Fundraising for Your Tuition

It may seem daunting, but fundraising can be fun. With a cause like building a home for a family in Ukraine, people’s hearts are touched. Providing a haven for healing for children who have suffered in war is understandable.

How It Works

We will create a personalized web page for you with information about your efforts and a donation form. The rest is up to you.

Send us your photo and a statement about why you want to go to Ukraine.
We create the page for you and send you the link.
Think of creative ways to raise funds.
Direct your donors to your web page to donate or have them make a note on checks, direct Venmo donations, or wire transfer donations.
Monitor your page to ensure all donations have been added to your total. We will add offline donations as soon as they clear the bank.
Continue to fundraise until you reach your tuition goal.

Fundraising Ideas

Here are a few things people have done that were successful.

Talk to family members; you’d be surprised what help you could receive.
Ask your parents to share your efforts at work, with their friends and with their neighbors.
Reach out to your youth leaders, sports coaches, etc and tell them what you are doing.
Talk to the professors and staff in your major and share with them what you are doing. You might be surprised.
Set up a table at the grocery store and have your friends help. Students raising funds for a specific family in Ukraine average $1,500-2,000 in a weekend.
Wash garbage cans for a donation. Put out flyers or contact your neighbors a few days before garbage day. Then, wash cans after the garbage truck has gone through the neighborhood. Ask people for a donation on your page. Suggest $40 but ask them to give what they can. You’d be surprised how generous some people can be.
Sell something homemade like salsa, baked goods, or fudge. One high school senior raised $2,300 selling fudge. Mothers Day and Fathers Day make good targets to sell something.
Offer a custom car wash where you wash people’s cars at their home and also clean the interior.
Talk with locally-owned businesses and see if they will pass out your info or offer to round up to the nearest dollar. One teen received a $500 check from his local Grease Monkey.
Ask your friends or family for help and set up a stand on a Saturday. One family sold cotton candy and raised $1,300 in one day. They did not set a price for the cotton candy, but offered it for free and asked for a donation.
Ask your dentist, orthodontist, doctor, dermatologist, or other professional to donate to your cause and also put information in their lobby about your efforts. An orthodontist gave his patient $1,000.
Reach out to businesses in the building trade who would understand what building a home for a family means.
Offer to stand in the line and return people’s books to the bookstore at the end of the semester for a donation.
Provide an end-of-the semester apartment cleaning service so that people get their full deposit back.
Create a product that is unique and easy to sell. One person created stickers and sold them to friends for $5. Another person painted cards and sold them in packs of 5 for $20. A gardener sold succulents for $5 each.
Ask a local grocery store to put a sign at the cash registers with the QR code for donations. One student did this and raised $500.
Raffle off something. One woman had a quilted bag she made and it raised $1600
Create a TikTok campaign to raise funds.
Share your efforts in your study groups and ask them to help.
Ask for an early birthday or Christmas present of a donation instead of a gift.

Ways to Double Your Dollars

There are a few ways to make donations grow without much effort.

Ask someone to match donations given for a specific time period. For example, when selling the handmade greeting cards, the person had a matching donor so that when the $20 donation was made for the cards, another $20 was donated by the matching donor. This gets people excited to donate because their dollars are doubled.
Remind people that their employer might have a matching program where dollars they donate through their work’s charitable portal are matched dollar for dollar.
Ask others to share the message and that doubles your ability to share the message.

Suggestions For Success

Sometimes, it’s all in the approach. Know your audience.

Focus on the purpose of your trip and not on your need for money.
Share what you will be doing.
Share the information about the family you will be helping.
Share the story about the children who will be attending the summer camp.
Share why this work is important to Ukraine and the people you will be helping.
Share why this work is important to you.
If you encounter political resistance, do not debate. Just let people know that you will directly be serving people, not the country of Ukraine.
Use the power of social media to get the info out there.

Tax-Exempt Donations

People must donate directly to the charity To Ukraine With Love on your page and not to you personally to receive a tax-deduction. To Ukraine With Love will provide them with a tax receipt.

If someone writes a check, make sure it is for To Ukraine With Love and that your name is in the Memo. If people provide cash, you must donate it directly to To Ukraine With Love for the tax benefits along with their name and email address so that a receipt can be sent to them.

To Ukraine With Love exercises control over the funds and they must be used for qualified tax-exempt purposes. That’s the law. If you are unable to travel or the trip is cancelled for any reason, the donation cannot be legally returned. It will be used for approved humanitarian purposes so that the donation is still tax-deductible.