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The Next Steps
The Karski-Swyer Belarus Initiative will soon be established as a D.C. nonprofit corporation and will seek recognition as a tax-exempt charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Its participants have begun a listening campaign involving Google Meet sessions with grant applicants and individuals interested in contributing to the organization, as well as discussions at:
#FACON26, the Fulbright Association’s 49th Annual Conference, October 23–25, 2026, at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. The conference will provide an opportunity to meet members of the Fulbright community who may be interested in Belarusian studies.
The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) 58th Annual Convention, November 12–15, 2026, at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago. There, the North American Association for Belarusian Studies, originally established under the leadership of David Marples and others, will discuss its future plans.
The Initiative’s anticipated officers are Ethan S. Burger, President, and Zhanna Charniauskaya, Corporate Secretary. We are currently seeking individuals to serve as Treasurer, Director for Grants, and Director for Development & Outreach. All will be Board Members ex officio.
In addition, several prominent scholars and other distinguished individuals—including Igor Abramov, Don Jensen, Katia Glod, and Victoria Leukavets—are expected to join the Board of Directors. All current grant-application reviewers, including David Marples, Anton Saifullayeu, Peter Solomon, and Curt Woolhiser, will also be invited to serve as directors, together with a cross-section of scholars and other individuals we are in contact with from the United States, Belarus, and elsewhere.
Individuals interested in serving in a leadership position with the D.C. nonprofit Karski-Swyer Belarus Initiative should contact Ethan S. Burger at ethansb@karski-swyer-belarus-initiative.org and esb34@georgetown.edu. We remain very much a work in progress, welcome your ideas, and hope to engage with you in Washington, D.C., on October 23–25, 2026, or in Chicago on November 12–15, 2026.
Funding Priorities: Grants, an Endowed Chair, and Support for European Humanities University
Once the Karski-Swyer Belarus Initiative obtains recognition under Section 501(c)(3), it will accept tax-deductible donations, enabling it to offer more—and larger—grants. We will also explore ways to support European Humanities University through both in-kind assistance and financial contributions.
We will operate the Initiative on a shoestring budget with people donating their time, guided by the proverb:
«Не имей сто рублей, а имей сто друзей.»
Better to have one hundred friends than one hundred rubles.
But we must be practical, since one hundred rubles does not buy much today.
Thus In the future, we plan to seek financial support from individuals with a record of supporting educational and rule-of-law projects in the Soviet Union’s successor states. We also hope to partner with an educational institution to establish an endowed chair in Belarusian studies, which we understand would require approximately $2.5 million.
