By working to build a society that values knowledge, rational argument, and critical thinking, we can kindle a new Enlightenment.— Yuri Milner, Eureka Manifesto
Yuri and Julia Milner
Yuri Milner is the founder of DST Global, one of the world’s leading technology investors, with a portfolio that has included some of the most prominent internet companies. In 2012, he and his wife Julia signed the Giving Pledge, created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet, committing to give away at least half of their wealth in their lifetime.
The Tech For Refugees mission
The Milners founded Tech For Refugees in 2022 after witnessing the plight of families forced to leave Ukraine by the Russian invasion. Yuri Milner’s father’s family is from Ukraine, where he spent many summers in his childhood, and the war there has affected him, as well as Julia, deeply.
“We have been devastated by the heartbreaking suffering of the Ukrainian people. We believe that this initiative, in partnership with some of the world’s most creative technology companies and organizations, can provide practical assistance for people living in turmoil outside their homeland.”— Julia and Yuri Milner
In the short-term, they aimed to provide humanitarian relief to those fleeing the war. Their long-term mission is to leverage the power of technology to make an impact on the global refugee crisis, which according to the United Nations has resulted in over 117 million people displaced from their homes.
“The support from Tech For Refugees and Breakthrough Prize Foundation over the next three years will bring essential information resources to millions more displaced people globally.”— David Miliband, President and CEO of the IRC
“We are immensely grateful for the support and partnership of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation’s Tech For Refugees initiative which will help UNICEF reach children whose education has been disrupted by the war in Ukraine, ensuring they don’t fall further behind.”— V. Renée Cutting, Chief Philanthropy Officer, UNICEF USA
Since 2022, Tech For Refugees has partnered with some of the leading technology organizations and humanitarian relief agencies to launch a number of new relief programs worldwide. These include funding Flexport.org to deliver hundreds of shipments of provisions to millions of refugees from Ukraine, Pakistan and the Horn of Africa; collaborating with Airbnb.org to offer free housing to refugees from Ukraine and working with UNICEF to bring educational assistance to young people fleeing that conflict; supporting the International Rescue Committee’s Signpost and AprendIA platforms and helping Uber to address the transportation needs of IRC workers and refugees; funding Welcome.US to develop its Welcome Connect platform to bring American sponsors together with new arrivals from crisis zones; and working with Spotify to provide free entertainment to displaced people.
“We’re honored to join the Tech For Refugees initiative together with Airbnb and Spotify. The support of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation will let Flexport.org help humanitarian aid organizations conquer one of their toughest challenges: getting the right goods to the right place at the right time.”— Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO, Flexport
“Right now, we all need to ask ourselves, ‘How can we help?’ The Tech For Refugees initiative... Will help Airbnb.org continue to provide housing to as many refugees as we can.”— Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO, Airbnb
Scientific and humanitarian causes
The Tech For Refugees initiative is one of a number of philanthropic programs launched by the Milners, focusing on humanitarian causes as well as their other great passion, science.
Alongside the funds so far committed to Tech For Refugees, foundations established by Julia and Yuri Milner as well as DST Global have donated $14.5 million to scientists and other civilian victims displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Foundations established by Yuri and Julia Milner have also contributed substantially to humanitarian and medical assistance during the Covid19 pandemic.
After signing the Giving Pledge in 2012, the Milners went on to join with Sergey Brin, Mark and Priscilla Chan and Anne Wojcicki to create the Breakthrough Prize, the world’s biggest award for achievements in science and mathematics, which it celebrates at a prestigious annual ceremony. The goals of the Prize are to reward major advances in fundamental research, raise the profile of great scientists, and inspire the next generation with scientific ideas. To bolster the latter aim, in 2015 they added the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, a global competition in which high-school students make short videos about big ideas in science and mathematics. And that same year Yuri Milner joined Stephen Hawking to launch the Breakthrough Initiatives, a set of research programs in astronomy and space science searching for evidence of primitive and intelligent life beyond our planet.
Vision for humanity
The two strands of the Milners’ philanthropic work – using technology to provide humanitarian relief, and supporting fundamental science – are linked by a deep concern with the long – term future of human civilization, and a belief in the universal significance of the knowledge that it embodies.
In 2021, Yuri Milner authored a short book, Eureka Manifesto, expounding that vision. It argues that the many crises humanity is facing are caused by our lack of a unifying mission; that this mission is to be found in our shared capacity to explore and understand the world around us; and that embracing this mission of advancing scientific and technological knowledge is our best hope for the survival and flourishing of our civilization.
We are an intelligent civilization, looking out beyond the horizon. Our future can be far bigger than our past.