Following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, almost 10 million [AS1] [MS2] refugees from the occupied territories have crossed the Polish border. Poland has welcomed more Ukrainian refugees than any other nation. However, many Ukrainians were looking for shelter in major Polish cities (like Warsaw, Cracow, or Wroclaw) which were already overcrowded, causing rental hikes, increased competition for jobs—all amid an unprecedented rise in inflation. It became evident, that to deal with the increasing stream of refugees, the movement had to be redirected to smaller cities. Places where life conditions might be even better than in big cities. Moreover, like everywhere else in the world, small towns in Poland are beginning to suffer from depopulation, as young people move to bigger cities.

Mastercard – the brand that has social responsibility in its DNA – decided to act quickly and do it’s best to help Ukrainian in refugee crisis.

By tracking the evolving needs of Ukrainian refugees (from initial shelter to housing and jobs), we were able to develop a unique platform, dedicated to help them find a place to live and work in Poland, while actually supporting local communities needs.

“Where To Settle” – is digital platform created by Mastercard in cooperation with Morizon-Gratka Group, part of the biggest Polish news organisation providing job and apartment rental offers. The comprehensive digital tool aggregates Mastercard’s spending insights and customised data from the Polish Central Statistical Office. It asks those looking for new homes to input information such as preferred employment, family size and more. The communication for the tool also features local people from various Polish cities inviting refugees to their towns and showing them the highlights and hotspots in each area.

Mastercard believes in “doing well by doing good” and delivers it through data and technology tools. The “Where to Settle” project by Mastercard is an innovative, data driven tool to provide access to economic opportunity, but also to support local governments and communities, key stakeholders in the Mastercard ecosystem.

The “Where To Settle” digital platform empowers refugees while boosting the growth of smaller towns in Poland. Driven by Mastercard's anonymized transaction data, the digital platform then combines data on average salaries for job segments and provinces from the Central Statistics Office, and data on housing prices provided by partners. Tool shows an approximate earnings versus expenses report for prospective locations based on the unique needs of the refugee and their family.

Mastercard’s “Where to Settle” shows how properly used data, aggregated and anonymized, can have a positive impact on communities, society and the economic inclusion of everyone.

The “Where To Settle” platform has been created in cooperation with Morizon-Gratka Group, part of the biggest Polish news organization. It provides job & apartment rental offers to Ukrainian refugees.

The comprehensive digital tool aggregates Mastercard’s spending insights and customized data from the Polish Central Statistical Office. It asks those looking for new homes to input information such as preferred employment, family size etc. It then provides average cost of living, salary, housing and economic opportunities in various parts of the country, ultimately showing individuals and families the places where they will most likely thrive.

The Polish government and the Association of Polish cities are supporting and promoting the tool. Digital and Social Media campaign features local people from Polish cities inviting refugees to their towns and showing them the highlights and hotspots from each area. The campaign was targeted at all Ukrainian refugees staying in major cities.

1. We introduced effective and engaging platform

-We attracted 242,17k UU to the platform, and 73,7k to fill-in completed forms. Basing on data form Where to Settle and number of Ukrainian refugees in Poland, we estimate that even 20,05%* refugees benefited from the platform!

-92% of Ukrainians engaged in helping refugees found the tool useful

2. “Where to settle” also significantly lifted Mastercard’sperception on such important factors as “technological” +12 (UA), “modern” +14 (UA) and “social” + 14 (PL) + 11 (UA)

3. We increased Mastercard’s “usage intent’ within the group of non-users, a crucial business priority for growth. 57% of Poles and 80% of Ukrainians non-users declare usage intent after contact with the platform.

*thanks to forms from the platform, we know that among users the average family was 4,08 persons large. It gives 300 696 persons who benefited from the platform – 20,05% of Ukrainian refugees (estimated 1,5mln).