Afghan Airlift Campaign Saves 2k+ Lives

$3M+
Donations Raised
1,300+
People Evacuated

Overview

At a time of desperation when the U.S. announced their pending withdrawal from Afghanistan, a small group of campaign organizers discovered Pledge's fundraising platform as the solution they needed to raise funds quickly form their global network. This was the only known successful aircraft evacuation campaign from Afghanistan which saved thousands of lives.

The Challenge

Following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, a passionate group of individuals were desperately in search of a fast and reliable fundraising solution to engage donors worldwide in support of an attempt at safe evacuations. There was a huge sense of urgency to launch a fundraising campaign in order to raise critical funds for a possible airlift. The call-to-action needed to go live immediately and had to include not just the ability to raise funds in the U.S., but also other currencies from donors outside the U.S. who were desperately trying to help at-risk people evacuate from Afghanistan prior to the Taliban takeover.

The Solution

Fundraiser Page Text-To-Donate

Within minutes of connecting with Pledge, the campaign organizers were able to launch a fundraiser page (www.pledge.to/airlift) and text-to-donate campaign (text AIRLIFT to 707070) that was shared across their global networks. The campaign immediately began to attract donations in the U.S. and abroad, and also attracted attention from global media networks, including CNN-International. Thanks to the success of their fundraising efforts and Pledge's unique ability to disperse donations quickly to the benefiting nonprofits, they successfully chartered a private A340 aircraft in Kabul that led several missions and evacuated over 1,300 high-risk individuals. Donations raised also supported their resettlement efforts in other countries.

Vikram Singh
Campaign Organizer

What was amazing is you guys were so responsive that we could make this work so seamlessly. I didn’t even think that was a possibility when we were first talking about it. You made this life-saving impact possible.