The founder of WhatsApp, who was born in Fastiv, Kyiv region, Jan Koum, is today one of the most secret philanthropists. He carefully takes care of staying incognito, but an analysis of his declarations shows that some humanitarian programs that provide assistance to Ukrainian refugees in Europe and dealing with evacuation in Ukraine exist on his donations.
- In 2019-2020, Koum gave about $140 million to approximately 70 Jewish charities in the United States, Eastern Europe and Israel, which is one of the largest donations in the Jewish world.
- The European Jewish Association alone received $17 million from him, which amounted to almost the entire budget of the Association. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in March, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EJA launched a massive campaign to provide housing, clothing, food and medical care to Ukrainian migrants.
- The second organization, with which, despite the extreme secrecy of the source of donations, Koum is associated with is the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS. The federation, which received $10.6 million from Koum, formed a large fleet of ambulances at the start of the full-scale war to evacuate people from the war zone in Ukraine. Data on other donations from the founder of WhatsApp is almost impossible to obtain, since the condition for their provision is strict confidentiality.
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