For 7 pre-war years, the Turn Back We Live fund collected UAH 200 million for the army. For 50 days of the war - UAH 3.2 billion. Spending such funds quickly and profitably for the army is a real challenge for the fund.. How the largest private military fund coped with explosive growth - writes Forbes Ukraine.

In addition to raising funds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the fund is engaged in analytics. One example of the foundation’s analytical work is a study on why contract soldiers began to leave the army en masse in 2020. It turned out that the main reason was the dismissive attitude of the officers.. This information gave impetus to the introduction of the concept of respect for soldiers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

On February 22, 2022, when the invasion of the Russian army was expected from day to day, the fund collected UAH 20 million in a day, which is more than in the entire previous year. 50 days after the invasion, the fund received over UAH 3.2 billion and another $24.4 million in cryptocurrency. This is the largest amount among private funds.

Increasing income by 100 times is half the battle, it is more difficult to spend such money effectively. The head of the fund, Taras Chmut, says that they managed. Half already spent. And there are more contracts involved in the implementation process than money in the accounts. “Money will continue to flow,” Chmut is sure.

How \? They were getting ready. In 2021, the fund diversified its financial infrastructure. Started a crypto wallet, opened accounts in different banks and in different currencies.

After the invasion, the ordering procedure was simplified. We focused on one activity: only processing of applications, purchases and logistics.

The fund has worked out a mechanism and channels for the purchase of dual-use goods. Chmut allowed buyers to make difficult decisions on their own. Now even devices for sniper rifles, special copters or equipment for artillery are bought without the consent of Chmut. “For five years of work, we purchased 350 quadrocopters, and here we have 1,500 pieces in one batch,” says Taras.

Part of the cargo is taken out by the military on their own. But the foundation brings the bulk of the orders to military units on its own..

“Turn around alive” closely cooperates with the fund of showman Serhiy Prytula (collected UAH 200 million since the beginning of the war). Together they process applications, optimize logistics.

Uklon service is one of the sponsors, helping the fund not only with money, but also with expertise. In addition to him, MOTOshop companies are now doing this. UA and GigaCloud. They allocated their specialists to introduce a resource planning system into the fund on the platform for the Odoo CRM system..

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The Turn Back We Live Foundation was founded by IT manager Vitaly Deynega in March 2015. Prior to that, he helped the army for almost a year, collecting about UAH 50 million for its needs.. It all started on May 11, 2014, when Deinega read the news that the Ukrainian military had been ambushed and killed. Despair of helplessness prompted him to transfer his own UAH 10,000 to help the army. Through volunteers, he gave the 95th Zhytomyr brigade the necessary things, and then wrote on Facebook that he was going to buy more. There were a lot of people willing to share money. Over the next three months, Deinega purchased body armor, thermal imagers, and walkie-talkies for UAH 5 million.

The founder of " In early 2015, Deinega left his job and became a “professional” volunteer. The fund was headed by Taras Chmut.