In this special episode of GovTech’s "In Case You Missed It" podcast, host Dustin Haisler and co‑host Joe Morris interview Irina Furstman, co‑founder of the Minnesota‑based nonprofit Global Synergy Group (GSG). GSG’s core mission is to foster civic exchange between U.S. and Ukrainian communities through leadership development. Drawing on Irina’s personal history—born in Crimea, raised during the Soviet collapse, and now residing in the United States—she explains how the organization launched the "Stand with Ukraine" fundraising campaign to deliver rapid, direct aid to hard‑to‑reach Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Mariupol. Within four weeks the campaign raised over $77,000, primarily from individual donors and contributions from companies like Invisio and HDL. Funds are wired immediately to local partner NGOs to purchase essential items—food, clean water, baby formula, fire‑extinguishers, and water‑storage buckets—addressing the most urgent survival needs amid ongoing bombardment. Irina also outlines a longer‑term vision: establishing community‑to‑community, sister‑city style relationships that link U.S. towns with Ukrainian counterparts, even engaging Russian‑origin communities to counteract divisive propaganda. Listeners are directed to globalsynergygroup.org for donation details, and the episode closes with thanks and a preview of the next GovTech show.
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All right, welcome to a special episode of In Case You Missed It, GovTech's government technology news roundup, where we take a look at some of the biggest GovTech news from the past week and we give you our thoughts on what it means for government, citizens, and the market. I'm Dustin Haisler, joined by Joe Morris. Jed Presgrove will be back with us next time, and today we're joined by our special guest, co-founder of the Global Synergy Group, Irina Furstman. Global Synergy Group is a Minnesota-based nonprofit consulting firm that works to build up communities in Ukraine through leadership development and civic engagement. Now, several weeks ago, Irina and GSG kicked off an initiative called Stand with Ukraine to help the folks in Ukraine who have been affected by the Russian invasion. I'd like to welcome to our virtual stage Irina as we dive into this great initiative and what it means for government. Iryna, thanks so much for joining us.
Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
So maybe to start, tell us a little bit more about your nonprofit and what you're doing to help everyone in Ukraine today.
Yes, nonprofit was initiated 10 years ago. We were supposed to celebrate our 10-year anniversary in May of 2022. And the main purpose of starting this organization was to help communities in United States and communities in Ukraine connect at the civic level, so to speak. So we were really focusing on expanding our understanding and engagement efforts through this international exchange where community leaders in one country can learn from community leaders in another country. It's not necessarily saving Ukraine, helping Ukraine, it's being in a collaborative relationship, in partnership with each other, so we can be looking at our systems very different systems from different perspectives and trying to figure out what works, what doesn't, what can we learn from one another. And so leadership development component of it had to do with both local government leaders in Ukraine and in Minnesota specifically, because we started with Minnesota leaders to understand what they can do collectively to make municipal government better.
Yeah, such an important cause. And, you know, aside from this being a humanitarian project, this is also personal for you, and I'd love to maybe hear a little bit more about that personal connection.
I was born in Crimea. Crimea at the time was part of Soviet Union as an autonomous republic. You hear today in the news this question around Crimea being annexed by Russia. Ukrainians are not accepting that, and yet it has been operating as an autonomous republic back in Soviet times. So I was born into Soviet Union system and regime, so to speak. Uh, moved to Far East Siberia as part of— I would say my mom rebelled against the government and we ended up there for a few years and came back after the collapse of Soviet Union in 1992-93 timeframe when my father, who was a major in the military, was killed. So it's been a long journey, the chaos of collapse. Uh, of the system in that time frame was pretty dramatic. And then I spent 10 years of my early adulthood in Crimea, now Ukraine, in 1990s and early 2000s, and then moved to United States in 2002. So I have family in both Russia, Crimea, and Ukraine, in all 3 areas, so to speak, countries and territories. And they don't talk to each other. The perceptions are different from what's really happening. It's really hard to navigate family dynamics that are tied into this expansive propaganda machine and intentional strategy to divide people by Vladimir Putin. So part of, part of the cause here is to not only fundraise and help individuals we know in Ukraine who have been part of our programs in the past to contribute to saving lives and staying strong and standing strong in their own communities, but also help with that misinformation chaos that's happening and the fact that nobody trusts anybody at this point.
Well, one, thanks for joining us, and two, thanks for sharing that. That's, uh, that's an incredible story. The money that you're raising right now is going to end up directly in Ukraine, into the hands of the people that are there. Can you explain a little bit more about how that's going to work?
The fundraising that we're conducting, Stand with Ukraine, is really targeted towards local communities and organizations like ourselves, Global Synergy Group, our sister organizations in Ukraine who are positioned to receive money and spend it that same day on the needs that exist during that time within that community. And why it's important is because we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So today, I— before I logged in for this call, I was able to wire between $1,000 and $5,000 to 5 different small agencies, small organizations that can use it today to buy food, to bring water and clean water. close to specific shelters that they're serving. And to honestly, at this moment in time, many of those areas are still under bombardment. So they continue to check in with families and community members who are under attack and bring them what they need, including how can they help them to put out fires. So buying extinguishers, buying and bringing buckets to collect and store water for long periods of times.
You mentioned some items there: water, food. We've seen articles around baby formula. What are you seeing some of the biggest needs on the ground right now for those funds, and how are the funds being put to use?
For us, the biggest needs are still those immediate needs, basic needs to sustain life. So we're calling these transactions from Global Synergy Group to different organizations in areas where it's hard to reach: Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol. Most aid just can't get there quite yet. And so the people we know who live there today and who are in the position to help themselves and others around them is where this funding is going. And they are able to both purchase but also transfer goods from more, you know, safer areas, western part of Ukraine, into their communities underground. So a lot of people are risking their Yeah, this is such a great initiative.
And I know, you know, this is still a very active situation as Ukraine is still, you know, in the midst of this war and with so much destruction and displacement. You know, it's very evident that there are some immediate needs, as you talked about. Could these funds also be used, you know, in the future to help in the rebuilding process? We'd love to get your thoughts on that.
No, absolutely. And one of the initiatives right now that is underway is to form, adapt a community, so to speak, concept where these funds could be used to support a community in the US supporting a community in Ukraine in that rebuilding process. So we don't really have a lot of sister cities established between the US and Ukraine, which was a, you know, program launched after World War II to help communities build relationships so we can avoid wars. We don't have those kinds of relationships with Ukrainian communities as many as with Russia, for example, or Japan. But I would like to transform that concept into more real support, practical support, community-to-community support, and engage our Russian communities as well in that process, because I believe that there is an opportunity to, to build that bridge now and not let Vladimir Putin's strategy to divide us as 2 countries and make us enemies. We're not.
So how much have you raised thus far, and what companies are supporting you along the way?
Good question. $77,000 plus we've raised in the last 4 weeks. And of course, first week was a very small amount, second a little more, third a little more. So it's accelerating now. And the primary donors have been actually individuals. From the company perspective, it would be Invisio and HDL, who are part of your network. Others, honestly, it's been individuals within the companies who are contributing the most right now.
Well, if someone would like to donate and, you know, be part of the Stand with Ukraine cause, Where should they go?
Our website, globalsynergygroup.org, and you are welcome to surf the site and find out what we're doing with our funding. The organizations that are receiving funds are listed. We're trying to provide an update on a weekly basis so you can be in tune and connected to what we're doing.
Well, that's great, Irina. We want to thank you for joining us. We want to thank everyone who's helped assist. Feed, shelter, and protect the people of Ukraine. We'll make sure we provide the links in our show notes to drive more attention to that worthwhile cause. Thanks again for watching and join us on Friday at 12 o'clock Pacific, where we're going to speak live with Maria Alfonso, the founder and CEO of State of Place. Until then, take care.
Thank you, Joe and Dustin.
Sabrina, thank you for joining us. Thanks for doing what you're doing. We'll make sure we share this again in addition to the GovTech story. So it will obviously— we'll stream on all of our social media platforms. But yeah, you have to— great work.
Yeah, appreciate you joining us. And Yeah, thanks for, uh, thanks for all you're doing.
There's nothing else I should be doing right now, so thank you for being who you are and supporting and understanding.
Well, good luck with everything.
Take care.
All right, take care. Bye. Thanks, guys. Have a good rest of your day.
