Every year, during the Annual Fundraising Drive, the Mexican Red Cross has used coin boxes to get people’s donations on the streets. Even though Mexicans are eager donors, their donations remained pretty much the same over the years.

The goal this year was to raise over 330 million pesos, which was seemingly impossible using the same channels as past years. We needed to encourage people donate more money.

The solution was simple: we changed the coin slot for a bill slot. Since the smallest bill in Mexico is $20, and the average coin in people’s pockets is from $1 to $5, we could expect to collect at least four times more.

We also needed to have someone important set the example, and who better than the President himself? So we, together with Red Cross Executives, set out to ask the President of Mexico to head the inaugural ceremony.

After finding out they had to give a bill instead of a coin, donors felt compromised to do it.

With this simple idea, wherever we sneaked in the new moneyboxes, we increased the amounts collected by 2,000%. This way we proved that Mexicans can be even more generous if we approach them in innovative ways.