Annual report Helpcode Italia 2020 - EN

OUR STAKEHOLDERS
Their Stories
With the help of some fantastic
volunteers, the Association held
daily online workshops in the
year 2020 through Doposcuola a
Distanza, a homework club, from
February until the end of the
academic year.
The best part of the experience
was the enthusiasm demonstrated
by the children and their families,
who looked forward to these
occasions as a long-awaited regular
appointment, demonstrating the
great impact the workshops had
on helping children find a new
normality and the importance of
creating a welcoming space where
they could talk to each other,
express their frustrations, and be
distracted from the lockdown for a
while. Families particularly appreciated being able to count on a safe space where their children had someone
to talk to about their experiences at this strange and difficult time, someone who would listen and help them to
share how they were feeling.
2.2 Individual donors
and private donors
In 2021, a new positioning and fund-raising campaign has been launched with the goal of
further increasing the fidelity of donors’ support while attracting new people who could
potentially be interested.
Child sponsor
4,773 in 2020
4,913 in 2019
Active sponsorship
5,459 in 2020
5,139 in 2019
Regular donors
1,428 in 2020
1,715 in 2019
One - off donors
435 in 2020
734 in 2019
New donors acquire
440 in 2020
786 in 2019
Total donations from new donors
94,678.21€ in 2020
359,440.36 € in 2019
2020 was a year of substantial stability in terms of supporters: a slight drop in the number of
people who continued to support a child through sponsorship programme was associated with an
increase in the amount of support per head, demonstrating that at this time of difficulty due to
the pandemic many people chose to give even more.
2020 saw a drop in the number of one-off donors, due in part to a major initiative for soliciting
donations in the year 2019 following the emergency in Mozambique caused by cyclone Idai, which
struck the country in the month of March and caused widespread devastation. In the following
year, 2020, “emergency” donations were focused on medical services as a result of the pandemic.
Print and digital communications were sent out regularly to inform individual donors of how their
donations were used. Every year, individual donors are sent two issues of the Helpcode house
organ and a monthly digital newsletter. Child sponsors receive a letter from the boy or girl they
support twice a year.
It’s the donors who make it possible for Helpcode to exist and to work on projects
in so many parts of the world. Their involvement and participation are essential to
continue to fulfil its shared mission.
Individual donors: supporters and donors
Supporters are people who support the Association’s work through Child Sponsorship, of a
single child or a whole school. Donors are people who make donations either for free use or
for a specific Helpcode activity, on an ongoing or one-off basis.
Reinforcing Helpcode’s relationship with its existing supporters while finding new support for
the Association’s projects was the main goal in 2020. Helpcode had been planning a number
of initiatives aimed at acquiring new supporters, which however were set back due to the
pandemic: it realised that it would be hard to attract new donors to the cause of education at
a time of national medical crisis.
30 ANNUAL REPORT 2020
ANNUAL REPORT 2020 31