Brand Action needs you: non-profit calls on trademark community to fund ambulances’ journey to Ukraine

Brand Action is calling on the trademark community to help raise enough funds to send two ambulances from Belgium to Ukraine, as part of the group’s continued efforts to support those affected by the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Brand Action is less than $10,000 away from its target of funding two ambulances to provide much-needed medical support to the people of Ukraine, co-founder Phil Cox told viewers in a video posted online last week. The aim is to purchase the ambulances in Belgium, before then driving them fully stocked across Europe to Ukraine, through a partnership with BEForUkraine.

It will not be the first time that the team has invested in such a trip. In February 2022 Taras Kulbaba, managing partner of Brussels-based law firm Bukovnik & Kulbaba IP Guardians and future co-founder of Brand Action, woke up to the news that Russia had invaded his family’s home country of Ukraine. He immediately began sourcing aid and regularly driving 1,500km to personally deliver supplies to the Ukraine-Poland border. 

Brand Action’s aim this year was to raise enough money from its INTA Annual Meeting fundraiser in Atlanta to be able to fund at least one fully stocked ambulance on the same journey. Incredibly, the group is now on track to be able to send two – it just needs a few more sponsors. 

“We’re so close to being able to supply not one, but two ambulances to Ukraine,” Cox announced last week. Over 360 tickets have been sold for the fundraiser on 20 May. Although the event itself is now sold out, there are a handful of spaces left for potential sponsors. Packages start at $1,000, and an additional $10,000 is all that is required to be able to fund that vital, second ambulance. 

“Ambulances are in terribly short supply in Ukraine,” Cox says. Every sponsorship will therefore make a huge difference in providing much-needed support. 

“Each sponsorship taken inspires others in our global trademark community to be generous as well,” Cox adds. This means “each sponsorship dollar is worth a lot more than just the value of the donation itself”, he insists.

The trademark community has rallied round Brand Action since it first launched in 2022. Two months after Kulbaba began personally delivering supplies to the Ukrainian border, Brand Action officially launched with the goal of raising funds to provide on-the-ground help. By May 2022, the group was hosting its first INTA Annual Meeting fundraiser, at which 21 sponsors and over 300 attendees helped to raise over $80,000 for World Central Kitchen (WCK) and Support Hospitals in Ukraine.

A year later, in Singapore, Brand Action held its second Annual Meeting fundraiser in support of WCK and the Leleka Foundation. Around 23 sponsors signed up, while attendees and those unable to make the event in person showed their support by participating in an online ‘Bracelet Colour Challenge’. The money raised went towards helping the people of Ukraine, as well as those affected by the February 2023 earthquakes in Syria and Türkiye.

This year, sponsorship numbers for the Brand Action annual fundraiser have more than doubled. At the time of writing, 53 sponsors have pledged their support for the event at STATS Brewpub in Atlanta. And their efforts do not stop at ambulances. “We are supporting our standing charity World Central Kitchen’s efforts in Haiti, and sponsors will also be given the chance to channel their funds there, if they prefer,” Cox explains.

The group will be selling Brand Action merchandise in Atlanta, of which all proceeds will go to WCK. The team will host a silent auction at the fundraising event. Most auction sales will go towards WCK as well, with the exception of some specifically donated items, sales of which will again help to support efforts for Ukraine.

“The Brand Action event is something different,” Cox insists. “It’s uniquely unassuming, and it feels great to be a part of… Every brand action sponsorship brings our community closer together and our sponsors tell us that they’re proud to be in some ways seen as industry leaders.”

Details on how to get involved are available at Brandaction.org.