As a credit union we are here not only to provide financial services to our members, but to also support the communities in which we live. Our Ukrainian-American Community Foundation sponsors and supports various community events throughout the year.

We invite you to explore our News and Events page to learn more about how our credit union together with its foundation serves its communities in more ways than just interest.

Organizing an event and looking for a sponsor? Click here to visit our Sponsorship page.

Ukrainian-American Community Foundation

The Ukrainian American Community Foundation, Inc. established by the Ukrainian Federal Credit Union in 2010 has donated more than $535,000 to a variety of community, cultural, humanitarian, and educational initiatives. Additionally, the UAC Foundation continues to be an approved host organization, in coordination with US-Ukraine Foundation as the national grantee for the COIL (Congressional Office for International Leadership) Open World Ukraine program.

In 2025, the UAC Foundation received $8,700 in donations for humanitarian aid and educational programs from various individuals and community groups. The UAC Foundation continued to serve as the Greater Rochester community organization for the Open World Ukraine program and in 2025 hosted a program on Ukrainian Veterans Affairs and Polytrauma Programming.

The UAC Foundation also sponsored projects throughout the year for the benefit of the greater UFCU Community including Support for the Ukrainian Rochester Collection at UR started by Mirko Pylyshenko at the Rare Books, Special Collections Library at the University of Rochester. UACF supported a public community lecture at the Skalny Center at the University of Rochester by Adrian Karatnycky entitled “Ukraine’s Political and Military Battleground: The Shaping of a Modern Nation”.

The UAC Foundation provided named scholarships for UFCU member students by the families of Irene Stepasiuk, Ken Harzynski, Olena Lylak, Anna Kornylo, Walter Denysenko and Mirko Pylyshenko. In 2025, the UAC Foundation was instrumental in publishing A Collection of Poems, Essays and Art entitled “WINGS OF INSPIRATION” by middle and high school students in East and West Irondequoit School Districts, plus Bishop Kearney High School, and schools in Dnipro and Poltava, Ukraine. The UAC Foundation provided support to The Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the USA by helping to publish the book about Svitozar Drahomanov (1884–1958) who was a Ukrainian economist, translator, journalist, and historical figure who lived in Rochester, NY. He was the son of the prominent Ukrainian political thinker Mykhailo Drahomanov and has family ties to the renowned Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka. Svitozar’s daughter, Ludmyla was married to Illa Demydenko, who was one of the UFCU founders in 1953.

The UAC Foundation in 2025 provided support to the following UFCU community organizations and other community non-profit organizations: The Irondequoit Chamber of Commerce, the Irondequoit Public Library Foundation, Slavic Bible Baptist Church (Rochester), Susan B. Anthony House & Museum, the University of Rochester (Ukrainian Rochester Collection and the Skalny Center for Polish & East European Studies), the Amity Street Alliance of the Arts for the Kharkiv Arts University Fundraiser, PLAST (Ukrainian Scout Organization), the PROTEZ Foundation, the Ukrainian Academy of Arts & Sciences in the USA, the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation (Chicago), the UNWLA Scholarship Program, the US-Ukraine Foundation (Washington DC), and the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) Ukraine Credit Union Fund.

Since 2010, the UAC Foundation has funded over $215,000 in undergraduate and graduate scholarships. In 2025, named scholarships were presented to the following student UFCU members: Sofia Kozak, Stanislav Prylutskyi, Janett Kravchuk, Katya Figo, Valeria Malay, Victoria Velyk, Anna Slobodian, Nadia Dabrowny, Bohdan Zazulak, Sophia Artymovych, Oksana Tupyckyj, and Markian Fil.

The UAC Foundation, Inc. looks forward to continuing its mission of serving as a non-profit, 501(c)(3) charitable institutional structure for the Ukrainian Federal Credit Union for many years to come.

UAC Foundation Board of Directors

Dr. Evhen Lylak, President
Wasyl Kornylo, Vice-Pres.
Tamara Denysenko, Treasurer
Alexander Oryshkevych, Secretary
Yaroslav Fatyak, Member
Bohdan Zakharchyshyn, Member
Volodymyr Otvarukhin, Member
Galina Dyakiv, Member

For more information on establishing named and/or memorial scholarships as part of the UAC Foundation Inc. program, please write to UACFoundation@ukrainianfcu.org.

Looking for information about scholarships? Click here to learn more.