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On 30 December, i.e. shortly after Christmas 2022, we applied to the cantonal tax office for tax exemption. We soon realised that efficient fundraising stands and falls with tax exemption. Many organisations and companies have a budget for donations to charitable, non-commercial organisations and often look for sensible projects that are compatible with the company philosophy.

A look at the website of the cantonal tax office made us lose heart: it can easily take 3-4 months to process such an application. The conditions for this are rightly strict, and one frequently hears of negative decisions, appeals, etc.

However, the war in Ukraine is taking place NOW. Would it be possible to speed up the processing of the application?

It was necessary to clean up the " jumble shop" of statutes that was created at the time of the founding based on all the ideas that were in the room. Not only did business-oriented projects have to give way, which had no real chance of realisation anyway. In the sense of a clear commitment to the non-commercial character of the organisation, such concepts had to be renounced in principle, once and for all.

A radical cure helped the tax exemption to achieve a breakthrough. Both the cantonal tax office and that of the municipality of Winterthur imposed conditions that our organisation gratefully accepted and implemented without ceremony.

The tax exemption was granted on 3 March 2023, i.e. after only 63 days since the application was submitted. That's actually two months, considering that there was also the New Year in between.

We would like to thank the tax offices for their enormous goodwill shown to us. This tax exemption was dealt with and decreed in record time.

Pro Ukraïna will use this opportunity for more efficient fundraising and ensure that all funds flow exclusively into meaningful projects.

Moreover, tax exemption in Switzerland is also a basic condition for the Ukrainian recognition of Pro Ukraïna as an NPO. This removes a major hurdle for the project.