Donate Crypto to Refugees and Displaced Families

The picture many people have of refugees, a camp, a tent and a few months’ wait, describes only a small part of reality. Most displaced people never cross a border, most refugees live in ordinary towns in poorer neighbouring countries, and many remain displaced for years. That changes what is worth funding: emergency kits matter in the first weeks, but legal papers, rent, school and the right to work matter for far longer.

Numbers that change the picture

What helps at each stage of displacement

The right gift depends on where people are. An emergency kit is vital in week one and of little use in year five.

Stage	What people need most	Causes working at this stage
On the move	Information, food, basic medical care, a safe place to sleep	Venezuelan Migrant Corridor Fund, Migrant Shelter Network, Belarus Border Crossing Support Fund
Newly or repeatedly displaced	Registration, family tracing, shelter kits, essentials	Congolese Displacement Fund, Cabo Delgado Displacement Fund, Post-Coup Refugee Support Fund
Displaced for years	Rent, legal status, work, language, school, shelter upkeep	Syrian Refugee Resettlement Trust, Lebanon Displaced Families Fund, Ukrainian Refugee Support Network, Venezuelan Migrant Integration Fund, Rohingya Refugee Support Fund
Going home	Documents, land and property claims, rebuilding a livelihood	Community Reintegration Fund, Land Conflict Displacement Fund

Where do displaced people actually live?

Close to home. UNHCR’s Global Trends report for 2025 counted 41.6 million refugees and almost 9 million asylum-seekers, while more people again, 68.7 million by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre’s count, were displaced inside their own countries. The largest refugee hosts were Colombia, Germany, Türkiye, Uganda, Iran, Chad and Pakistan, and the least developed countries hosted about a quarter of all refugees.

Most refugees do not live in camps. They rent rooms in towns and cities, which is why so much of the need is rent, debt, schooling and work. Support for services that host communities share, such as clinics, schools and water, also eases tension between newcomers and the people already there.

How long does displacement last?

You may have read that refugees spend an average of 17 years in camps. The World Bank traced that figure to a 2004 internal UNHCR report: it measured how long refugee situations lasted, not how long individuals stayed. Using UNHCR data, World Bank researchers found a median time in exile of about four to five years, with a long tail: in 2015, refugees displaced for more than five years had on average been away for well over twenty.

Leaving displacement is not always the end of need either. In 2025, 14.7 million people returned home, and UNHCR reported that most did so in difficult conditions or to fragile areas. Resettlement to a third country is rare: 81,800 refugees in 2025, down from 188,800 the year before. For long-running crises, the most useful help is whatever makes people less dependent on aid.

Cash or goods: what helps more?

Where markets work and people can safely spend money, cash is usually cheaper to deliver, preferred by the people receiving it, and good for local shops and traders. A 2026 study by the CALP Network, reported by ALNAP, found that recipients received 71% to 77% of a cash budget directly, against 54% to 56% of an in-kind food budget. In Rwanda, a study in PNAS found that each adult refugee receiving about US$120 a year in cash aid added about US$205 to US$253 a year to real incomes in the surrounding area within 10 km, more than the aid itself.

Cash is not always better. In a four-country trial by IFPRI and WFP, cash was cheaper to deliver everywhere, but in Niger food aid did more for what families actually ate, because cash was spent on bulk grain. Goods also make sense where markets have failed, prices are spiralling, or authorities restrict cash, and for items such as shelter materials that cannot be bought locally. A good organization can tell you why it chose cash or goods in that particular place.

Why legal papers and the right to work matter so much

Legal status opens the door to formal jobs, healthcare, bank accounts and school. Colombia, which hosts about 2.8 million Venezuelans, offers the clearest evidence: after a large-scale regularization, consumption per person among those who received status rose 48% and monthly income from work 22%, mostly through better access to health care rather than formal jobs, and researchers found no significant effect on the hours, wages or labour-force participation of Colombian workers.

Most refugees still live without that security. The 2022 Global Refugee Work Rights Report found that at least 55% of refugees lived in countries that significantly restrict their right to work in practice, and only about 2% had adequate access to formal financial services. Even where work is allowed, skills go unused: a UNHCR and Deloitte study in Poland found that 40% of Ukrainian refugees held degrees, but only 12% worked in jobs that needed one. Legal aid, documentation, language classes and help getting qualifications recognized are unglamorous, and they are some of the most useful things a gift can pay for.

What happened to aid funding in 2025 and 2026

Humanitarian funding fell sharply in 2025, led by cuts from the United States, with other donors also reducing aid. Across UN-coordinated appeals, only 35% of requirements were met that year, according to ALNAP. Agencies closed offices, cut staff and deliberately narrowed who they help: UNHCR reported cutting about a third of its workforce in 2025, and by July 2026 had received about a third of what it needed for the year.

Private donations cannot replace government funding, and it would be misleading to suggest they can. But when budgets are cut this deep, registration, legal help and protection services are among the services being cut; in Chad alone, UNHCR reported registration delays for 319,000 people. Flexible money, which the receiving organization can use where the gap is greatest, has become especially scarce.

How can I tell whether aid reaches people in a conflict zone?

No operation in a war zone is immune to diversion. In 2023 the United States paused food aid in Ethiopia after finding widespread diversion; its inspector general later reported it had been found in six of eleven regions. Aid resumed only after reforms, including removing government control over who received help and hiring a third-party monitor. Questions worth asking any organization:

Every Refugee & Displacement Support cause we list

Each cause names the organization that receives the grants and when our team last verified it. Open a cause to see what it pays for, or donate directly.

Common questions

Do these causes help internally displaced people as well as refugees?

Yes. Several work with people displaced inside their own countries, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Myanmar and Mozambique, who make up more than half of all displaced people.

Is it safe to give to causes in conflict zones?

Each cause works through a named, verified partner. Delivering aid in conflict carries risks that no organization can remove entirely, which is why the questions above, about who selects recipients and how aid is monitored, are worth asking of any charity.

Can I donate to support resettlement in my own country?

Our causes focus on people where they are now, in transit, in host countries or returning home. Resettlement programmes in donor countries are run mainly by national resettlement agencies.