Our target was reaching everyone who was able to make a donation and help a nonprofit organization: people that had a mailbox that looked like a house and with the necessary conditions to help someone that don’t even have a house to live at. Also, lots of people that live in good conditions sometimes don’t realize how poor some families are. So bringing this reality to them is an impactful way to inform and ask for their help.

TECHO is a nonprofit organization that relies on the help that comes from donations and volunteers. So, to promote their actions, it’s extremely important to keep mobilizing people to fight against poverty.

With the Occupy Mailbox Project, we were able to speak directly with people that had the necessary means to make donations, but don’t have direct contact with this harsh reality, or the information on how to help.

It’s really common in South Florida to see mailboxes that look like houses and, as we had to create a different way to promote TECHO, the idea came instantly: what if we occupy these mailbox-style houses with people that don’t have a place to live at? We drove around Florida looking for Mailbox houses; then, we placed a family inside, like they were living in the “house”. When people took them off the house-shaped mailbox, they saw the message: This family isn’t at the wrong address. They’re here to ask for your help. On the back, people found and scanned a QR Code that drove them straight to TECHO’s website where they were able to donate or volunteer.

We found lots of mailbox houses throughout the South Florida area, and we placed the TECHO family inside all of them. During the month this activation happened, the amount of money TECHO received increased significantly. But, better than that, with no money invested, more than 10 people became monthly donors, which is extremely important to a nonprofit organization. Overall, the activation not only brought donations and volunteers, but also demonstrated the big social contrast that exists and, furthermore, it increased awareness about the bad conditions many families in Latin America still live in.

Our challenge was to find different ways to mobilize people, asking for donations or volunteers. A great number of people don’t know how many families live in extreme poverty conditions, and how much a small monthly contribution can help them. With the Occupy Mailbox, they could get more information about the TECHO Projects and make donations.