The COVID-19 outbreak has definitely changed our lives. Emotionally, socially, financially… While the medical staff all over the world is trying to fight this pandemic with its strongest force, the governments are struggling to help their local economies by introducing various economic measures.
Macedonia is no exception. Besides implementing sets of measures to help different categories of citizens and companies who suffer the economic consequences of the coronavirus, the Government has also opened two donations accounts where many responsible companies and individuals have donated funds for easier handling of the pandemic.
The donations were made via bank transfer, but in order to ease the process for everyone who can and want to make a contribution, the Ministry of Finance with the support of the International Republican Institute (IRI) has developed a unique web platform called “Solidarity”, that enables online donations from individuals and legal entities to help cope with the COVID-19 crisis.
However, the platform needed a promotion and we had to spread the word in order more citizens to find out about the online possibility to make their donation. But when you make a promotion of a platform that generates funds for the Government, it can be tricky and can surely have also a negative effect among the citizenship, so we had to carefully tailor the communication in order to encourage solidarity and address only those who are willing and can afford to make a contribution.
Through careful selection of messages in the social media support and in the PR communication, we have made a strong promotion of the platform and Solidarnost.gov.mk managed to acquire solid amount of funds within only 3 weeks of the campaign.
The negative comments, however, were not possible to be excluded, but still at the end, what counted was the positive message that this platform promotes solidarity among everyone concerned and when we needed it most.