“You definitely need endurance and organizational skills, but it’s worth the effort”

Since 2009, 13 Lufthansa employees in Los Angeles have been committed to help alliance, operate a sales stand and thus collect donations for the help alliance

Who are you and what is your job at Lufthansa?

We are a total of 13 Lufthansa employees working in station management, ticketing and operations.

How did you come to the help alliance?

At the end of 2009, Jens Bischof, then Vice President Americas, launched an appeal for donations for Haiti, which had just been severely shaken by an earthquake. He asked all stations in North and South America to collect funds for the help alliance over a period of 4 – 6 weeks. How we managed to do this was left up to the stations. Here in Los Angeles we decided to set up a sales booth in our Passenger Service Office.

Since there were very few and no cheap shopping facilities for the airport employees at that time, we started to sell drinks, sweets, ice cream, fruit and bakery products such as muffins, donuts and croissants. In the beginning we even had hot dogs on offer. Mr. Bischof’s campaign ended at the beginning of 2010, but after our “business” was very successful and enjoyed great popularity, we decided, after consultation with Mr. Bischof’s department, to keep the offer.

What do you like about the help alliance?

First of all, that it is an in-house aid organisation run by other Lufthansa employees, which makes it very trustworthy for us. Secondly, that we have the opportunity to support so many different projects around the world. Since the beginning of our campaign, we have chosen different projects: since natural disasters can happen anytime and anywhere, we decided after our first cheque in favour of Haiti’s earthquake victims, to support Pakistan next after the earthquake there. Then the victims in New Jersey after the superstorm Sandy and last but not least the “Project Sunshine”, which supports slum children in New Delhi.

What problems and challenges did you face in your fundraising campaign?

The biggest challenge is to do justice to our “customers”. Since we only have limited space, we are unfortunately not able to expand our offer infinitely.

We also often lack the time to go shopping to get supplies. We buy our goods from wholesalers and then have to drop them off at the airport before work, this has to be well coordinated.

Unfortunately, the donation money cannot simply be deposited, the coins have to be brought to a coin machine or to a bank, and then again to help alliance in Germany.

What feedback did you get from your colleagues about the fundraising campaign?

In the 6.5 years in which we have been running our stand, our supply has grown immensely due to the constantly increasing demand. In the beginning we had to refill about once a month, but now we are often completely sold out after 2 weeks. Word of our campaign has spread so far that even colleagues from other terminals drop by to get some soup for lunch or a snack in the afternoon. Most of the colleagues know that 100% of their money goes to a good cause and many are also interested to learn more details about the individual projects. We can say without exaggeration that our campaign is very successful and the colleagues appreciate our efforts.

What tips can you give to others who want to get involved with help alliance?

You definitely need endurance and organisational talent, but it is worth the effort. It feels good to know that the money will arrive at places where so much good is done. It is important to involve the whole team, e.g. in the selection of the project, this increases motivation and endurance when you encounter problems or challenges.