KSE replenished with DefDev Charitable Foundation, NGO Kyiv Global Outreach – KSE President

The new Charitable Foundation for the Development of Defense Capability of Ukraine (DefDev) will take over the baton of the Kyiv School of Economics Charitable Foundation (KSE Foundation) to support the defense of Ukraine, KSE President Tymofiy Mylovanov said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

“We have a defense-development fund or fund for the development of Ukraine’s defense capabilities in orbit as a separate institution. We transferred there all the funding from the KSE Foundation, which is related to the defense industry, so that it is not related to education,” he noted.

“The fact that this fund is outside the vertical structure of KSE has given them a little free rein so that they can be aggressive,” added the president.

According to him, another initiative of the KSE community was NGO Kyiv Global Outreach (Kyiv GO), founded earlier this year, “which is engaged in advocacy, lobbying, for example, in the United States of America and in Europe, in Brussels."

“It is completely open, there are contracts… We need to work more systematically with voters (abroad), and not with politics. Politicians still react more to voters, so Ukraine needs to work with voters. It’s more difficult, but we are learning it to do this,” explained Mylovanov.

He added that the Russians are trying to influence voters abroad “from morning to night,” and Ukraine must fight for them.

“But, unlike the Russians, not through explosions and special operations, but through official channels,” the KSE president emphasized, pointing out that Kyiv GO is part of the infrastructure of such a fight.

According to him, KSE is active abroad. Only recently, he and his colleagues took part in events in London, Berlin, and Brussels.

“That is, we are trying to be present globally and also turn into a Think Tank …,” Mylovanov said.

He added that a business school, which is also actively moving towards innovation, is also very important for the development of KSE.

“We have hackathons, we have certain investments. We are now thinking about how to properly make such a small fund. We ourselves entered into some funds, including those related to defense-tech and not only,” noted the KSE president.

According to the KSE Foundation's annual report, in 2023 it received $46.91 million in contributions from private philanthropists, Ukrainian and international companies, which is almost 15% more than in 2022. Of these, $38.20 million went to the American account of the fund, and $8.71 million to the Ukrainian account. In 2023, the KSE Foundation prioritized contributions from philanthropists to support for defenders and the strategic development of defense capabilities, in particular, military training and the development of innovation. An important area of the fund’s investments in 2023 was supporting the rescue missions of the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and replenishing the evacuation transport fleet.

As noted on the website, the new DefDev fund focuses on the supply of equipment, instruments and goods for saving lives and effective intelligence operations: “every contribution is an investment in the success of special operations of the Defense Intelligence and the scaling of intelligence capabilities.”