Come Back Alive Foundation plans to surpass record UAH 31 bln in fundraising from 2025 in 2026 – director

The Come Back Alive Charity Foundation, the largest in terms of assistance to the Defense Forces of Ukraine, collected more than UAH 31 billion in 2025, which is 658% more than in 2024, director of the foundation Taras Chmut told the Interfax-Ukraine agency.

"Our operational target for 2026 is $1 billion in funds from abroad and UAH 400 million per month within Ukraine," he said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos at the Ukrainian House.

Chmut noted that last year’s significant growth in fundraising was achieved largely through securing international government funds, with several targeted grant agreements already signed with multiple countries.

"They are the result of three years of work since 2022, when we first started discussing this and preparing the organization for it," the foundation’s director emphasized.

He said that in 2025, the Come Back Alive foundation underwent an audit by Bureau Veritas under the international ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems standard. The foundation’s Initiatives Center, which has worked alongside the foundation since 2018 to strengthen Ukraine’s resilience, also received certification.

"The funds we receive are a real challenge. How quickly, efficiently and effectively we manage them will directly affect future years," Chmut said.

He added that there are already about ten grant agreements with different countries, ranging from small to very large.

"Some of the grants have already been successfully implemented, some are in active stages of implementation, and some were signed this year — it’s already a dynamic process. The number of countries approaching us is also increasing because they communicate among themselves and see that it works elsewhere," the foundation’s director said.

Regarding fundraising within Ukraine, he noted that it is becoming increasingly difficult each year.

"We are holding a plateau; we’re not declining. But that’s not because the market is the same — it’s because we work differently and adapt better. The level of effort has doubled compared with last year and the year before, and that is yielding results," Chmut explained.

He clarified that the plan to raise UAH 400 million per month, apart from government funds, also includes individual donations from abroad and support from foreign foundations similar to Come Back Alive, such as the Czech Darek pro Putina (Gift for Putin) and the Norwegian organization Fritt Ukraina.

Among the foundation’s domestic priorities, Chmut highlighted the need to rapidly expand teams in procurement, logistics, legal, communications, and IT to maintain the same operational efficiency as before.

"Because Ukrainian partnerships with businesses and state companies don’t disappear, and neither do the ongoing needs of the Armed Forces, whose budgets have increased by 40–50% just this year. This all requires constant engagement from our people," he said.

Since its founding, the Come Back Alive foundation raised UAH 192.2 million by 2022, and as of October 2025, monthly inflows exceeded UAH 1 billion only three times: UAH 1.6 billion in early 2022, UAH 1.1 billion in late 2024, and UAH 3 billion in September 2025.