Starting from Feb 24 morning Ukraine has faced unprecedented, devastating Russian invasion. Both the country and it’s independent media have been fighting back with extraordinary courage. 

Ukrainian outlets are working around the clock to bring truth and objective information while at the same time dealing with extreme logistical and operational challenges: moving non-essential staff away from active battle theaters, organizing critical supplies, dealing with attacks on physical and tech infrastructure. 

We hope for the best, but we need to be ready for even the most challenging situations. Recovering from the devastation wrought by Russia’s aggression will be long and painful.

That is why The Fix, a media industry publication and consultancy partnered with a coalition including Dutch Media NGO Are We Europe, Jnomics and Ukrainian NGO Media Development Foundation, and various publishers around Europe, to run a fundraising initiative and cover both current and future operational needs of Ukrainian media.

About The Fix and the coalition

We were launched as a publication that looks for solutions to the media industry’s huge business, technological and organizational problems. Literally, “the fix”. We are a trade magazine for media professionals. A paper for us, and about us.

The Fix has deep roots in Ukraine. Our co-founder Daryna Shevchenko, is currently the CEO of the Kyiv Independent and currently in Kyiv. A second co-founder, Jakub Parusinski, is the former CEO of the Kyiv Post. Our managing editor Zakhar Protsiuk is Ukrainian, as are several contributors and team members.

Ukrainian media: recipients 

We are working with a growing list of Ukrainian media, including Ukrainska Pravda, Zaborona, Detector Media, Liga.net, Ukrainer, hromadske, Slidstvo and others. 

Our support for these larger media is allocated based on urgency of needs in the first place, and will then be distributed proportionally.

Thanks to the Media Development Foundation’s extensive work in regional and local media, we are in touch with a network of 100 publications around the country. Smaller, but immediate support is being provided based on a simplified procedure where and when media need it the most. 

More from The Fix: Innovate or die: reader revenue revolution in Ukraine

Fundraising streams and ways to donate

We are operating along 6 main work streams that require urgent or long-term financing.

First priority funding:

  • Protection and media equipment purchases and delivery to Ukraine (here is a list of supplies – we are delivering via Poland and Romania)
  • Direct operational and financial support to media in Ukraine (e.g., covering IT costs, insurance, transport, purchase of supplies)

You can help by donating to The Fix account (see account details), dedicated to the fundraising campaign, or to the special account of our fundraising partner Are We Europe (see account details)

Long-term needs:

  • Support for media staff relocation to EU countries 
  • Setting up offices and accommodation of media staff in EU countries 

You can support by donating on the GoFundMe platform. 

We are also ensuring media receive tech support, but directly connecting publications with providers who have offered their services, helping migrate hosting, boost storage, debug sites etc. (Note: this workstream does not currently require funding).

We are also connecting media to other donors and/or helping with grant applications so that media staff in Ukraine don’t have to spend time on paperwork.

We are constantly monitoring the situation and ready to launch new workstreams on a needs basis. Again, where applicable, support is allocated based on urgency of needs in the first place, then distributed proportionally.

Raised funds and our donors

We already collected close to $2million in direct funds or committed support in less than a week. Much of it is in process, but we have already allocated around $100K (these numbers are constantly moving, please give us time for more substantial updates).

Our donors and supporters: Axel Springer publishing house (Germany), The Local (Sweden), Bonnier News media group (Nordics), Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland), Sifted (UK), Dennik N (Slovakia) etc. The list is expanding on a daily basis. 

Other ways to support

More from The Fix: Ex-Kyiv Post team launches Kyiv Independent, lays out new vision

Donations management and reporting 

Support is allocated based on urgency of needs in the first place, then distributed proportionally.

We don’t have public reporting on the donations allocation in real-time. 

We are operating on a volunteer basis on very tight timelines, and all our efforts go to supporting colleagues in Ukraine. We will be providing regular updates in the coming days. But we are gathering all data and can provide reports as needed by your institution.  

How we select media outlets to support 

Our overarching goal is to provide support to Ukrainian, independent, ethical media as swiftly and impactfully as possible. Right we are thinking in 2 categories.

1) National media. Who have bigger teams, needs and will require more operational support in splitting their operations in and out of Ukraine. They require more equipment, have more people to relocate. They also tend to have more complex tech set-up. 

2) Regional and local media. The Media Development Foundation has been working with a network of around 100 independent and ethical media and we are operating via them.

Note: we are open to any ethical, independent media that needs support, but will only transfer any earmarked/ ring fenced resources after approval with a funds provider. Our team members have over 10 years experience working in Ukrainian media and a wide network to carry out due diligence. 

I am an Ukrainian independent media. How can I get support?

If you are representing other independent media covering the war, want to be a part of the campaign and receive financial or any other help, please send a short description of your media and the list of urgent needs to the email partnerships@thefix.media (bear in mind immediate support on the ground is extremely difficult to provide).

If you are a freelancer operating in Ukraine, please feel free to email as well. No guarantees, but we are looking into providing support to freelancer colleagues. This is more difficult for various administrative and governance issues, but we are working to solve them.

More from The Fix: Five ways news organisations can help Ukrainian media

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash