Fundraiser Summary!

TL;DR: This fundraiser raised ~$12,500 USD in total impact within Microsoft (thanks to MS Give match + LT group match). Over 60% of funds were raised after Jorge’s chickenizing campaign. During two trips, Leonardo and his crew helped 33 families, 2 shelters (for women/children), and 2 animal shelters. He focused on assisting families without shelter or donation access. The overall sentiment of people in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) was gloomy as most had lost furniture, cars, homes, and were currently without jobs due to the flood. However, Leonardo and his crew were able to deliver boxes of hope to them.
+ Friendly reminder to submit for donation match (https://microsoft.benevity.org/cause/840-992450608) if you haven’t!

Long version:
How did it start?
The Brazil flood fundraiser began with Leonardo (@leonardolima), who lives in Curitiba (~10-hour drive to Rio Grande do Sul). He has friends and colleagues who lost their homes and are struggling with day-to-day life due to this flood and wanted to help those in dire situations.
 

Impact summary:
Trip #1 (May 17 - May 20)

Leonardo and his girlfriend contacted multiple shelters (for women/kids and for animals) and families to assess their needs. During this trip, they helped eight families, two shelters, and two animal shelters. Several families needed medicines that they did not have access to (e.g., cancer medicine), so Leonardo purchased them in Curitiba and brought them.

After this trip, Leonardo realized that much of the journalism coverage did not include the most vulnerable people (those without access to shelter or donations) and that SUS (the Brazilian government’s health system) had stopped distributing medicine. Markets did not have water, prices were driven up, and many pets separated from their families ended up in overcrowded shelters.


Trip #2 (June 14 - 17)
For the second trip, Leonardo and his crew focused on families who did not have access to support or donations through shelters. He reached out to 25 families, collected what they needed, and gathered their phone numbers and addresses, which helped calculate how many supplies were needed. It was heartbreaking to see how many of these families had young kids.


After organizing and assessing their needs, Leonardo made a list of what the care packages would include.

With the funds we raised, he purchased 11 shopping carts worth of supplies for those families and boxed them for faster delivery.




Then, he drove 15 hours to RS. Luckily, the water level had gone down significantly. But many people felt hopeless as they had to discard wooden furniture and mattresses, realizing that the flood had taken so much of what they had built up over their lives.

While making deliveries, some streets were filled with garbage, making it impossible to drive through. Leonardo and his friend had to carry many kilograms of supplies for several blocks.

Fundraising:
Before the chickenizer campaign: We had 13 separate donations from MSAI totaling ~$1,202, making a $4,808 impact with LT matching + MS Give matching.

After the chickenizer campaign: We had 26 separate donations from MSAI totaling ~$1,916, making a $7,664 impact with LT matching + MS Give matching.

Within Microsoft, we raised approximately $12,500 USD in total impact. The Chickenize Jorge effort was a game changer for this fundraiser, with 61% of the total impact raised after the Chickenize Jorge campaign. Emails sent regarding this campaign had a significantly higher reading rate. We did not meet the $5,000 goal in time, but hopefully, the Chickenizer campaign can return for Give month!