one could get used to missile attacks.

Competing for every new hryvnia became harder, small funds began to compete more fiercely for donations from businesses. This affected small volunteer associations. “The Hunger Games” began to require more time, effort, and professional skills. New marketing strategies appeared, such as the “Azov Rear” campaign and collections in parts. The photo with the flag from the unit gradually began to become mauvais ton in reporting. To attract new donors, quality and interesting content was needed.

The best combat footage came from GoPros or drone cameras. This literally “blew away” anyone who couldn’t get fundraising approval from the brigade commander. Most commanders weren’t ready to take responsibility for video publications and fundraising for soldiers, while headquarters couldn’t/wouldn’t manage to put property on the balance sheet. Soldiers of such brigades and their relatives gathered funds without mentioning the battalion number, using anonymous accounts. On Twitter, a culture of confirming fundraisers through the support of the military community formed. This allowed people without photos and names to collect everything necessary for the unit. Meanwhile, units with good PR and command support began competing in two main directions — bloody and humorous content. Special groups with videographers, editors, and recruitment specialists appeared.

A photo in soldiers’ hands with the text “Stretchers at the brigade No. ** on the Lyman direction” was enough reporting for 10 stretchers in spring 2023. By autumn, it became desirable to provide a fun dynamic video from the soldiers, like dancing at the new post office out of joy, or soldiers rolling on stretchers through the grass.

Several loud scandals, agitated by Russian bots, significantly hit the trust in volunteers. The enemy conducted several major PSYOP campaigns against specific volunteers and the volunteer movement as a whole.

By the end of the year, most units had finally established a practice of attracting money — a special department or several media focused soldiers, a friendly civilian volunteer, and/or a charity fund. More units learned or received permission to receive official help and put it on the balance sheet.

In spring 2024, a sufficient report for 10 stretchers will be a drone video where a soldier is being carried on these stretchers. It’s also desirable to post this video on a popular YouTube or Telegram channel with thousands of subscribers, alongside other interesting formats. The largest funds and special services of units produce podcasts, interviews, movies, and shows. For this, brigades transfer from other units and mobilize famous marketers, journalists, and film directors. Powerful advertising agencies are involved. Most large fundraisers are accompanied by artistic events or raffles of valuable gifts. In conversations, military and volunteers derogatorily call this practice demeaning, starting to notice the “Hunger Games” phenomenon. Discussions continue about the moral component, as people who save others are forced to literally dance before them for a donation. Not everyone shares this point of view; instead, there are suggestions “not to be distracted by assessments, live in reality and measure everything by efficiency,” while some like the format of competition and rapid development of marketing strategies.

Small volunteer groups and individual soldiers cannot compete on these terms and mainly use their audience and network of friends for fundraisings. It’s a bit easier for “guys and girls at the zero” to collect money, but it’s not easy for them either. Will such coverage be enough in 2025? The competition is increasing, the aforementioned difficulties will only intensify. It’s time to go beyond Ukraine.

Americans and Europeans are interested in the voices of our fighters, boys, and girls. There’s a stereotype that they need to be shown combat work, which is a risk for a fighter without the permission of “God’s Service”. But in fact, people are interested in stories that can be associated with their own lives. It’s possible to shoot videos of everyday life; where a soldier sleeps, what he eats, how he heats the house and gets water. Particularly interesting are stories with elements of civilian life and professions, for example, cooking a burger in field conditions, setting up a basement, filming how a programmer writes code in his free time on his laptop. In many units, there are a few people who speak English, but it is possible to write posts and tweets about your everyday life in English.

There’s a problem with spreading your posts to foreigners on social networks, as our feed is tied to the device’s geolocation. To bypass this, you can find a friend in the country you’re targeting. You can ask him to register a new account and post your videos or texts through it. He can also help make your English more natural and consult on the cultural context. Many foreigners would like to have the opportunity to help Ukrainians. It’s important to thank them publicly, you can send a unit’s flag or another material gift by mail.

PayPal is currently the main tool for collecting donations from abroad, but it has a high commission. There are other platforms, like Buy Me a Coffee. You can use several different ways of sending funds, write a list in https://quicknote.io/ and in posts give one main fundraising channel, as well as a link to this list. The list will also protect you from violating social network rules that ban the spread of personal data. At the same time, it’s worth remembering that a post with a link will be seen by much fewer people, especially on Facebook, because that’s how algorithms work. The link can be left only in the third comment under the post.

It’s important to accustom the audience to subscribing instead of making one-time donations, for example, on platforms like Buy Me a Coffee or the new Base by Mono https://base.mono.bank/. Subscribers should receive additional content, but it doesn’t have to be anything complicated. You can write them a letter of thanks once a month or record a gratitude video; you can give them little things.

It’s crucial not to present ourselves as “unfortunate beggars.” We must tell stories of strength and unity. This should be the basis of our communication with foreign donors. We are grateful, but we are proud of our country and our heroes. We give them the opportunity to participate in something real, to make a miracle, to be part of history.

As before, it is important to unite, to create volunteer networks, groups for cross-posting our collections, mutual support, exchange of ideas, and simply friendship.

After all, friendship and love are what still hold this world together. This is the essence for which we stand.

In the Western world, there’s been a sharp shortage of people with real stories. You know, those kinds of stories that people used to share with each other in a cave by the firelight, in a cold clay hut, and in the stone halls of castles. Stories that ask you — what will you do if a dragon comes to your city?

A real dragon, flying and foul-smelling, that eats people. It’s usually green, the size of three elephants, with wings, huge teeth, and real flames coming out of its mouth. A huge shadow covers the entire district, the wings stir up the wind, laundry gets blown off the ropes and flies into the sky until it catches on the spires of roofs, something heavily thuds, the ground shakes — and there it is, the dragon, looking right at you with eyes as big as the city gates. What will you do?

It doesn’t matter anymore whether you believe in dragons. For those who believe and those who don’t, the flesh tastes just as sweet. If you close your eyes and ignore that the air is getting hotter and the stench is building up around you, it will only be more convenient for the dragon. It doesn’t matter what you think about this ugly situation. It’s just you and the dragon interested in you now.

It doesn’t matter if you were ready for this encounter and what you were planning to do tonight. Whether you are a hunter who dreamed of hunting the legendary black boar and live surrounded by glory, thus trained, skillfully mastered the rifle, and was just about to shoot a sparrow in the eye. Or you are a baker from the third generation, mastered only the family recipe of lace pancakes, and was about to have a pint with the neighbors and go to sleep on a fragrant pillow. Time is up, the dragon is here.

The story has started, it’s time to find out who you are. Will you fight, or will you gather food and torches for the city guard, or will you try to negotiate with the dragon for peace in exchange for beautiful maidens, or will you take a leg of pork and wine and go to the cellar to wait until someone else solves the problem, or will you go to Poland with a certificate of unfitness for defending cities against dragons.

In the Western world, there are no dragons. A few are kept in a special dragon park, out of respect for species diversity. There, you can get a Coke, cotton candy, and ice cream, and see the sad little dragons through two rows of metal mesh and glass. Not stepping over the yellow line on the asphalt. Of course, the dragons are sad that they can’t char and eat the tasty visitors. But the visitors will never grasp this. No one has ever tried to eat them.

If a dragon-like lizard suddenly flies into the city, a specialized anti-dragon tactical group on a flying tank will rush to overcome it, following the instructions and practiced actions, and will put the enemy to sleep.

Without dragons, there are no stories, only little tales. Accidental risks. Risks at which you can call the rescue service and it will save you. Deliberate risks, to find out who you are, that will never actually tell you who you are, because deliberate means controlled.

It’s sad to think that you live in the Western world, not stepping over the yellow lines on the asphalt and the warning signs, and not pressing against the doors, and suddenly find yourself in the middle of a Story. But there is no other way to find out who you really are.

It doesn’t matter anymore whether you wanted to know it. Now you know.