Understandably, many of us want to help and show our support to those affected by the conflict in Ukraine. If you’re looking to provide support through a donation, here’re a few tips for how to do it safely:
- Check carefully before giving – you’re best off sticking to well-known organisations that have a history of work in the field and have some presence or partners within Ukraine.
- Donate your money via the organisation’s website or approach the charity directly for guidance.
- Be wary of requests to wire money or send gift cards. Charities don’t normally request this kind of ‘donation’.
- Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments in unsolicited emails or social media messages, particularly from unknown sources and those that contribute to the sense of alarm currently. They may attempt to lure you into unwittingly downloading malware onto your device.
- In fact, be wary of messages even from trusted sources unless you verify that the message is authentic. To do this, contact the source/organisation by other means than the one by which you received the information. For example search for a phone number and give them a call, if you received their communication digitally.
- Be skeptical of social media posts that promote a charity unless you verify that the organisation is legitimate. A friend recommending it may not have done their research and the number of likes for a social media post doesn’t say much about its legitimacy either.
- Don’t give in to any undue pressure – fraudsters will attempt to use the urgency of the situation to rush you into donating.
Listed below are some of the well known, official charities that are seeking donations to help in Ukraine – we are not endorsing any particular charity and the list is not exhaustive – please do your research carefully.
You can search these online for their verified websites with “padlock” symbols and domain names starting “https://” and ending “.org.uk” and make payments using credit or debit cards or PayPal wherever possible:
Here are some examples of domains to beware of, please avoid giving any donations to these fake charities as your money will not reach those who need it:
• help-for-ukraine[.]eu
• tokenukraine[.]com
• supportukraine[.]today
• ukrainecharity[.]gives
• ukrainesolidarity[.]org
• ukraine-solidarity[.]com
• saveukraine[.]today