Interview with Mr. Jerzy Owsiak, Founder of The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation.
CEOWORLD Magazine: The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity is nowadays the most recognizable and appreciated charity organization in Poland. How did you come up with this idea?
Jerzy Owsiak: The idea was born by accident. It was 1990 and I was listening to a radio program where group of doctors from one of the Polish hospitals for children talked about a foundation which aim is to help collect funds for cardiology equipment. Sometime later when I was having my own radio program, I mentioned this idea and suggested that we should support it. Shortly after that, I started receiving anonymous donations – first one was 5000 zlotys, which today is no more than few Euro cents. The development of the idea accelerated when I started a TV show “Róbta, co chceta”. We were simply stating that we wanted to collect money – there was no organization behind us, no training, no experience. Everybody in the media business were discouraging me from connecting a very lax, TV show for young people with the message of collecting money for medical equipment. However it worked out!
The mix of festivity, simplicity of aim – collecting money for medical equipment, thorough financial settlements and finally, high visibility became distinguishing characteristics of our action. During 19 years in which the Great Finale took place, we spent nearly 110 million US Dollars and bought about 40 000 pieces of medical equipment for Polish hospitals. The Foundation is so successful because it is credible, works with very engaged people and targets a concrete problem. On top of this, the effects of our work are visible everywhere – in Poland, in about 600 hospital wards for children. If the Foundation was 19 years ago assigned a task of collecting money for the motorways in Poland – they would exist today!
Jerzy Owsiak, Founder of The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation
CEOWORLD Magazine: The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity was recently awarded a title of one of the most recognizable Polish brand. Do you have strategy that lead you to this success?
Jerzy Owsiak: It was not planned in any way. The most important point for our image is visible and credible information about the Foundation. We have very good contact with media- many times striking to win their attention, e.g. if we want to show how much money was collected during the finale we disguised like cosmonauts and walk on the street of Warsaw and in that way are much more likely to attract the attention of journalists. One of our most successful visibility means was sending lit plafonds to all hospitals which received our equipment.
The key event is naturally our annual finale – every year it has to be organized in a way that attracts young people. Another event that grew to be as spectacular as the finale is The Woodstock Festival which is organized against violence and drugs.
Recently it has been awarded a certificate of the European Union as a feasible tool to fight drug use among youngsters. Everything we do has a strong visibility dimension. If we buy equipment to treat hearing problems of children, we invite internationally recognized specialists in this field to cooperate with us and Polish doctors. We are trying to show Polish doctors that our actions can benefit.
Left to right: Jerzy Owsiak, Aneta Popiel- Country Report Associate, Milena Golda- Editor in Chief
We are particularly proud of our website, which is our mean of putting the message forwards- it is constantly updated and contains a detail description of the smallest event and activity that the Foundation is involved in. Apart from the website, we publish information leaflets, envelopes and files with short description of major actions. We are very proud that Ukraine has copied our idea and they have already organized fourth finale and collected half a million of US dollars. The Foundation hosts visitors from France and Great Britain and they all say that as much as they can collect money, just as we do, they lack the spontaneity. This makes us all the more proud of the fact that we are Polish and we underline this wherever we go.
CEOWORLD Magazine: The most distinctive symbol of the Foundation and its activities is a red heart. How did you come up with this logo?
Jerzy Owsiak: Donations from first finale were spent for cardiology equipment, therefore heart was in the middle of attention. It was designed by one of my friend, at first as a temporary sign.
We patented the inscription and the heart. For 19 years we changed the inscription only once. This year, for the first time in the history of the Foundation, we will print gold hearts, instead of red. We want to keep things simple and our power comes from the volume – up to this day we have printed half a billion of hearts.
CEOWORLD Magazine: The Foundation receives great support from private sector. How would you summarize you experience in cooperating with firms?
Jerzy Owsiak: I am happy to say that business sector in Poland finally started to engage in corporate social responsibility what benefits a lot of non – governmental organizations. Due to the donations from private sector, we can implement our projects and companies are more visible in social sphere. Our strategy with business sector is based on a long- term cooperation, one that can be included in the CSR strategy of concrete company and one that we can count on. Additionally, we are focused on quality of cooperation which needs to be broad and extensive. We offer wide range of possibilities to support us – both small companies and big corporation will find something suitable.
CEOWORLD Magazine: Thank you for the interview.
Aneta Popiel, Country Report Associate CEOWORLD Magazine
The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation
Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy
ul. Niedźwiedzia 2a,
02-737 Warszawa, Poland
Tel: +48-22-852-32-14, +48-22-852-32-15
Fax: +48-22-852-07-52
Web: http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/
Mr. Jerzy Owsiak
Founder of The Great Orchestra
of Christmas Charity Foundation
CEOWORLD Magazine: The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity is nowadays the most recognizable and appreciated charity organization in Poland. How did you come up with this idea?
The idea was born by accident. It was 1990 and I was listening to a radio program where group of doctors from one of the Polish hospitals for children talked about a foundation which aim is to help collect funds for cardiology equipment. Sometime later when I was having my own radio program, I mentioned this idea and suggested that we should support it. Shortly after that, I started receiving anonymous donations – first one was 5000 zlotys, which today is no more than few Euro cents. The development of the idea accelerated when I started a TV show “Róbta, co chceta”. We were simply stating that we wanted to collect money – there was no organization behind us, no training, no experience. Everybody in the media business were discouraging me from connecting a very lax, TV show for young people with the message of collecting money for medical equipment. However it worked out!
The mix of festivity, simplicity of aim – collecting money for medical equipment, thorough financial settlements and finally, high visibility became distinguishing characteristics of our action. During 19 years in which the Great Finale took place, we spent nearly 110 million US Dollars and bought about 40 000 pieces of medical equipment for Polish hospitals. The Foundation is so successful because it is credible, works with very engaged people and targets a concrete problem. On top of this, the effects of our work are visible everywhere – in Poland, in about 600 hospital wards for children. If the Foundation was 19 years ago assigned a task of collecting money for the motorways in Poland – they would exist today!
CEOWORLD Magazine: The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity was recently awarded a title of one of the most recognizable Polish brand. Do you have strategy that lead you to this success?
It was not planned in any way. The most important point for our image is visible and credible information about the Foundation. We have very good contact with media- many times striking to win their attention, e.g. if we want to show how much money was collected during the finale we disguised like cosmonauts and walk on the street of Warsaw and in that way are much more likely to attract the attention of journalists. One of our most successful visibility means was sending lit plafonds to all hospitals which received our equipment.
The key event is naturally our annual finale – every year it has to be organized in a way that attracts young people. Another event that grew to be as spectacular as the finale is The Woodstock Festival which is organized against violence and drugs.
Recently it has been awarded a certificate of the European Union as a feasible tool to fight drug use among youngsters. Everything we do has a strong visibility dimension. If we buy equipment to treat hearing problems of children, we invite internationally recognized specialists in this field to cooperate with us and Polish doctors. We are trying to show Polish doctors that our actions can benefit
We are particularly proud of our website, which is our mean of putting the message forwards- it is constantly updated and contains a detail description of the smallest event and activity that the Foundation is involved in. Apart from the website, we publish information leaflets, envelopes and files with short description of major actions. We are very proud that Ukraine has copied our idea and they have already organized fourth finale and collected half a million of US dollars. The Foundation hosts visitors from France and Great Britain and they all say that as much as they can collect money, just as we do, they lack the spontaneity. This makes us all the more proud of the fact that we are Polish and we underline this wherever we go.
CEOWORLD Magazine: The most distinctive symbol of the Foundation and its activities is a red heart. How did you come up with this logo?
Donations from first finale were spent for cardiology equipment, therefore heart was in the middle of attention. It was designed by one of my friend, at first as a temporary sign.
We patented the inscription and the heart. For 19 years we changed the inscription only once. This year, for the first time in the history of the Foundation, we will print gold hearts, instead of red. We want to keep things simple and our power comes from the volume – up to this day we have printed half a billion of hearts.
CEOWORLD Magazine: The Foundation receives great support from private sector. How would you summarize you experience in cooperating with firms?
I am happy to say that business sector in Poland finally started to engage in corporate social responsibility what benefits a lot of non – governmental organizations. Due to the donations from private sector, we can implement our projects and companies are more visible in social sphere. Our strategy with business sector is based on a long- term cooperation, one that can be included in the CSR strategy of concrete company and one that we can count on. Additionally, we are focused on quality of cooperation which needs to be broad and extensive. We offer wide range of possibilities to support us – both small companies and big corporation will find something suitable.
CEOWORLD Magazine: Thank you for the interview.
Aneta Popiel Country Report Associate
The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation – contact information
Post address:
Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy
ul. Niedźwiedzia 2a,
02-737 Warszawa,
Tel: +48-22-852-32-14, +48-22-852-32-15
Fax: +48-22-852-07-52
http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/
