Ukraine

Since 1993, ISC has been helping Ukrainians make their communities a better place to live. Most recently, ISC worked nationwide with Ukrainians—and the nonprofits that represent them—to help them better advocate for themselves on the issues that matter most to them.

We began with environmental projects that went beyond halting pollution, cleaning up toxic waste and illegal dumps, and establishing waste collection and recycling—to laying the foundation for nonprofits, grassroots groups, government officials, and business to work together for the first time to solve community problems. At the same time, environmental and community-based education projects pulled educators and young people into the process of solving global problems at the local level.

Tangible Results

• Our program of training and mentoring resulted in measurable increases in the effectiveness of our nonprofit partners. More than 50% of them were rated as leaders in advocating on behalf of their constituents, up from 9% in 2003.
• 69 of our grantees successfully drafted or lobbied for critical legislative and policy changes at the local and national level addressing such issues as anticorruption, judicial reform, citizen access to services, human rights protection, and environmental protection.
• Our work with community groups addressing environmental issues removed 1,000 tons of illegal garbage, toxic chemicals, and recyclable materials from the landscape, while setting up long-term garbage collection, water purification, and recycling systems.
• We launched an innovative partnership between the American Chamber of Commerce and our program that is now funneling corporate resources to a range of worthy nonprofits and entrepreneurial projects with social aims.

From Milwaukee to Kyiv

Will Allen, a former-basketball-star-turned-farmer who founded Milwaukee-based Growing Power, brings his message—about the transformative powers that growing safe, healthy, affordable foods have on creating healthy communities—and lessons learned to Ukraine's fledgling social entrepreneur community.

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Supply-Side Philanthropy: Building on the Impulse to Give

In Ukraine—and now in Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo—ISC worked with nonprofits to help them get donations—but we're also worked on the supply side, encouraging corporations and individuals to give time, money, and expertise to their favorite causes.

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A Vibrant Civil Society

From 2001 to 2008, ISC helped build the nonprofit sector in Ukraine as a means for involving ordinary citizens in everyday public life. We provided mentoring and training to nonprofits, fostered corporate and community philanthropy, and helped nonprofits support themselves while addressing critical community needs.

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Cleaning up the Environment

When the Soviet Union dissolved, it left Ukraine loaded with toxic and illegal waste dumps, polluted lakes and rivers, a dearth of waste collection systems, and former collective farms weighed down with pesticides. ISC worked with Ukrainian communities and nonprofits to address these serious issues.

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Educating for Sustainability

ISC worked with the next generation in Ukraine to help them connect life in their local communities with global issues.

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