Fundraising Website for Strangers in Ukraine

Amazing things happen when strangers get together for a good cause. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Eli McCann — a friend with deep ties to the region — reached out over social media to organize a fundraiser with Razom Ukraine and Lifting Hands International.

What was initially planned as a small fundraiser quickly turned into two large events where strangers in our community came together, donated, volunteered, and rallied support. In the end, we raised over $155,000 for these organizations that were helping with the crisis on the ground in Ukraine.

As soon as Eli posted asking for help, I immediately offered to donate my content marketing skills, and I got a website up in under 24 hours. This was a deeply satisfying project for me to work on, and I was amazed at the impact one community can have when we are unified under one cause.

Developed messaging and designed a Squarespace website in under 24 hours for a community fundraising event that had a one-week turnaround. The website helped raise over $155,000.

Mentored organizers on how to maximize donations by refining and articulating the message.

Coordinated with designers to develop an engaging aesthetic and made rapid changes to the website as needed.

Pitched the “Strangers in Ukraine” concept to match the organizer’s highly recognizable podcast and blog.

“I announced a desire to immediately put together a fundraiser to raise money for two humanitarian organizations in Ukraine. Kathleen immediately volunteered as a part of her contribution to the fundraiser to build a website, maintain it, and establish branding for the project. Within 12 hours, Kathleen had a beautiful and extremely functional site up and running, which included cohesive branding that tied my other creative projects to these events so it would be recognizable to my existing audience.

“With nearly zero oversight, Kathleen populated the site with information about the fundraisers, links to the organizations we would benefit, donation instructions, and more. Kathleen took initiative to coordinate messaging with vendors and other volunteers who had stepped in to assist with various parts of the fundraising efforts. Within five days we were able to raise over $133,000; truly, none of this would have been possible without Kathleen's prompt and very confident efforts to create a central and organized location for all of this, as well as maintain and update this information throughout the week. I cannot recommend Kathleen's skills and creativity enough.”