Poland’s biggest charity fundraiser sets new record with €42 million raised so far

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

The finale of Poland’s biggest charity fundraiser event has again broken its previous record, collecting over 178 million zloty (€42.2 million) by the end of Sunday.

The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŚP), which was first held in 1993, sees around 120,000 volunteers in Poland and abroad collecting donations. Many also organise fundraising events while celebrities offer items for auction.

This year’s offerings include a golf weekend in Spain with delivery giant InPost CEO Rafał Brzoska and his TV presenter wife Omenaa Mensah (with a current highest bid of 295,250 zloty), and house cleaning by the well-known actor Maciej Musiał (drawing 125,250 zloty).

FC Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski has donated match tickets along with the opportunity to attend one of the team’s training sessions (155,250 zloty).

Shortly before midnight, WOŚP announced that it had raised 178,531,625 zloty in total so far, beating last year’s figure of around 175 million zloty. The final amount, usually announced in spring, will be even higher once all collections and auctions have been completed. Last year’s final total was around 282 million zloty.

The money collected by WOŚP is used primarily to buy equipment for Poland’s healthcare system. This year’s focus is on paediatric oncology and haematology. Since its launch in 1993, the charity has raised nearly 2.3 billion zloty, which has been used to purchase around 74,500 pieces of equipment for hospitals.

Despite this, WOŚP is not popular among some Polish conservatives, who dislike the secular, liberal values of its founder, Jerzy Owsiak, and have accused him and his family of benefiting financially from the event.

In 2021, WOŚP drew controversy by allying itself with the Women’s Strike movement that led protests against a near-total abortion ban that was introduced that year. In 2023, it was accused of supporting the election campaign against the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.

During PiS’s eight years in power from 2015 to 2023, WOŚP often received a hostile reception from state institutions. In 2017, public broadcaster TVP decided to stop screening the finale of the fundraiser, which instead switched to private station TVN.

However, since PiS was replaced in December 2023 by a new, more liberal coalition led by Donald Tusk, WOŚP has received greater support from the state. This year, a number of state-owned companies joined the event as sponsors, including energy giant Orlen and insurer PZU.

WOŚP founder Owsiak, however, also faced a renewed hate campaign following critical coverage by the conservative TV channel Telewizja Republika, which alleged financial improprieties relating to the distribution of funds WOŚP collected to support victims of major floods last September.

Owsiak reported receiving death threats, which he attributed to “incitement” by Telewizja Republika and similar outlets, accusing them of fostering a “spiral of lies and hatred”.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Robert Kowalewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.