Short Description:
The aim of our present program was to extend the range of exercises for students with disabilities from January 2018. We wanted to further expand this activity so that more disabled children can experience and have a regular sporting experience.

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Our specific objective was to involve 60 students with disabilities from 4 schools in 2018 with a group of weekly training sessions.

 

Participants also have free training sessions, of course, their costs (coach fees, amortization, overheads), so we needed 2300 euro for our plan, and we asked for help from the general public through a special community campaign.

 

Financial Target: app. 2300 €

Amount Raised: app. 10600 €

 

No.1 Learning Outcome:

Organization

Name: Suhanj! Foundation

Web: www.suhanj.hu

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Focus / mission: SUHANJ! is a public benefit organisation that shares the joy of exercise with our disabled and handicapped fellow citizens, an integrated sports club where disabled and able-bodied participants can do sports together, a movement created by an open community of committed volunteers and amateur athletes, and a charitable foundation that provides regular training opportunities for visually impaired and motor-impaired people in several sports.

 

The SUHANJ! sports programs are organized for visually impaired, motor-impaired and intellectually disabled individuals. The programs’ volunteers enter running, swimming and triathlon competitions together with disabled participants, and SUHANJ! - organizes weekly training sessions in several sports as well as awareness-raising projects and programs.

 

Campaign description

At first look, the campaign is about a single Facebook post, but in fact they have implemented a well organized, well-constructed, well-prepared mini-campaign. The basic idea was given by a summer post of a Budapest nightclub, they have created a parody of it, as on the social media sites are now very popular "if there will be X likes and Y shares, then THIS and THIS will happen" type of posts. Contrary to the beverage action, they set out a charitable goal and indicated that it does NOT happen because the requested like and share numbers are reached, because it WILL only happen if the post’s readers will donate as well. In particular, they wanted to reach 300 people who donate 2500 forints (app. 7,5 euro) to the sports facilities of children with disabilities.

 

What happened before posting?

They wrote the post and they took the picture. They spoke with the night club, the creator of the original post, told them the idea and convinced them to be so keen to share the content on their social media page. As their Facebook page is followed by more than 120,000 people, this was very important right at the beginning of the campaign.

They have also prepared the campaign in the community supporting the foundation. Before the photo was posted, they exposed it to a closed, internal group of their volunteers, athletes and parents. They told them what this is about, and how important their cooperation at the beginning of the campaign is. This proved to be crucial, and their most active supporters were those who launched the first major wave.

 

They also searched for one of the most read news portal (index.hu), asked if they would write about the initiative when the campaign started. It was important that this was done even at the beginning of the campaign, but at the time when its success was already visible.

 

Target group

The first and main target group was the organization’s close supporters: volunteers, donors, athletes and parents. But they also tried to reach a bigger audience with the biggest news portal and through the night club’s Facebook page.  

 

Campaign goals (financial and non-financial)

The financial campaign goal was 2300 € to support kids and youth with disabilities in sport. The non-financial goal was to promot the Foundation’s goals and existence of the gym.

 

Campaign outcomes (financial and non-financial)

The total amount of donations collected is 3,448,846 forints (app. 10600 €), which is 465% of the targeted fundraising goal. The target (2300 €) was reached within three hours, after 1 day the amount collected exceeded 1,000,000 forints (3060 €). Number of donors: 741 people.

More than 14,000 people liked the post on Facebook and more than 18,000 shared it. We reached 1,891,551 people and triggered 57,249 responses.

 

The number of followers on the Facebook page of the Foundation on December 12, 2017 was 17,000. The same data on December 19, 2017: 20,012 people. Over a week, more than 3,000 people joined to their facebook page, the site produced a 17.7% increase with no advertising activity and no cost.

 

There was a strong tendency for new guests who knew from the facebook campaign about the existence of the gym.

Early in January, the number of student groups who could come free of charge from the previous two increased to four, and after one month they started discussions with 5 new institutions.

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Milestones, turning points, key decisions

It seemed to be a key decision to prepare the previous supporters, volunteers and donors even before the campaign was launched. It was important to explain to them what exactly will happen and how they can help. And it was also important to collaborate with the night club who made the original post.

 

Learnings and takeaways

They also consider it important to highlight the educational impact. Their message was that we could help by likes and sharing, but they are not a substitute for true charity and donation.

 

To sum up: a parody post can get lots of donations in a very short time, contributing to a significant increase in the reputation of the foundation and the gym, and it did so by generally promoting charity.

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The author of this material agrees to the publication of this material for non-commercial purposes.

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Q&A