Guidelines for ad hoc fundraising established by the Norwegian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (NUCC) in support of Ukraine

Section 1. Purpose

The Norwegian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (NUCC) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established by and for Norwegian and Ukrainian companies. Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine 24 February 2022, NUCC has experienced extensive engagement by its member-companies with regard to providing humanitarian financial donations to Ukrainian civilians, civic organizations and the Ukrainian civil society in general. The NUCC team and board of directors have in-depth knowledge of Ukraine, and have a wide network within Ukraine. NUCC members have requested NUCC to identify emergency needs and relevant humanitarian organisations and emergency projects which can receive financial donations from the NUCC members with assistance and support from NUCC.

Against this background, the NUCC board of directors unanimously resolved on 1 March 2022 to establish an ad-hoc fund raising with the purpose to collect and channel to Ukrainian humanitarian organisations and emergency projects financial funds provided by NUCC members. These guidelines apply to NUCC collection and channelling of such financial funds.

Section 2. NUCC’s role and function: Ethical guidelines  

NUCC shall act as an intermediary of humanitarian donations provided by NUCC members with the purpose of helping Ukrainian civilians.

NUCC has established a designated bank account with bank account number 1506.76.05826 in the Norwegian bank DNB for receiving donated funds.

The fundraising shall be conducted in compliance with the Ethical Guidelines recommended by the Norwegian Control Committee for Fundraising (Innsamlingskontrollen): https://www.innsamlingskontrollen.no/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Eksempler-Etiske-Retningslinjer.pdf

Section 3. Identification of humanitarian recipients/purposes

The NUCC board of directors shall approve the recipients of donations. A main goal when identifying recipients shall be to help Ukrainian civilians in an efficient and targeted manner, without costly administrative intermediaries. The ultimate recipients shall be located within the Ukrainian borders or be Ukrainians displaced to neighbouring countries, in refugee camps or similar.

The board of directors shall channel any funds received for the purposes stated in Section 1 as efficiently as possible, taking into considerations that the need for emergency aid is acute.

Section 4. NUCC’s obligation to treat and account for all financial funds with due care

NUCC shall keep all financial funds received for the purpose stated in Section 1 with due care, and maintain accounts for all funds received and their use. NUCC shall prepare regular reports which shall include a description of the amount of funds received, donors/donor categories and all recipients of fund. NUCC shall require all recipients to deliver to NUCC a written confirmation of donations received from NUCC, and reasonable evidence of how donations are spent. To the extent required by law or deemed appropriate by the board of directors of NUCC, the accounts shall be audited by a Norwegian authorized auditor.

Section 5. Costs of the fundraising

NUCC will cover the direct costs of the fundraising and distribution of donations, such as banking fees, accounting and audit costs, dissemination of information about the fundraising etc.