UNHCR network HELPIN (Portugal)

Consultants from Lisbon have been providing strategic and marketing support for the Portuguese UNHCR network HELPIN

Since mid-2008, Roland Berger Portugal has been lending strategic support to a Portuguese network of business partners collaborating with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Each partner uses its core competencies in a joint effort to carry out an extensive fundraising program in support of UNHCR’s activities. The network's current goal is to raise USD 2 million from companies and the general public in Portugal. According to António Guterres, UN High Commissioner of Refugees and a Portuguese himself, the network is "the first partnership of its kind where foundations, companies and their customers and employees are all linked in an effort to help refugees."

The Roland Berger consultants supported UNHCR in developing the concept of a fundraising program for Portugal. So they set the fundraising objectives, defined how the (virtual) network of partners should work together, and finally defined an action plan for fundraising activities.

The media campaign accompanying the fundraising project began in the fall of 2008. On September 10, UNHCR received a public show of support from Portugal's national soccer team prior to their World Cup qualifying match against Denmark. This display of support came at the end of a day that witnessed the public launch of the new network HELPIN.

The pro bono project is ongoing at present, with Roland Berger supporting UNHCR Portugal in managing and monitoring the implementation of the defined actions.