The Polish Red Cross needed to increase donations to provide hot meals to children who otherwise could not afford them.

We introduced Very Good Manners - a new way of leaving cutlery on the plate after the meal. In participating restaurants when customers cross their cutlery (similar to the Red Cross symbol) they signal the staff that they would like to donate money to the Polish Red Cross. The staff collects the plate and adds 5 PLN (approx. 1.5 EUR) to the bill. The money is transferred by the restaurants to the Red Cross. This is enough to buy one hot meal for a poor and malnourished child. The idea is communicated in restaurants using paper table mats.

As the Red Cross lacked a media budget (apart from 1000 EUR which were spent on the table mats), we had to rely on PR to give this idea a wide coverage, to build awareness and encourage more restaurants to join.

Our primary goal was to encourage people to support the Red Cross more frequently and to create an alternative to one-off fundraisers. Our secondary goal was to increase the awareness of the social issue of poverty and malnourishment among children.

With only 1000 EUR of media budget (table mats), Very Good Manners started in 4 restaurants in 2 cities. Thanks to a wide PR coverage, this combination of charity and table manners has so far achieved:

- 65% increase in donations for the Red Cross,

- 250+ publications in traditional, digital and social media,

- 15 000 000+ audience,

- EUR 800 000+ in earned media

- more than 30 restaurants in 16 cities joining Very Good Manners.

As more restaurants in Poland are volunteering, the Red Cross is planning to introduce this idea in France, Germany, Russia, Spain and United Kingdom.

It was decided to start the campaign in mid- September 2013 as a trial in 4 restaurants in 2 cities. On the day of launch a website was set up and an info-graphic explaining the idea was uploaded onto YouTube. Both national and local media were informed about testing of an alternative to one-off fundraising. Very quickly the campaign reached a national audience and new restaurants volunteered to participate. On UNESCO’s World Hunger Day (16 Oct 2013) in one of the new restaurants we held a press conference, which officially communicated to the media that the trial was a success and that the Red Cross is starting a national roll-out. Additional activities such as celebrity endorsements, launch of the fan page in December 2013, and participation of the first chain of restaurants were also widely covered by the national media based on press released prepared by the Agency.

Since 2001, the Polish Red Cross has been organising one-off fundraising campaigns to buy hot meals for more than 700 000 malnourished children in Poland. These traditional methods (paid text messages, bank transfers, money tins) result in one-off donations and do not promote regular support. According to a 2012 study by the Charity Aid Foundation most Poles support only one charity and make donations only once or twice a year.

During the first weeks of the campaign, the idea was packaged to the media as an innovative initiative - a new approach to fundraising. In all materials released to the press the mechanism and how the idea works was the key message. When “Very Good Manners” reached national awareness the PR focus was to be switched from “how it works” to “it works” i.e. we planned to inform the media that the idea is a success as more restaurants are joining and donations are increasing. Each information released to the press also reminded of the social issue of poverty and malnourishment, which according to a 2012 study by the National Statistical Office affects more than 700 000 Polish children.