Just over a month ago, Russia invaded Ukraine.
We’re not here to report on the heart-rending stories coming from this senseless invasion. Ukrainian citizens and news organizations will always do a better job of that than a business.
But I will say one thing: this war is particularly personal for us because we’re an Estonian company. As an ex Soviet country, we share history with Ukraine. And as a close neighbor watching this horror unfold, it’s our duty to help.
The people suffering most are the everyday citizens that — until a month ago — could rely on a fairly predictable day-to-day existence. Now lives have been upended. Communities have been destroyed. Businesses, closed forever.
I’ll spare you more words: it’s impossible to find the right ones.
Instead, I’ll share what we’re doing to help as a company. And — if you’d like to join us — we would appreciate your support.
We’re running a campaign featuring seven best-selling products: one for each of the seven letters in Ukraine.
All the revenue from product sales for these seven products will be donated to the Estonian Refugee Council, which will provide multi-purpose cash assistance to civilians affected by the war, including helping internally displaced persons and bringing necessary medicine and medical supplies to hospitals in the east part of Ukraine. Estonian Refugee Council is a member of the European Council of Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).
But what does that mean?
Every cent you pay us — NOT just the profits — will go to the Estonian Refugee Council.
This keeps things simple. And it helps us do something together as a community.
Every product that’s a part of this campaign will have a banner running across the top of the listing.
We’ll also manually update the campaign banner every day with the money raised. (So, on Wednesday morning, you’ll see what we raised by the end of Tuesday.) This helps us increase the level of transparency.
Right now, we intend on running this for the full month of April. Then, on Monday May 2nd, we will send a one-off donation to the Estonian Refugee Council. This cuts administration costs and helps as much of the money go toward helping people as possible.
However, this is a dynamic situation so we may extend it. (If that happens, we’ll update this blog post.)
We’re starting with seven of our best sellers. If we run out of any of the products during the campaign, then we’ll replace it with another similar one.
Let’s help the Ukrainian people together.
Raino
CEO of NoCry
P.S. I know that, right now, a lot of companies are running campaigns like this. And I know that the situation can feel emotionally exhausting. As an Estonian company — a close neighbor and ex-Soviet country ourselves — we strongly feel we have to do whatever we can.