Gitcoin Grants Have Raised $1.2 Million in Ethereum for Ukraine

As the military conflict between Ukraine and Russia continues, Web3 has stepped up for Ukraine, sending nearly $100 million in crypto donations to the Ukrainian government and NGOs operating in the region, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation. 

Now Gitcoin, the platform that rewards coders with crypto, is adding its support by hosting a fundraising campaign called GR13.

Running from March 9 to March 24, GR13 is a series of grants under the Gitcoin banner where participating entities can contribute matching funds to support Ukraine.

GR13 is the 13th quadratic funding round under the Gitcoin banner, and Gitcoin co-founder Scott Moore tells Decrypt it’s “part of our move to donate to more real-world causes.”

The grants have raised $1.2 million in funding to support Ukraine as of Thursday evening.

Web3 projects Polygon, Algorand, ENS, Uniswap, OlympusDAO, NounsDAO, OpenSea, Radicle, ZK Tech, and Open Gaming have all joined Gitcoin’s GR13 initiative by offering matching funds of their own, in varying amounts.

Since its launch in November 2017, Gitcoin says it has raised over $54 million in funding for open source projects, with $36 million going to Gitcoin grants, Gitcoin’s Web3 alternative to Patreon. 

“Ultimately, our focus has always been what are the public goods that are either not being funded or are not being sufficiently coordinated for in the global sphere,” Moore says.

Moore adds that the crypto space has matured to the point where crypto “can have a global impact” and aid in serious real-world situations—like funding NGOs and DAOs to support Ukraine.

And Moore adds that while Gitcoin is doing its own part with GR13, the larger effort by the crypto community to help Ukraine has been a true community effort. He cited the work the Unchain Fund and Ukraine DAO have done to raise funds in support of humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

“In 2017, 2018, no one had the idea that crypto was usable in the real world,” Moore says. “Peace is a global public good for the global commons… so I think it’s a maturation of the space over the last few years, and also the tooling is there now, where it wasn’t before, to really be able to get these things used in real-world situations.”