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Crowd Capital Index’s two year anniversary

We would like to retire are Crowd Capital Index with a total donation amount of HUF 17 billion

Although vaccines were made available to the public at the end of 2020 and we thought the epidemic was coming to an end, we are still living in a period of restrictions and cancellations thanks to newer virus variants. Despite the difficulties we are being alleviated by social solidarity: many donations are being made to those in need. In this context, we launched our so called Crowd Capital Indicator (“CCI”) in early 2020 as an indicator to measure community donations which were used to mitigate the damage caused by the Covid-19 epidemic.

Tőkeportál’s own content | 22.02.2022

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At the outbreak of the pandemic, on 28 February 2020, we launched CCI, which was designed not only to register and measure the Hungarian donations by creating a public database, but also to motivate donors. Our index was initially adjusted frequently because of the many donations, as reported by Forbes and Budapest Business Journal. By May 2021, more than 16.5 billion HUF was donated in a short 16 months period and although the pace of donations has been decreasing since many people are still suffering health, financial and mental hardship as a result of the global epidemic. Fortunately we can also report a large number of tangible gifts, financial aid and professional services over the past six months.

Shortly after the publication of CCI, our initiative received a lot of coverage during the first wave of the epidemic, including an article published by MOME. All the donation we measured are listed in a table on the CCI webpage where we have analysed specific donations in several previous articles. In this final post, we highlight some of the major 2021 donations.

Throughout the epidemic Semmelweis University and its staff are doing their utmost to provide the best possible care for patients treated at the university’s clinics. To help them do this, they are receiving a large number of donations which are published in detail on their website. These include ticket offers from the Hungarian State Opera House, online theatre ticket offers courtesy of the Madách Theatre, and tickets to the 2021 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend offered by HUMDA Zrt. For health and social workers the Hungarian National Museum offers free museum visits until 11 March 2022. The date is symbolic as it marks the two-year anniversary of the first restrictions introduced in Hungary because of the epidemic.

After the success of TV2 Group’s 2020 CSR Hungary award-winning charity gala evening Neked énekelek, was held again at the end of May 2021.

In the 10th anniversary campaign of the Hungarian public media’s Jónak Lenni jó! campaign, more than 345 million HUF was raised. This year the whole amount was also used to support children and families orphaned or half-orphaned due to the coronavirus epidemic. Magyar Posta continued its special collection of stamps of fairy-tale heroes, joined this year by Kukori and Kotkoda, and in addition to donations of goods, they also supported the donation with HUF 1.5 million. Pope Francis himself also donated to the campaign, donating a statue of Saint Francis to the needy, which was later auctioned. The research biologist Katalin Karikó, who has also played a major role in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic thanks to the development of a vaccine also donated €50,000, half of her Bolyai Prize.

In 2021, the fundraising gala was organised on Children’s Day the 30th of May as the proceeds were donated to the orphans of the coronavirus. Among the performers, we could listen to many national stars, such as Charlie Horváth, who sang together with Vera Tóth, but we could also mention the duet of Bea Palya and Ferenc Molnár “Caramel” from the evening. There were also several performances that were specially created for this television show. In the end, a total of HUF 101 824 210 was donated to children in need during the gala event.

In terms of tax donations, this year has also seen health workers receiving special support for their efforts during the epidemic. Out of all the 1% of tax offerings in 2021 paramedics and more specifically the National Ambulance Service Foundation received the most amount. Thanks to the awareness campaigns launched since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic, they received HUF 308 million in 2021. This is a significant increase compared to the years before the coronavirus epidemic (2019), when ambulance services received only HUF 121 million, less than half of the most recent amount.

More and more donation sites have been set up, such as Budapest’s donation brokerage site, which aims to reduce the challenges posed by the new type of coronavirus epidemic by getting donations to the right place. Donations of smart devices (laptops, notebooks, smartphones) and medical equipment for digital education are particularly welcome from companies or individuals. Donors can choose the district or institution where they want to send their donations.

It is clear from the graph below that the rate of donations shows a significant decline over time. Even so nearly half a billion HUF was donated and have been collected in the last six months via several charity campaigns. This brings the total donations to over HUF 17 billion since the launch of the Crowd Capital indicator.