The Hunger Day collection accepts donations throughout September and October. The box collection will hit the streets in Finland on 26–28 September 2024.

During Hunger Day, we collect donations for the Disaster Relief Fund. With the help of donations, we can provide help quickly and effectively where the need for aid is greatest at the time.

It is easy to make a donation, and you can choose between many different methods. Companies that make a donation will receive a link to communication materials.

Donate online

Payment methods: Finnish online banks, Visa and Master credit cards, MobilePay, Pivo and Siirto.

Companies can also request an e-invoice or paper invoice. The invoice will be sent within 4–5 business days.

The payment gateway and payment service are provided by Paytrail Oyj (2122839-7) in cooperation with Finnish banks and credit institutions.

Paytrail Oyj, which will be displayed as the recipient of the payment on your bank statement or credit invoice, will forward the payment to the Finnish Red Cross. Paytrail Oyj is authorised to operate as a payment institution. 

Paytrail Oyj
Innova 2
Lutakonaukio 7
40100 Jyväskylä
www.paytrail.com

If you wish to submit a complaint, please contact our Donor Services.

The Hunger Day collection is best known for the volunteer box collectors wearing red vests in the streets. Have you seen how happy they are to help and work together?

The Hunger Day collection will be held in the autumn. The box collection will hit the streets in Finland on 26-28 September 2024. Come and join us!

You can volunteer conveniently in your own home town.

Find a Hunger Day event in your location

You can also set up an online collection for your company and invite members of staff, interest groups and customers to help from early September to the end of October.

Start a collection

You can also set up an online collection for your company and invite members of staff, interest groups and customers to help. Your companies can donate a nest egg, for example, or double the sum donated by the staff.

The fundraiser is easy and quick to set up. See the instructions.

Set up your own fundraiser

For companies, Hunger Day is an opportunity to demonstrate responsibility as part of their business operations. Companies can provide their customers an opportunity to participate in Hunger Day by making a donation in connection with buying a product or service.

Hunger Day is the most prominent and visible campaign by the Red Cross. It brings comfort to people in crises and extraordinary circumstances – both in Finland and abroad.

Campaign partnership is valued at a minimum of €50,000.

Contact us, let’s talk more about your company’s wishes!

contact details: Tuuli Lahti, Fundraising Specialist, +358 (0)40 359 3938 or yritykset@redcross.fi

Ask about the Hunger Day collection

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Approximately 90% of the donations to the Disaster Relief Fund come from private donors. Your support is essential!

In addition to donors, the aid projects of the Finnish Red Cross are funded by e.g the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO). Since all projects require a funding share from the Disaster Relief Fund, aid work would not be possible without our donors.

Donate to the Disaster Relief Fund

We warmly thank you for your help!

The Disaster Relief Fund is not committed to any specific target, meaning that funds can be directed to crisis areas with short notice. When a hurricane wreaks havoc, a drought destroys all chances for normal life or life at a refugee camp becomes unbearable, donations save lives.

Emergency aid means taking care of the basic necessities: clean water, food, soap, blankets, tarpaulins and health care for people who have lost everything. We can also send a field hospital or equipment and support for building IT connections in a crisis area. We deliver aid in cooperation with the local Red Cross or Red Crescent society.

The Disaster Relief Fund also supports development cooperation. We help the community affected by a crisis get back on its feet, prepare for any new crises and deal with them as efficiently as possible.

The need for help can surprise any of us at any time. The Disaster Relief Fund also allows us to help people with emergencies in Finland. For example, people who have lost their homes in fires can receive emergency aid, such as emergency accommodation, clothes and hygiene supplies and psychosocial support.

Donations made for the Disaster Relief Fund ensure that trained volunteers are always ready to provide aid across Finland in sudden accidents and exceptional circumstances. During the coronavirus epidemic, volunteers have helped vulnerable people by distributing food aid and running errands for people in high-risk groups.

The fund also supports the Voluntary Rescue Service that helps the authorities e.g. in finding missing persons.

Here are some examples of what money can buy.

In Finland:

• €50: training in psychosocial support for a volunteer
• €180: clothes for a person who has lost their home in a fire
• A preparedness unit on a trailer: When helping in emergencies, the volunteers bring a mobile preparedness unit with them. These units are located all around Finland, and the funds from the Hunger Day collection are also used to equip them:
  • €5: a blanket
  • €13: a metal petrol canister
  • €87: a carrier gurney for the injured
  • €149: a cordless drill

Around the world:

• €3 Four kilograms of rice for a family in Somalia.
• €6 Ten platefuls of maize porridge for children and their carers in a daycare centre in Malawi.
• €10 A balanced meal for a family of six in Somalia.
• €20 Two hygiene packages for girls. The packages enable the girls to go to school also during their period.

According to the rules of the Disaster Relief Fund, the collection expenses must not exceed 20 per cent. This means that at least 80 cents of each euro donated goes to an aid operation.

Collection expenses are expenses caused from acquiring the donations, such as the printing and mailing costs of donation request letters, acquisition costs of the collection equipment, marketing costs, and fees collected by external service providers, including operators and banks.

In addition to life-saving aid supplies and their delivery costs, the Disaster Relief Fund can cover the salary costs of Finnish Red Cross aid workers operating in disaster and crisis areas. Such helpers include doctors, nurses and logisticians working in the areas. The Finnish Red Cross does not carry out international aid operations from Finland using volunteers. 

In the target countries, the share of aid workers and local volunteers depends on the situation and task at hand. For example, a field hospital clinic has a 50/50 share between hired employees and volunteers, whereas aid distribution can have one employee responsible for organising the work per 50 volunteers responsible for distribution. 

Of the permanent staff of the Finnish Red Cross, only employees working on fundraising are paid from the Disaster Relief Fund collection profits. The salaries of other staff in Finland are funded from several sources, such as the sales profits of Finnish Red Cross products, membership fees, and funding from various ministries and STEA.

In Finland, Red Cross employees support volunteers in their tasks. The aid work itself is carried out by volunteers, apart from a couple of exceptions. These include tasks in crisis situations that require trained psychologists.

Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers around the world take part voluntarily, out of a desire to help.

The rules of the Disaster Relief Fund and the strict control regulate the use of the donated funds. The accounting of the Finnish Red Cross is audited project-specifically every year, and an annual audit is required from other national associations of the Red Cross. Risk management is essential, because the international Red Cross movement operates in almost all countries in the world, and every country has its own operating culture.

We also analyse our cooperation partners, evaluate their capacity to monitor misconducts, and carry out monitoring ourselves. If the operations do not meet our expectations, we train our cooperation partner to develop their operations. If that does not help, we will withdraw our cooperation. This, also, is development cooperation by the Red Cross.

The Finnish Red Cross has permanent representatives at some aid targets, others we check once a year or more frequently as necessary.

If the target has an external funder, their representatives will visit the aid target to check that reports are accurate and money is spent as agreed.

We also strictly make sure that aid supplies go to those in the greatest need.