In Portugal, taxpayers have the opportunity to donate 0.5% of their tax return to an NGO without any cost to them. And if they choose not to, that money goes directly to the state. But even so, 61% of the Portuguese didn't donate the past year. Not because they don’t want to help, but simply because they don’t do know how to their taxes on their own and hire accountants to help them with it.

In Portugal, people can donate 0,5% of their tax return to an NGO without any cost to them. But even so, NGOs struggle to find donations because people don't know how to do their taxes and hire accountants to help them with it.

That's why we created a team of accountants with cerebral palsy, trained by certified CPA’s, that helped people fill their taxes in exchange for something that didn’t cost them anything - their 0.5% donation to APCL. That way we turned tax donations into a win-win situation for both taxpayers and our NGO.

In a country where people are asked to donate 0.5% of their taxes for free to an NGO and they don't do it because they are not the ones filing their own taxes. How could we get to their donations?

Cerebral palsy patients are seen as people with no intellectual capacities due to their disease. Leaving them without chances of working and depending on donations and help from NGO’s like APCL. So, by training them to become accountants, we gave them a new way to win money in the future and also a simple way to show the world that they can do much more than we think.

Implementation: We launched a digital campaign with social media ads, banners, pre-rolls, and a website where people could get to know our team and expose their questions about their tax return.

Timeline: Knowing that tax return papers have to be delivered and presented to the government from the 1st of April till the 31st of June, our campaign was online during those exact dates.

Scale: The Portuguese Association of Cerebral Palsy is one of the oldest NGO’s in Portugal, making it one of the most recognizable and know within the country. And by working with them and with their patients, we reached a national scale and helped people from various parts of the country.

The campaign was a success, and APCL reached a 50% increase in donations. Also, due to community outreach, we reached 4 million people within the two months of the project and got more than 5 million impressions. As well as 209K euros to earn media thanks to TV and Radio interviews.