Case Study

IIE helps Ukrainian students abroad during a crisis

With millions displaced by the crisis in Ukraine, the Institute of International Education (IIE) knew immediate action was needed to provide critical and often lifesaving support to those in need.

Assignment

> Raise awareness and critical funds.
As the crisis in Ukraine unfolded, IIE jumped into action to provide potential donors with timely information and a compelling reason to contribute by bringing visibility to the work it does each day to provide urgent services to students and scholars in crisis.

Strategy

> Elevate IIE’s legacy of student and scholar rescue.
Equipped spokespeople and program experts in the U.S. and Europe with messages and resources to effectively communicate IIE’s legacy and clearly outline how donors can support Ukrainian students.

Program

> Meet the media moment.
IIE built a message framework and media response protocol for student rescue during the unfolding crisis in Ukraine and trained its leaders to speak to stakeholders and media with clarity and urgency. The response protocol enabled the team to rapidly respond to journalists who requested experts to comment on the challenges facing Ukrainian students in a time of war.
Logo for The Power of International Education.

Results

> 227 emergency grants distributed to Ukrainian students in need.
The IIE-Emergency Student Fund for Ukraine has raised nearly $650,000 to-date to bring students to safety, continue their studies at U.S. colleges and universities and support their families and their homeland. IIE’s efforts to support displaced students were featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News and CNN.