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Hungary: Non profit organisations campaign for their 1%
Hungarian non profit organisations have until May 20th to convince tax payers to allocate 1% of their income tax to the non profit cause. Here are their campaigns
Over the course of the next weeks, more than twenty thousand foundations and civil organisations and almost 150 churches will try to convince the 4,420,000 taxpayers registered by the APEH (Hungarian Tax Office) to avail of the possibility that Hungary offers its tax payers: to transfer 1% of their previous year?s paid personal income tax to the charity of their choice and a further 1% to any legitimate and registered church in Hungary.
Last year only 40% of taxpayers gave their 1% to charity. But enormous expansion can be expected in the 1% fundraising market in coming years, as it is as yet a poorly exploited resource. There are, in fact, nearly two million high income taxpayers who could decide the fate of more than 14,4 billion HUF (55.300.000 euros), equal to 55% of the nation?s total tax revenue.
Learning from past lessons
Lessons learned in the past years show that it is marketing, and not mission, that determines the taxpayer?s decision, and it is those organisations capable of financing the costly national campaigns to raise 1% awareness that can expect to benefit most from the law. The investment of millions of Hungarian forints into communication could give tenfold returns, as is demonstrated by the foundation Feed the Children?s example. An investment into the 1% tax campaign of 9 million HUF (34.000 euros) brought 95, 498, 000 HUF (367.300 Euro) to their account. However the foundation?s president, Mr Gábor Király, is still not satisfied with the results and believes that non profit organisations must not stop investing in campaigns to promote the 1% tax law.
It is not enough for a civil organisation to be involved in a worthy cause ? while smaller foundations working in local may reach several dozen or even several hundred taxpayers, their activities must make it into the news if they are to convince taxpayers nationally that they are worthy of support.
Investing in marketing
One of the problems that Hungarian non profit organisations face is the attitude that managers have to the creative task of creating a charity campaign, which is often given as ?home work? to employees, so that resources only have to be spent on technical expenses. However, some of the larger Hungarian advertising agencies choose to support NGOs and foundations by producing social communication campaigns for free.
This move has not been without controversy, for example a campaign to raise money for children with Leukaemia that plastered cities with pictures of sick children wearing wigs, an implied promise that 1% donations could actually cure their cancer. However hairy, these advertisements, under the slogan ? Leukaemia must resign!" raised nearly 500 thousand euros for the foundation concerned. Nearly double what the same foundation had received the previous year. The foundation explains their success with what they call a ?witty? campaign, and decided to pursue the same line in 2007, with a new motto: ?I would like to have beer belly?. This new campaign became so popular that it has been repeated this year.
Children, illness and animals in need: these are the key issues that organisations use to convince the taxpayers. Their approach seems justified, as the list published by the Tax Office?s website shows that civil organisations who use these ?magic words? receive the taxpayers? one percent. The largest sum in 2007 -1,892,000 euros ? was received by the Children Cancer Foundation.
The organisation to received the second largest sum (589,000 euros) in 2007 was a dog shelter that placed 200 billboards across Budapest and sent their messages out on TV and radio channels as well. It would seem that organisations with social missions ? like the Hungarian Red Cross ? can only hope to raise one third or one fifth of what the best known animal protection foundation gets, which is 198,000 euros. The animal campaigns were so successful that the Hungarian Maltese Charity service was inspired to launch its own, mocking campaign with the image of a homeless man kneeling on all fours and asking: ?Would you help me if I were an animal??
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