Why Do Ukrainians Donate? Over 100 Million UAH Raised to Support the Defense Forces

Context 

The “Come Back Alive” Foundation has been supporting the Ukrainian army since 2014. It is an apolitical organization and one of the most transparent charitable foundations in Ukraine. Thanks to its strong reputation, the Foundation has been able to close critical fundraising goals for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) every month.

However, after 2023, the Foundation faced a new challenge: reputation and transparency were no longer enough to sustain a high pace of donations. The fundraising momentum started to slow, even though the army’s needs continued to grow.

At this point, the Lanka.CX team offered their support. Consultants Liza Pidopryhora and Oleh Balakin took charge of the entire process — from framing research questions to analyzing data and developing strategic recommendations.

The Challenge 

The key challenge was to uncover the true motivations behind people’s donations — to enable more effective communication and maintain stable, rapid fundraising throughout a long war.

The Process

The first instinctive idea was to ask people why they don’t donate. But it quickly became clear this question would only lead to surface-level answers: respondents would mention lack of money or other general excuses.

Instead, the Lanka.CX team proposed a reframing of the research — to ask why people donate at all. This proved to be a far more effective question, allowing the team to tap into donors’ actual motivations.

More than 30 in-depth interviews were conducted with a diverse group of respondents. However, many of them donate almost daily, which made it difficult for them to explain exactly why they supported one cause over another or how they decided how much to give.

To get more specific insights, the team ran a behavioral experiment. Participants were given a hypothetical amount of money and asked to distribute it among different causes, explaining the reasons behind their choices. This experiment helped reveal clear donor motivations and decision-making logic.

Based on the findings, three key donor archetypes emerged:

• The Peace Seeker — donates during moments of high anxiety to reduce personal fear.

• The Concerned Citizen — sees donating as a civic duty, focusing on familiar fundraisers or large national campaigns.

• The Expert — deeply understands front-line needs and supports critical items they can't fund on their own.

To validate these qualitative insights, “Come Back Alive” ran a follow-up quantitative survey. It confirmed that the largest segment of donors was the “Concerned Citizens”.

Insight 

One of the main revelations was that the Foundation had been unconsciously communicating to donors as if they were “Experts” — because that’s how the internal team thinks and talks.

But each archetype perceives information and responds to different triggers in their own way. For “Concerned Citizens,” seeing the concrete impact of their donation matters much more than detailed reports or technical specs of purchased equipment.

The Solution

Based on these insights, “Come Back Alive” and Lanka.CX held a strategic session to reframe communication priorities. The Foundation then began updating its communications strategy.

The focus shifted — from technical details to people. From specs to simple, emotional messages about how donations directly impact the course of the war.

Results

This strategic shift delivered immediate results: two new awareness campaigns helped “Come Back Alive” raise over 100 million UAH — covering urgent needs of Ukraine’s defense forces quickly and effectively.

Key Lessons

• Donors (and clients) think differently than you. Their behavior is worth exploring.

• User behavior may seem illogical or chaotic — but it can be studied and structured.

• Your communication should aim to shift behavior — by understanding triggers, motivations, and barriers.

• Lanka.CX can help you uncover your audience’s motivation, map their behavior into a system, and build a strategy that drives impact.

Lanka.CX will help you uncover customer motivation, map their behavior into a clear system, and craft a strategy that drives real change.