Magnifying Glass

Show More

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Home Newsroom Article

Nova Ukraine’s Impact Report, March 2023

Nova Ukraine's Impact Report, March 2023

Message from the Board: Learnings from the 2022 & Priorities for 2023

We’re marking one year and one month since Russia’s brutal full-scale attack on Ukraine. Looking back to where we were one year ago with Nova Ukraine: our operations have grown exponentially over the course of weeks, if not days. Our primary goal was to help as many people in Ukraine as possible, as quickly as possible, knowing that we were saving lives.

We had hundreds of volunteers willing to help, but we knew that sheer will was not enough. Achieving our goals required strong organization and operational discipline. With Nova Ukraine’s roots being in Silicon Valley, we turned to technology to help organize our work. Our IT volunteers quickly onboarded us on a modern tech stack, including Google Workspace, Slack, Asana, Confluence and a number of other tools.

Read the full report here.

View Fullscreen
Skip to PDF content

We made a decision to invest time in adopting Salesforce for our grant processing and donor operations. This investment paid off many times and was one of the key factors for us to sustain through the massive growth. We became much more professional in our operations, established budgets and policies, and turned from being purely reactive to planning ahead.

To ensure our finances were spotless, we hired a professional finance team and switched to effective and well-controlled financial instruments. We also hired a Global General Manager and General Manager in Ukraine to run our global and Ukrainian operations. We built a strong organizational structure and solid
onboarding process, with background checks for new team members, ensuring the safety and security of our team and operations.

None of this happened overnight, and we had to build out our processes while trying to deliver aid to Ukrainians in the critical conditions of war. We made mistakes. We fixed them. We moved on to become
stronger and more mature. I am proud to see the impact the Nova Ukraine team already had, and I want to thank every volunteer, employee, contractor, donor, and supporter for walking this path with us and having trust in us.

As we move forward, we remain optimistic about the future ahead. We are committed to helping Ukraine win and supporting Ukraine to become a strong, flourishing nation with an empowered civil society. We believe that our efforts will have a significant impact, and we are grateful for your ongoing support.

Ostap Korkuna
Co-chairman, on behalf of the Nova Ukraine Board of Directors

May 3, 2023

Nova Ukraine

Nova Ukraine
Nova Ukraine's Impact Report, March 2023
May 3, 2023

Nova Ukraine

Nova Ukraine

Message from the Board: Learnings from the 2022 & Priorities for 2023

We’re marking one year and one month since Russia’s brutal full-scale attack on Ukraine. Looking back to where we were one year ago with Nova Ukraine: our operations have grown exponentially over the course of weeks, if not days. Our primary goal was to help as many people in Ukraine as possible, as quickly as possible, knowing that we were saving lives.

We had hundreds of volunteers willing to help, but we knew that sheer will was not enough. Achieving our goals required strong organization and operational discipline. With Nova Ukraine’s roots being in Silicon Valley, we turned to technology to help organize our work. Our IT volunteers quickly onboarded us on a modern tech stack, including Google Workspace, Slack, Asana, Confluence and a number of other tools.

Read the full report here.

View Fullscreen
Skip to PDF content

We made a decision to invest time in adopting Salesforce for our grant processing and donor operations. This investment paid off many times and was one of the key factors for us to sustain through the massive growth. We became much more professional in our operations, established budgets and policies, and turned from being purely reactive to planning ahead.

To ensure our finances were spotless, we hired a professional finance team and switched to effective and well-controlled financial instruments. We also hired a Global General Manager and General Manager in Ukraine to run our global and Ukrainian operations. We built a strong organizational structure and solid
onboarding process, with background checks for new team members, ensuring the safety and security of our team and operations.

None of this happened overnight, and we had to build out our processes while trying to deliver aid to Ukrainians in the critical conditions of war. We made mistakes. We fixed them. We moved on to become
stronger and more mature. I am proud to see the impact the Nova Ukraine team already had, and I want to thank every volunteer, employee, contractor, donor, and supporter for walking this path with us and having trust in us.

As we move forward, we remain optimistic about the future ahead. We are committed to helping Ukraine win and supporting Ukraine to become a strong, flourishing nation with an empowered civil society. We believe that our efforts will have a significant impact, and we are grateful for your ongoing support.

Ostap Korkuna
Co-chairman, on behalf of the Nova Ukraine Board of Directors

We greatly value your support, and it is indeed crucial. Please consider donating monthly. Your consistent contributions are vital to sustaining our efforts and driving meaningful change over time. Your commitment will make a lasting difference, and we sincerely appreciate your consideration.

Donate
Learn how you can help
Back to Newsroom

Latest Posts

Language and Thinking program students attend a lecture
Oct 23, 2026

‘Language and Thinking’ Program Prepares Young Ukrainians for Future Leadership

With Nova Ukraine’s support, Bard College leads writing- and discussion-filled workshops on the topic of justice Students from across Ukraine developed critical reading, writing, and civic leadership skills in a new program this summer supported by Nova Ukraine. The tuition-free, residential program, called Language and Thinking Kyiv, was based on Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking approach to learning and was led by students and faculty members from the school. A total of 29 high school students completed the three-week program, which focused on the theme of “justice.” Students read and discussed texts written by Václav Havel, Lesia Ukrainka, Martin Luther King Jr., and others, and zeroed in on topics such as freedom, responsibility, and dignity. The students worked in small, immersive workshops and practiced a variety of writing formats, including free writing, loop writing, and process writing—all in English—and then shared and discussed their work with their classmates to examine and refine their own thought processes. One example of their assignments was the use of dialectical notebooks, in which students write down their thoughts about a text they had read together, then pass their notebook to another student to add their perspective.
Ukrainian DSNS
Oct 15, 2026

Planning, Not Reacting: Ukraine’s Rescuers and Nova Ukraine Prepare for Winter Side by Side

On the tenth floor of an apartment building on Kyiv's left bank last January, Svitlana could not bathe her three-year-old daughter, Arina, or cook her a hot meal. After strikes on the energy system, they had gone more than three days without heat or electricity, in temperatures as low as -18°C. So she wrapped Arina in layer after layer and took her down ten floors of a dark stairwell to a heated tent that Ukraine's State Emergency Service had set up outside. There they could warm up, eat something hot, charge a phone and talk with a psychologist. Millions of Ukrainian families lived some version of that winter. When the power goes out, heat and water often go with it, elevators stop, and anyone who depends on electricity for medical treatment is suddenly at risk. UNICEF, which documented families like Svitlana's, observed that darkness and freezing temperatures intensify fear and stress for children. For the rescuers of the State Emergency Service, known in Ukraine as DSNS, a winter like that changes the job. They still fight fires and search damaged buildings after attacks. But when power, heat, and water fail, they also put up warming tents, install generators, and help residents get through the outages. Last winter left them, and everyone working alongside them, with a plain lesson: the time to prepare for an emergency is before it happens. Ukraine Is Preparing Earlier This Winter
Language and Thinking program students attend a lecture
Oct 23, 2026

‘Language and Thinking’ Program Prepares Young Ukrainians for Future Leadership

With Nova Ukraine’s support, Bard College leads writing- and discussion-filled workshops on the topic of justice Students from across Ukraine developed critical reading, writing, and civic leadership skills in a new program this summer supported by Nova Ukraine. The tuition-free, residential program, called Language and Thinking Kyiv, was based on Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking approach to learning and was led by students and faculty members from the school. A total of 29 high school students completed the three-week program, which focused on the theme of “justice.” Students read and discussed texts written by Václav Havel, Lesia Ukrainka, Martin Luther King Jr., and others, and zeroed in on topics such as freedom, responsibility, and dignity. The students worked in small, immersive workshops and practiced a variety of writing formats, including free writing, loop writing, and process writing—all in English—and then shared and discussed their work with their classmates to examine and refine their own thought processes. One example of their assignments was the use of dialectical notebooks, in which students write down their thoughts about a text they had read together, then pass their notebook to another student to add their perspective.
Ukrainian DSNS
Oct 15, 2026

Planning, Not Reacting: Ukraine’s Rescuers and Nova Ukraine Prepare for Winter Side by Side

On the tenth floor of an apartment building on Kyiv's left bank last January, Svitlana could not bathe her three-year-old daughter, Arina, or cook her a hot meal. After strikes on the energy system, they had gone more than three days without heat or electricity, in temperatures as low as -18°C. So she wrapped Arina in layer after layer and took her down ten floors of a dark stairwell to a heated tent that Ukraine's State Emergency Service had set up outside. There they could warm up, eat something hot, charge a phone and talk with a psychologist. Millions of Ukrainian families lived some version of that winter. When the power goes out, heat and water often go with it, elevators stop, and anyone who depends on electricity for medical treatment is suddenly at risk. UNICEF, which documented families like Svitlana's, observed that darkness and freezing temperatures intensify fear and stress for children. For the rescuers of the State Emergency Service, known in Ukraine as DSNS, a winter like that changes the job. They still fight fires and search damaged buildings after attacks. But when power, heat, and water fail, they also put up warming tents, install generators, and help residents get through the outages. Last winter left them, and everyone working alongside them, with a plain lesson: the time to prepare for an emergency is before it happens. Ukraine Is Preparing Earlier This Winter
Donate PayPal Credit Card Check & Wire Stocks
Donate