Charitable giving in wartime: evidence from Ukraine’s war fundraising

We analyze how military events, casualties, and media coverage influence same-day donations to a major Ukrainian nonprofit supporting the military during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a unique setting, we exploit random variation in attacks on civilians across time to estimate that one additional civilian fatality causes between 4,860 dollars and 6,992 dollars in same-day donations, and leads to at least 15,550 dollars in cumulative donations. Disentangling the effects of events and media coverage, we estimate that a 1% increase in media mentions of military activity leads to a 2,584 dollars increase in same day donations and an 8,121 dollars increase in cumulative donations.