A total of 28,000 underprivileged families will benefit from donations raised in the 22nd Christmas charity fundraiser by the Finnish Red Cross (SPR) and the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL) in collaboration with Yle.
The organisations said that the number of families who will receive assistance is slightly lower than in the past two years. The fundraiser will provide each family with a 70-euro voucher that can be used to purchase food at groceries participating in the campaign.
The SPR said in a release that this year thousands of firms and tens of thousands of private individuals participated in the campaign, with the corporate sector especially keen to give back.
"Many said that they wanted to use corporate donations to help families with children. This year businesses were also very active in organising different kinds of fundraising campaigns," SPR fundraising chief Anna Laurinsilta said in the statement.
The NGOs said they will know the precise amount collected in the charity drive next year when all the accounts are settled. However the goal was to gather two million euros.