- Founded by investor Alex Iskold, the 1K Project sends money directly to needy families in Ukraine.
- The project is piloting a service that lets startup companies pool donations from employees.
- "You are the one helping that family. That's exceptionally meaningful," Iskold told Insider.
When he was 19, Alex Iskold and his family fled Ukraine, driven out by antisemitism during the Soviet era. They settled in an old steel city in Pennsylvania, where they had family, and Iskold got hired as a gardener. He spoke no English, and his mother, who taught English back home, refused to translate so that he would learn faster.
"It was sink or swim," said Iskold, now a venture capitalist at the firm 2048 Ventures. He previously founded a handful of startups, including InfoLab and Get Glue.
Now, the former refugee is working on a project to soften the landing for others fleeing his home country.
Earlier this month, Iskold and some friends created the 1K Project, which pairs donors of $1,000 with a Ukrainian family in need. The project has supported 1,700 families since the war began, totalling around $2.2 million.
Each family fills out an online form with personal details and banking information, so Iskold's volunteer crew can verify the need. Then a donor gets texted or emailed directions on how to fund the family through the money transfer service Wise.com, Iskold said.
"You are the one helping that family. That's exceptionally meaningful," he said.
The project team is also piloting a service that lets startups pool donations from their employees, Iskold told Insider exclusively. So far, about a half dozen companies, including the fintech firm Mantl and the chatbot builder Stream, have created custom websites to collect funds through the 1K Project. This method makes sense for startups and mid-size companies, Iskold said, that don't have their own corporate giving programs like Salesforce and IBM do.
One thousand dollars is a hefty sum for most people, which is why the group also accepts smaller donations and combines them to send money to families. For the families, $1,000 buys them clothes, food, and medicine for several weeks, Iskold estimates. Roughly 70% of the families funded through the 1K Project remain in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian mother of three wrote to the project organizers to express her gratitude, saying that her family crossed the border to safety with $150 in hand. Another person wrote to the 1K Project that she filled out an application and "didn't really believe at first." To her surprise, the money came, and she was able to buy the necessities for her family the next day.
Looking back, Iskold says it's unfair to compare his flight as a refugee to those of the three million people who have evacuated Ukraine because of the Russian invasion. Many have fled in cars, in trains, and on foot, carrying bags stuffed with belongings and accompanied by children, crossing the border not knowing where they would sleep.
"We weren't shot at," Iskold remembered. "We left on our terms."