Link to local charities helping Ukraine on the ground:
www.supportukraine.co
Direct Deposit to Ukrainian Defense Department:
https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-spetsrahunok-dlya-zboru-koshtiv-na-potrebi-armiyi
Hungarian Sources Helping Refugees Directly
Migration Aid: https://migrationaid.org/adomanyozas/
Age of Hope: https://aoh.hu/kapcsolat/
Hungarian Reformed Church: https://www.facebook.com/Reformed-Church-in-Hungary-434259159985027/
Charity Grading Sites:
charitywatch.org
https://www.charitynavigator.org/
You can also use these sites to find well regarded large charities like CARE. direct relief, world vision, doctors without borders, Save the Children
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=9366
https://www.charitywatch.org/charity-donating-articles
AirBnB
My opinion on using airBnB to help Ukrainians?
1. If you are worried about the overhead of charities, understand AirBnB will take a larger cut (18%) plus you will pay taxes on the stay. A good charity has less than 10% overhead.
2. You are only helping one person...who may not need help and may be getting help from a number of other "guests". A charity will spread your donation across many people.
3. Your host is probably already rather wealthy
Payment:
It seems like a number of these charities are now providing credit card options for Americans to use. However, some of the more local charities do only accept bank transfers. This lowers their fees and makes sure the money gets to those who need it, but is difficult and expensive for Americans to use.
Three ways to address this:
1) Just do a swift transfer through your bank. This will cost you $25 but may also cost the charity a fee plus a currency conversion commission from their bank
2) I can do it for you but you need to send me the money through venmo
3) Get either a "revolut" or "wise" card. Convert to the currency you will send to (I recommend sending to a euro account) then do the transfer. If you travel abroad frequently or have family abroad, these are good cards to have...but not worth the effort just for this.
I can help with any of the above options.
