BASF celebrates partnership with SOS Childrenʼs Villages

Ágnes Romet-Balla with Thomas Narbeshuber

Thomas Narbeshuber, managing director of BASF Hungary and leader of the companyʼs Central and South European operations, has been acting as a "business ambassador" for SOS for about a year. The reason for Narbeshuber assuming the position is that BASF’s policy limits the direct funding of CSR activities.

Together with Ágnes Romet-Balla, fund development and communications director at SOS Hungary, Narbeshuber considered how the company could support the charity in other ways, and hence decided to become a "business ambassador," establishing contacts for SOS to make their mission more widely known. He made it possible for SOS to introduce itself quickly by bringing Romet-Balla to various events and by allowing SOS to expand their contacts.

"For us at BASF, leading means always leading by example," says Narbeshuber. "My personal experience is that our employees not only perceive these activities positively, but also become enthusiastic and committed to these activities. Only with a holistic social commitment will we manage to leave no one in society behind."

While SOS believes that the best way to recruit donors is via personal contact on the streets or even in shopping malls, there have been special cases when it was not able to do this, as some cities require special permits for such activities. Narbeshuber has established contacts with mayors of cities in which SOS has not been active until now due to the lack of permission, resulting in new opportunities.

In cities where this kind of street fundraising activity is known, about 1% of people addressed enter into a regular donation contract. According to the press release, in cities where the activity of SOS is new in the eyes of citizens the success rate has been four times higher in recent months, meaning millions of forints in committed donation contracts recruited within a short space of time.