Since the explosion of popular protest in Maidan Square, Ukraine has been riven by civil and political strife whose character and shape is often difficult to discern — as is its eventual outcome. In this supercharged atmosphere of political protest and martial posturing, what have foundations been doing to help those caught up in events or struggling to reshape their country?

Perhaps the first thing to say is that the situation in Ukraine is an extraordinarily fluid one. Even while this article was being researched and written, things have changed: the country has a new government. While at the state level some of the tension has gone out of the situation, fighting still continues in the east of the country between government forces and pro-Russian militias, with reports of people fleeing the rebel capital of Sloviansk amid a worsening humanitarian crisis. The UK's Guardian newspaper reported on June 12 that most residents of Sloviansk had been without water, electricity, and gas for the previous week.

Two foundations active in Ukraine at the onset of the crisis were the ERSTE Foundation, based in Austria and working throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and the Open Society Foundations' International Renaissance Foundation, based in Ukraine itself. Both have found themselves drawn into events to a greater or lesser degree.

Feet Already On the Ground: ERSTE Foundation

The ERSTE Foundation has an education program involving youth between the ages of 12 and 17 in four Ukrainian cities (the project is also running in eleven other countries in the region), and supports the Visual Cultural Research Center, an arts project in Kiev primarily intended as an exhibition space. Its target group varies from project to project. As Robin Gosejohann, project manager Europe at ERSTE Foundation, explains, "We work with local partner organizations who are active or want to become active in civil society in their area/community."

What has been the foundation's response to the crisis? Most of the countries in which it works have political issues. "We try to react to those," says Gosejohann, "not by reshaping or redrafting entire projects...[but by] building on the projects that already exist." As an example, he says, the foundation "made money quickly available to allow for a meeting space in Kyiv. We reacted on the expressed needs of our project partners who changed an ongoing project [the exhibition space mentioned above]." After the Maidan protests, it became more and more apparent that there were hardly any independent meeting spaces that community groups could use. The exhibition space will now be used for meetings.

The ERSTE Foundation also remains alert to the needs of its Ukrainian project partners. "We have a higher degree of sensitivity when it comes to project applications from partners from a country that currently has more issues than others," says Gosejohann, so "specifically Ukraine right now."

International Renaissance Foundation

The International Renaissance Foundation has been working in Ukraine since 1991. Its main work, says deputy executive director Inna Pidluska, is supporting the efforts of CSOs active in promoting human rights, an independent judiciary, and the association agreement with the EU. However, when the Yanukovych government withdrew from the process of preparing for that agreement, some of IRF's long-time partners became involved in organizing pro-European integration demonstrations. Following the forcible dispersal of protestors from the Maidan on November 30, 2013, IRF announced its withdrawal from any form of collaboration or consultation with the Ukrainian government. Other civil society organizations followed their example.

During the ensuing Maidan protests, IRF supported CSOs' right to protest peacefully, helped create forums where civil society groups and activists could meet, and funded independent media organizations that could report events from on the ground. Notable among these was Hromadske.tv, an independent online TV initiative, which, says Pidluska, became one of the most visited sources of information on the events surrounding the Maidan protest.

IRF also coordinated and implemented a humanitarian solidarity program, providing relief to the victims of the crisis and medical aid for victims of the state repression of the protests. At the time, she explains it was dangerous for injured protestors to seek treatment because in some cases IRF has documented, protestors were taken into custody instead of being given medical aid.

The need for this has now receded, so IRF is wrapping up this program. (It's worth noting that this conversation took place before the escalation of events in east Ukraine, noted above.)

What Next? Reconciliation and Reconstruction

Eastern and southern Ukraine continue to be unsettled. It is important for foundations to work with CSOs in these areas that are monitoring the situation with regard to human rights and civic freedoms, Pidluska says. Once violence is at an end, civil society will need to be involved in the opportunities for reconciliation between different communities that were on opposite sides of the political divide.

Pidluska underscores that such differences of view have existed for a long time, and they are not at the root of the violence. This is being "inspired and funded from the outside," she said. When the armed militias are disarmed or dispersed, CSOs should be prepared "to serve as mediators and conveners for building trust in these communities and moving beyond conflict," and foundations can be extremely important in developing such initiatives.

The Role of Women's Groups

For Madeleine Rees, secretary general of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, women's groups can have a crucial — though often overlooked — role in peace and reconciliation. According to Rees, WILFP's experience in Syria has led them to believe that "women have a real knowledge of what is happening on the ground and how peaceful solutions can be brokered." In the case of Ukraine, "the network of women's organizations in Ukraine gave us an excellent gender analysis." However, as a recent European Foundation Centre conference in Sarajevo heard, women are often excluded when it comes to peace processes, and as a result marginalized in the society that emerges beyond the conflict, to the detriment of women and wider society.

Underlying Questions

Beyond the problems raised by the crisis in Ukraine are a number of long-running issues that helped to precipitate events in the first place.

The engagement of civil society in the reform of education, public service procurement, public health, and social policies are some of the areas IRF and its partners will be grappling with once the political situation is quieter. Another big issue for Pidluska is to improve the quality of governance at the local level, and especially to foster the ability of local communities to address the questions that concern them. Foundations have an important role in supporting this work, she thinks. In this context, she talks of the Reanimation Reform Package, a reform movement that arose from the Maidan protests and that is being supported by IRF and a number of international donors. This initiative looks both ways. It is intended not only to make representations to government but also to present to the people the need for reform and the implications if such reforms are not forthcoming.

Corruption

One issue that cuts across most of the areas Pidluska highlights as needing reform is corruption. Most of those we spoke to identified this as a key issue. "I think the most urgent problem in Ukraine now is fighting corruption," says Anna Babinets of Slidstvo.Info, an investigative journalism organization. "People in our country really need transparency." Slidstvo.Info investigates instances of corruption and publicizes them through websites, newspapers, magazines, and television. As a member of the Yanukovych Leaks team, they continue to work with Ukraine's public prosecution service to help them investigate fraud and money laundering by the former president and his team.

Fighting corruption was one of the top demands of the Maidan protestors, and Pidluska also singles it out as a key priority. Civil society, she believes, must help to improve anti-corruption legislation and to monitor and advocate proper implementation of existing legislation. Besides acting as funders and partners for CSOs in this area, foundations need themselves to show an example, ensuring that standards and practices of good governance are adopted and acted upon in their own institutions.

When and How to Intervene

"Every organization should work in the field it knows best," says Gosejohann. "We look at building on the projects that already exist, though on a modest scale," he adds, and recommends that others "continue to work with trusted partners with whom one has a good track record." There are a lot of new groups looking for funding in Ukraine, he points out. Funding is available, but the groups' provenance and intention is not always clear or appropriate, so "credible donors have to continue to work with credible partners in well-considered, smaller interventions….[T]hat's the role of private foundations right now."

Pidluska says something very similar: foundations should "continue doing what they used to do, which is working with their immediate constituencies."

International foundations can also show their solidarity with civil society groups in Ukraine. The ERSTE Foundation, by its actions, says Gosejohann, is making it known that "we as a foundation can be counted on — we're not running away."

Flexibility and Timing

Quite small amounts can make a big difference. Madeleine Rees estimates that €50,000 would have enabled WIPLF to take representatives of Ukrainian women's organizations to Geneva to make their case to the member states and the human rights council. Often the timing of responses is crucial. As Rees notes, "In every situation where there could be violent conflict, if you are upstream in terms of your analysis, you can intervene in good time" — and foundations' flexibility should allow them to do this. The ERSTE Foundation's size, believes Gosejohann, means it can move quickly and identify "smaller, informal, effective projects." Besides, there is a practical question at stake: the foundation is active in more than a dozen countries in Central and Southeast Europe, and Ukraine is huge. "We would be badly advised to say that we would take on a really big issue country-wide, so we do it with little pinches here and there where we know it will have a local or even a regional effect."

Could Foundations Be Doing More?

"Foundations are already doing quite a lot," says Pidluska, noting that they are working across what she describes as a very broad spectrum of activities. She believes foundations in Ukraine could benefit from expanding their donor base and their access to resources for addressing vulnerable groups, which have grown since the crisis, especially in Crimea and in conflict zones. It has become especially difficult for foundations to work in the Crimea because it is subject to punitive Russian laws about foreign funding. Most foundations in the area have had to suspend their work, she says. "We recognize that CSOs and foundations there are under extreme pressure and we cannot work with them as if it's business as usual."

One thing the crisis has highlighted is the inadequacy of the current philanthropic regime in Ukraine. At the moment, she says, money given as emergency support to victims' families is liable to taxes at a rate of 19 percent. In order to overcome this, the government has invoked special regulations that exempt specific kinds of funds from taxes.  The philanthropic community wants such an exemption to become part of the law governing donations rather than being extended on a case-by-case basis. In addition, tax incentives for donors and the regulation of online giving need attention. The Ukrainian Donors Forum, which Pidluska chairs, has taken up the question of bringing Ukraine's philanthropic environment more generally into line with rest of Europe, with only partial success. Perhaps the crisis will underscore their demands.

For More Information

To keep track of developments in Ukraine, the Center for Strategic and International Studies has created an interactive timeline of events in Ukraine starting on March 6, 2014.