The ‘yellow coins’ project: collected by children for children

Children all over France filled the special moneyboxes.

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More case studies from The ‘yellow coins’ project.

Opération pièces jaunes: collecter par et pour les enfants.

SOFII's view

Who are the best people to raise money for sick children? Other children of course. If you can also co-opt famous people and large companies, you’re onto a winner that will continue to raise a lot of money for many years.

It’s good to see that the children receive a special thank you for their efforts – which, of course, is not only courteous, but also a good incentive for fundraising in years to come.

Medium of communication:

Event.

Type of charity:

Healthcare.

Target audience:

Individuals.

Country of origin:

France.

Creator/originator:

Optimus for the Fondation Hôpitaux de Paris-Hôpitaux de France.

Name of exhibitor:

Optimus.

Date of first appearance:

1997.

Summary/objectives:

To promote the brand of the Foundation of Hospitals of Paris–Hospitals of France and fundraise for children in hospital through a national project.

Background:

The Foundation of the Hospitals of Paris–Hospitals of France (HP-HF) was started in 1989. Its objective is to improve the lives of sick children and teenagers being treated in the hospitals. They partnered with Optimus to create a fundraising and communication strategy as well as a fundraising event.

Special Characteristics:

Optimus provided its expertise in strategy, communication and fundraising. For this project, Optimus and HP-HF decided to use the help of children to fundraise. To do this, they use a very sympolic object, moneyboxes, and ask children to fill them with ‘yellow coins’ (French pennies).

This moneybox is distributed by La Poste (the French Post Office), hospitals, the Bayard Press Group, schools and the Bank of France. The objective is to encourage children to involve their families and friends in fundraising for sick children. At the end of the campaign, all the children receive a card or a diplôme soleil (sun diploma) as a thank you for their contribution to the campaign.

A ‘tour de France’ by train has also been organised with the help of a ‘godmother’ (Bernadette Chirac, wife of the former French President, Jacques Chirac) and a ‘godfather’ (David Douillet, a former French sportsman and now politician), in order to collect all the moneyboxes full of ‘yellow coins’.

Results:

The ‘yellow coins’ project’ was a real success from the start and has become an annual event. The project continues to be successful, even after the introduction of the euro, and raised €2.8 million in 2011.