We found an absurd legislation that made companies more reluctant to donate money; Sweden and Slovenia are the only two countries in Europe where company donations to charity aren’t tax deductible. However, a box of chocolate and other Christmas gifts are. So how could we get around this obstacle? We simply decided to start a webshop for Save the Children, selling classic Christmas gifts but at sky-high prices. Then, we started promoting the shop with typical discount advertising.

Due to the recession the campaign’s media space was 30% less than previous year and a lot of the old donors had financial problems. Despite this the campaign hit record numbers. The average donation went up 50%, new donors increased by 250% and the total sum of corporate donations went up 13% to SEK 7.284.461.

In addition to this major newspapers, blogs and prime time news debated the campaign and the absurd law. The Swedish government soon followed and later in 2010 there will be a voting in the parliament to decide if the legislation should be changed.