The Meme Brigade That Raised $1m
An Interview with Toonie Tuesday
The Angry Dogs spoke to the members and volunteers about the phenomenon that is Toonie Tuesday. This week they reached $1m in micro-donations. An astonishing feat for a purely volunteer driven team. No NGO, no government backing - just brain damaged cartoon dogs.
Angry Dog:
You are running a decentralised global funded micro grant system with volunteers and memes.
Do you realise how ground breaking this is?
Toonie Tuesday:
We’re are proud and amazed with the support that we have received, but that is only possible thanks to this incredible community.
Angry Dog:
You have “closed applications” showing on your website sometimes and switched to your European branch to relieve load?
Toonie Tuesday:
Not exactly switched to another branch, I’ll go into more detail about that later.
Angry Dog:
Can you explain how Toonie Tuesday and Fiver Friday relate to each other?
Toonie Tuesday:
Toonie Tuesday team was always an international team, and it’s the same team as Fiver Friday. The same founding members @CanadianKobzar and @FellaSam79 have been consistent from the beginning. However, Toonie Tuesday and Fiver Friday serve different purposes.
Angry Dog:
This is insanely complex and also amazing 👏 🤩
Toonie Tuesday:
Thank you very much, it’s quite complex to manage week after week, but we’ve an amazing community always answering the call, and the team is amazing. Toonie Tuesday is crowdfunding at it’s core. It demonstrates that the more people that help, the more we can raise, with little burden on the individual.
Angry Dog:
If you’ve spent any time around NAFO, you already know the surface layer:
cartoon dogs
feral humour
ruthless replies
zero patience for authoritarians
What’s less obvious — especially to people outside the movement — is that beneath the shitposting sits something far more serious.
Toonie Tuesday:
A decentralised, international fundraising system that has been quietly moving money, vehicles, drones, and equipment to Ukrainian frontline units for more than three years.
Angry Dog:
You often describe this as decentralised. What does that mean in practice?
Toonie Tuesday:
About being decentralised, over time, although the initiatives are supervised by the same team, they have been developed a little further, as we are now not only present on Twitter, but also on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Most of Toonie Tuesday’s communication on YouTube is done on the Bösar/Segi channel, (@20gimsack). Segi presents weekly video updates on the upcoming Toonie Tuesday and he also interviews former Toonie Tuesday recipients and other fellas in the community that he feels are doing great work to support Ukraine.
Angry Dog:
Two of the clearest examples of this decentralised fundraising model are you: Toonie Tuesday and Fiver Friday. They look like jokes. They are not.
Angry Dog:
At face value, Toonie Tuesday looks simple.
Toonie Tuesday:
Donate a small amount.
Usually €2 £2 $2 (“a toonie is $2 CAD”).
On a predictable weekly rhythm.
To vetted Ukrainian units and causes.
Angry Dog:
But structurally, this looks like more than that. It looks like an NGO, it is similar to larger NGOs like Oxfam - who receive huge plaudits for something you do day in day out with a spreadsheet.
Toonie Tuesday:
Structurally, it functions like a micro-granting institution.
Angry Dog:
Your banner says: “Applications are closed at this time. Please share your requests on our Fiver Friday.”
Toonie Tuesday:
That single sentence tells you everything.
This is no longer an informal donation jar.
It’s a system with:
intake windows
capacity limits
queue management
cross-programme load balancing
When demand exceeds what one group can process, it’s routed elsewhere — not ignored.
That is institutional behaviour, even if it’s wrapped in sunflowers, coins, and cartoon dogs.
Angry Dog:
Why does the weekly rhythm matter so much?
Toonie Tuesday:
Toonie Tuesday and Fiver Friday work because they are ritualised, not reactive.
Same day every week.
Same expectations.
Same community rhythm.
We’re indeed seeing the value of the ritual, because despite a certain lack of visibility due to the way X is working, supporters thankfully come looking for us on Tuesday.
Angry Dog:
What does that change?
Toonie Tuesday:
That removes friction. Nobody has to decide whether to donate — the calendar does it for you.
Angry Dog:
Why does that matter in a war context?
Toonie Tuesday:
This matters because wars are not won by one-off virality.
They’re won by sustained, boring, reliable support.
People who can’t give £100 can give £5.
People who can’t give £5 every day can give it once a week.
Can’t give they ask you to like, share, leave a comment.
Over time, that adds up to vehicles, drones, optics, med kits, fuel, and repairs.
Angry Dog:
Even the visuals seem deliberate.
Toonie Tuesday:
The visual language matters too. The banner’s bright colours, absurd fellas, and gold-coin eyes aren’t decoration — they lower emotional barriers and make participation feel normal rather than heavy.
Donation becomes belonging, not obligation.
That’s why these drives don’t burn out.
Angry Dog:
Outsiders often ask why there are multiple NAFO fundraisers.
Toonie Tuesday:
The answer is simple: redundancy is resilience.
There is no single NAFO treasury.
There is no central authority.
There is no single point of failure.
Instead, there are:
regional donation rituals (Canada, UK, EU, US)
overlapping communities backing the same units
some groups raising £2 at a time
others raising £100,000 in a few days
This isn’t inefficiency.
It’s how decentralised systems survive pressure, burnout, smears, and platform collapse.
If one group slows, another accelerates.
If one organiser steps back, nothing stops.
That’s why this has lasted.
Angry Dog:
Why do the same units appear again and again?
Toonie Tuesday:
NAFO fundraising doesn’t feel abstract because it isn’t.
Most drives are tied to:
specific brigades
named soldiers or NCOs
units that post updates and photos
people donors recognise over time
This creates relationship-based trust, not brand loyalty.
You’re not donating to an institution.
You’re helping your guys.
That’s why the same units appear again and again — trust compounds faster than novelty.
Angry Dog:
You often hear Ukrainians and NAFO groups say they move faster than western institutions.
Toonie Tuesday:
We can fundraise and deliver in days. Institutions work in months or years.
That’s not bravado. It’s structural reality.
Toonie Tuesday and Fiver Friday don’t replace governments or NATO.
They fill the gaps — fast, flexible, and with minimal overhead.
They operate where bureaucracy struggles.
(As we say — They Talk, We Do.)
Rapid response.
Niche equipment.
Last-mile delivery.
Urgent battlefield needs.
And they do it with spreadsheets, memes, and volunteers who still show up every week.
Angry Dog:
Politicians often dismiss NAFO as bots or trolls.
Toonie Tuesday:
When politicians dismiss NAFO as “bots” or complain about “cruel replies,” they are missing the point entirely.
The same people posting memes are also:
coordinating weekly fundraising rituals
processing requests
routing demand across regions
moving real money to real units
doing it consistently, for years
This isn’t slacktivism.
It’s a distributed civil support network — one that just happens to speak fluent internet.
Angry Dog:
If you have never donated to Ukraine via NAFO before, where should people start?
Toonie Tuesday:
Start small.
Toonie Tuesday if you’re in Canada.
Fiver Friday if you’re in the UK or Europe.
The origin of the name “Toonie” is Canadian and “Fiver” British, but the fundraisers are intended to be for everyone, regardless of where you come from. You can donate on Toonie Tuesday or Fiver Friday from anywhere, it’s the same team, community and goal with both efforts. The distinction is how the two fundraisers operate - Toonie Tuesday is a focused effort to maximizing efficiency, while raising as much as possible to complete a goal for a single beneficiary, Fiver Friday is sharing networks and visibility to promote fundraisers in the community and provide an opportunity for them to shine.
Give what you can, donate, like, sharing posts, all are appreciated.
Give when the community does.
No pressure.
No guilt.
No heroics.
Just rhythm, trust, and persistence.
That’s how this works.
And that’s why it’s still working.
The meme brigade didn’t just learn how to mock authoritarians.
It learned how to out-organise them.
Thank you for Highighting Toonie Tuesday
Brain damaged cartoon dogs FTW!