In spring 2020, the traditional door-to-door fundraising campaign of CARITAS ST-PÖLTEN NÖ WEST faced unprecedented challenges. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the approximately 5,000 volunteer collectors were unable to go from door to door as usual to collect donations for people in need. Instead, the campaign was carried out by mail for the first time under the motto: "Die Not wohnt bei dir im Ort – die Hilfe auch" ("Need lives in your town – so does help"). Donation envelopes were sent directly to households or distributed as inserts in regional newspapers.
Drehstrom Filmproduktion produced several videos for the campaign, which were published in June 2020 on the Caritas St. Pölten Facebook page.
This shift was necessary to continue providing urgently needed assistance. During the pandemic, Caritas recorded a significant increase in requests for help, especially from people who had lost their jobs due to the crisis and were struggling to pay rent or electricity bills.
Despite the new collection method, the 2020 campaign raised around €400,000, which amounted to roughly half of the previous year’s total. These funds were used to finance a wide range of support services, including social counseling, emergency aid, supplies in social markets, learning cafés for children, mobile hospice services, and projects for children of parents with mental health conditions.
