The food company Kraft is to embark on the third phase of a social marketing programme for disadvantaged children in Hungary this month when it launches a partnership with a children’s charity.
Through its Milka brand, Kraft will donate two per cent of the price of a special Christmas candy bar to the Budapest-based Aranyag Foundation, in a programme called Milka a Gyermekekert (Milka for Children).
Kraft, which expects the new initiative will initially cost it US$28,000 (€33,400) in donations to the charity, launched a long-term programme for disadvantaged children in Hungary last Christmas, after a review of its activities by The Good Brand Works, a London-based consultancy that advises companies on ethical strategies.
Simon-Piers Mahoney, managing director of The Good Brand Works in central Europe, said the programme had given Hungarians a chance to support charitable giving in a society with little trust in traditional avenues for donating money.
‘People in Hungary are learning to trust corporates more than non-governmental organizations because there have been problems with corrupt charities,’ he said.
The proceedings of a recent business ethics summit in Hungary may soon be available in CD form. The summit, organised by the Business Ethics Centre of the Budapest University of Economic Sciences, was attended by a number of leading European and US academics and was partly sponsored by Procter & Gamble.