Polish Red Cross - Very Good Manners - (2013) Donate with your plate

The Polish Red Cross wants to increase donations, and have introduced "very good manners" at participating restaurants. Instead of simply laying your fork and knife to the right to signal you're done with your food, you can lay your cutlery like a cross, saying that you're done with your food and you wish to add % to the bill that will be donated to the red cross.

Making it simple to donate is a great step in increasing donations, and here altruist-peer pressure might kick in, and even cause more donations as people want to keep up with the other people at the table who are donating.

---

Polish Red Cross teamed up with Cheil Worldwide to test 'Very Good Manners' - a new fundraising approach with hopes of solving the issue of malnourishment among poor children for good. By giving table manners a new purpose we're developing good manners into 'Very Good Manners'. In participating restaurants guests can choose to leave their cutlery crossed on the plate (similar to the Red Cross' symbol). Their symbolic gesture will signal the waiter to collect the plate and add 5 PLN to the bill. The donation will be transferred to the Polish Red Cross, which supplies hot meals to Polish children living in poverty. All donations made in participating restaurants are tax-free.
Very Good Manners were launched 14th of September 2013 and so far it received a lot of positive feedback. Very Good Manners have created a significant media buzz, new restaurants are joining and the number of donations is growing.

Agata Szczotka-Sarna, Promotion Specialist at Polish Red Cross (PCK) says. 'There are lots of people, who declare their willingness to support charitable causes. We want to remove the barriers usually standing in their way. Together with the restaurants participating in the programme, we provide an opportunity for hassle-free support of the Polish Red Cross' efforts. All we need to buy a meal for a hungry child is a symbolic gesture and an equally symbolic donation. We started in only four restaurants in Warsaw and Krakow, but that number has started to increase rapidly.

"In the long run we are expecting to create a system, that would allow to finance the Polish Red Cross' cause without further need for one-off fundraising campaigns" says Marcin Talarek, Head of Innovation at Cheil Poland.

Wojtek Kowalik and Maciek Kozina, creatives behind Very Good Manners from Cheil Poland add: '‘Very Good Manners’ have a very good chance of becoming a self-sustainable system, that would need no further assistance apart from periodical campaigns to remind about the new habit. The out-dated fundraising approaches can only provide temporary support. 700 000 malnourished Polish children is a huge social problem. Therefore the solution has come from a change in our society. That’s why we’ve decided to modify and develop table manners, which are in itself a form of social behaviour and a means of communication between customer and staff. We believe that Very Good Manners can become a genuine part of our everyday behaviour.'

Client: Polish Red Cross

Agency: Cheil Poland

Credits:
Creative Director: Marcing Talarek
Concept: Wojtek Kowalik & Maciek Kozina
Copy & art direction: Wojtek Kowalik & Maciek Kozina
Design / web design: Kuba Kozina, Piotr Zawałło, Wojtek Kowalik
PR / Project Management: Maciek Sobieski, Marta Ruszkawska, Ola Monczak, Wojtek Kowalik, Maciek Kozina
Sound: FDR Studio