How To

March 8, 2022

How the tech community can help Ukraine

How can tech professionals offer their skills during the crisis?


Credit: Haus der Chimären, Adobe Stock

As the world watches the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion, and the massive humanitarian crisis it’s creating, many are wondering what they can do to help Ukraine.

Startup Wise Guys has pulled together this Notion page detailing ways to donate and support Ukrainians in various European countries, and this Reddit page has a useful list of charities broken down into different categories of support.

But on top of offering money, people working in tech are now coming together to find ways to use their skills to hopefully help Ukrainians affected by the invasion.

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That includes remote work platforms for Ukrainians, a voluntary Airbnb service for hosting refugees and websites matching tech professionals and companies to NGOs to help digitise their work. We list them here.

This article will be updated to reflect new initiatives launched to help Ukrainians. If you have a project that you think should be included, please email us at hello@sifted.eu.

Offer support to a Ukrainian entrepreneur

Work4UA is a site from comms agency Postmen, which allows people to directly donate to Ukrainian entrepreneurs whose businesses are suffering as a result of the war. The site is full of business profiles, ranging from tech companies to fitness clubs, which have all been verified and linked to Paypal accounts that allow users to easily donate.

Stories from these entrepreneurs are also being shared on Facebook and Instagram pages, for people who would like to know about how businesses are being affected by the war.

A similar initiative has been launched by Lift99, a coworking and startup network in central and eastern Europe, which also allows people to directly back small to medium sized businesses that have been put on pause. It's called UABusiness911 and you can support on the link below.

👉 Directly support businesses here and here.

Help NGOs build digital solutions for a crisis

Tech To The Rescue describes itself as a “voluntary movement of tech companies to help social impact organisations around the world implement digital solutions to scale up their influence”. 

The organisation has launched a #TechforUkraine initiative, to help charities in the country digitise and scale up the impact they’re having. 

Tech companies can help NGOs build systems for resource distribution, payments and donations, secure messaging and much more. So far, it says it's matched 24 NGOs with tech companies and is working on 45 projects.

Some of these projects have gone live, it says, including a platform that collects verified offers of support for Ukrainian refugees, a map in Ukrainian which informs users about humanitarian and medical aid and a charitable NFT collection.

👉  The organisation is inviting companies with tech skills to register here and is raising funds here.

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Get building

Similar to the #TechforUkraine initiative, but for individuals (rather than companies) with tech skills wanting to lend their help, Ukraine Global Taskforce was launched by Gustavo Iwanaga, a Google engineer based in Germany.

He says the purpose of the coalition is to “come together (irrespective of background) and work on various projects globally that will altogether minimise the impact of the war”. 

Iwanaga says he has over 300 people in over 48 countries working on projects, from managing the food chain to prepping first aid kits. One goal is to develop a mobile app that will provide Ukrainians with digital solutions and support authorities with real time data. 

While Iwanaga’s keen for anyone with skills to sign up — from full stack engineers to UX designers — he’s called out for people in HR to help structure the team. 

👉  Interested people can sign up using this form.

Donate a skill

Ukraine Tech Collective matches international software developers with job vacancies left by Ukrainian software engineers who are involved in the war effort. 

“Kind of an NGO version of maternity cover,” the initiative aims to make sure developers in Ukraine continue to get paid and small businesses can stay operational. 

👉  For more information click on this link.

Hire Ukrainian tech workers remotely

Remote Ukraine is a new employment platform. It matches companies with highly trained tech talent who are looking for work as they try to escape violence in Ukraine. The work can be posted in the form of one-off tasks, short-term contracts or full-time work.

The site also handles payments, so whether you’re looking for short-term or long-term tech support, it seems like a pretty seamless way to hire Ukrainians.

Read: 18 Ukrainian tech leaders to follow on Twitter

Lisbon-based real estate platform Casafari has also launched a Telegram group for Ukrainians looking for IT jobs in Portugal.

Join the relocation effort

According to the UN refugee agency, the number of Ukrainians fleeing the war has reached 2m. 

Micro-Search Solutions has put together a spreadsheet of companies offering to relocate Ukrainians. There are spaces for jobseekers, companies hiring and freelance projects. 

👉 Find the instructions here. 

Delivering essentials — quickly 

Commerce4good is a charity founded by an ecommerce startup. It's using its pre-existing logistics supply chain to provide equipment to help the resistance effort.

It says its network of suppliers and on-the-ground volunteers in Ukraine deliver “foods to the elderly, fabrics to producers, radio equipment to civilians and much more”. 

👉 To join its community channel, donate, or get in touch with questions, look here.

Host Ukrainians in your home

Got a spare room? Sign up on We Help Ukraine if you’re able to host a Ukrainian who needs a place to stay. The platform was launched on Sunday and founder Hugo de Sousa tells Sifted that it’s been “an overwhelming experience” to see how many people have come together to build it in such a short period of time.

He hopes the initiative will be up and running in the coming days, and encourages people to register their contact details so that they can be alerted once the platform is ready to match hosts and guests. The site has already had more than 2,000 sign ups to host, he adds.

The service is also hoping to allow functionality to let people offer their services in the form of medical, legal, language and psychological assistance in the near future.

👉  Register your interest here.

HR help for Ukraine 

#HRForUkraine is a collection of HR resources to support the people of Ukraine, from relocation support to financial support for those still in the country. Its Notion page contains details on how to collaborate and contribute.

Free consultation

Running since 25th February, Jobbatical has been offering free consultation for companies working to bring their Ukrainian employees to Spain, Estonia, Portugal and Germany. 

It also says it’s reducing fees to the minimum for visa application processes for Ukrainian citizens relocating on an employment visa.

👉  Immigration and relocation updates are available here.

Show solidarity via your startup 

A group of Ukrainian founders created a guide on how businesses can “support Ukraine and help stop the war, without firing a bullet”. They are asking for tech companies to:

  • Put a blue and yellow ribbon on their logo and a statement on their website as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine;
  • Make an official statement condemning the war;
  • Inform their customers about the situation. 

👉  The full guide can be found here.