We Are NAFO

The history of NAFO and it's expansion is quite the tale. We want to thank Feyd for putting together this short summary of NAFO's story.

The Inception

The first fella pfp, inspired by the famous Shiba Inu “doge” meme, was forged by @Kama_Kamilia in May 2022. When the fella started appearing in edited photos and memes related to the war in Ukraine, other Twitter users asked Kama to forge a fella for them too.

When asked to make another profile picture featuring the same dog, Kama and other founding members offered to do it in exchange for a donation made to support the Ukrainian war effort. The donation was made to the Georgian Legion, a unit fighting under the Ukrainian flag. The word started to spread across twitter, and fellas were forged in return for a proof of donation made to the Georgian Legion. NAFO was coined by Kama on May 24, 2022.

The First Great Battle of Twitter

On June 19th 2022, russian ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov thought it was a good idea to argue with a bunch of Fellas on Twitter, who were mocking his obnoxious takes about the russian invasion of Ukraine. During the exchange, Ulyanov tweeted “You pronounced this nonsense, not me”, thus creating the first, and one of many NAFO mottos. Once the battle ended, late at night in Ulyanov’s timezone, he logged out, defeated, and took “a break” from Twitter. Fellas won, and nobody missed Ulyanov.

This great battle, first of many the Fellas fought and won on Twitter, was documented by Vice, in an article published on the 12th of July 2022.

More Expansion

The forge grew during the summer into a serious voluntary enterprise, with more than 100 forgers delivering hundreds of Fellas daily. At the end of the summer, the NAFO grew to the point when it was sensible to focus the diversified NAFO effort. The Official NAFO account was created on Twitter, in an attempt to help new Fellas find their way in the Fellaspace - the network of vetted charities where Fellas can safely direct their donations to. The Official NAFO account, and the Fellas running it, invested their time and knowledge in compiling a list of proven and trustworthy charities, aid delivering groups and volunteers to make sure Fella donations are safe and reach the intended benefactors. In addition, the Official NAFO promotes and supports NAFO meme, videos and other Fellas-related content creators.

More NAFO Expansion

While it was always non-negotiable, the NAFO expansion that ensued was fuelled one part by the motivated Fellas, whose ranks were joined by more and more prominent political and media figures, and other part by the media outlets who were issuing article after article, describing the Shiba Inu dogs of war who fundraise for Ukraine and mock russian propaganda, effectively making it pointless.

During the summer of 2022, the Fellas appeared in online shops pushing for further donations for Ukraine and the war effort, by promoting and buying NAFO and Fellas embroidered clothing items, stickers and accessories. 

August 2022 was a month of great expansion, and has put the Fellas of the NAFO in the spotlight of many important and serious publications, such as the Newsweek, The Economist and Politico. On August 29th 2022, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine tweeted a “thank you” to the Fellas, acknowledging the value of the support the NAFO was providing. 

In the coming months more media exposure came to NAFO from Wall Street Journal , Modern War Institute, the Center for Stategic and International Studies (CSIS), and U24. 

In December of 2022, Sky News reported the Fellas raised over $250,000 (USD) for a naval drone in partnership with U24 which was rightfully named "Raccoon's Revenge".

Even More Expansion

In Jan 2023, the NAFO OFAN shop opened with some of the OG founding Fellas and other volunteers to bring designs made by fellas, for fellas. The shop has partnered with U24, Renegade Relief Runners, Liberty Ukraine, etc. to provide resources and funds to Ukraine's defenders and helpers.

In March of 2023, NAFO Received a plaque from U24 and President Zelenskyy for all of the hardwork and dedication shown by the Fellas. In April of 2023, NAFO and U24 raised $172,769 for the NAFO SQUADRONE campaign with U24.

Also in April of 2023, a group of independent fellas worked together to expose a Russian propagandist making headlines in the NY Post, The Wall Street Journal, and more.

Summer of 2023

As the summer of 2023 began, NAFO celebrated its one year anniversary on May 24, 2023 and marked over 100,000 followers on twitter and over 30,000 fellas forged by the Foundry. May 19, 2023 (#NAFOday) also marked 1 year since Kama and Co. coined the term “The North Atlantic Fella Organization”. In June of 2023, NAFO partnered with @Florkofcows to bring the Fella Sock Character to life pushing the NAFO OFAN's shop donations to over $50,000.

In July of 2023, NAFO held its first NAFO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. The event brought fellas from around the globe together to raise funds, spend time together, and NAFO was even awarded the Lithuanian Star of Diplomacy for its efforts. Prime Minister Kaja Kallas also addressed NAFO and the Fellas at the Summit. Minister of Defense Oleskii Reznikov also partook in Summit events by signing artwork for Dzyga's Paw in order to be raffled off to raise funds for Ukraine's defenders and helpers.

End of 2023 into 2024

In September of 2023, the European Council on Foreign Relations wrote an article on the war in Ukraine and gave a head nod to NAFO. Other outlets such as the Kyiv Independent, Ukraine Military Center, Public Org, and Polygraph wrote about NAFO and its works.

At the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024, NAFO partnered to raise money for the NAFO Fleet and NAFO MLRS. With these fundraisers, the NAFO Shop officially broke over $100,000 in donations to Ukraine's helpers and defenders.

U24 and NAFO partnered up for a third time to raise money for the NAFO Sea Baby drone, totaling over $250,000. In March of 2024, NAFO received another award from U24 and President Zelenskyy in honor of the fellas support for Ukraine during the ongoing war. May 24, 2024 NAFO celebrated its second birthday and second official #NAFOday!

This is it and ongoing.