Finavia has collaborated with the child rights organization Plan International Finland since 2009. An airport provides many opportunities for raising funds: To give an example, Finavia donates the funds received from returning deposited beverage packages to Plan International Finland, which in 2016 total 13,600 euros.
Plan International Finland distributes the donations raised at the airports to children in developing countries.
“Flight safety guidelines limit the amount of liquid a passenger is allowed to take on board, leading many to abandon large numbers of beverage packages at the security checkpoints. We had a think about what to do with the daily mountain of packages that are in fact worth quite a lot of money, and decided to pay it forward by donating the money to Plan International Finland,” says Katja Siberg, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Finavia.
Donation boxes and sports campaigns
Finavia airports both in Helsinki and elsewhere in Finland are adorned with Pastilli donation boxes by the renowned Finnish designer Eero Aarnio. Both the donations left in these boxes and the returning of the empty beverage packages are managed by Plan International Finland, and the organisation is also in control of distributing the donations. At present, Plan is running projects that support the education of children – and girls in particular – in 70 countries.
It’s not just passengers who contribute to charitable projects—airport staff also like to get involved.
“Last autumn, we ran a sports campaign that encouraged people to collect points by moving as much as possible. The points were then turned into money which we donated to Plan International Finland. We’re definitely up for organising a similar campaign this year,” Siberg says.
Finavia donates annually to charitable causes, including the welfare of children and young people. In 2016, a total of more than 50,000 euros was donated by Finavia. The joint fundraising efforts of Finavia and Plan International Finland have, by the end of 2016, resulted in a contribution of more than 200,000 euros to children in developing countries.
This article is part of Finavia’s annual report 2016. Click here to view the full annual report.