Microloan: Pennies For Life

The MicroLoan Foundation lends money to some of the poorest women in Africa, to enable them to set up their own small businesses.

The ‘Pennies for Life’ campaign, launched in 2010, was an agency initiative to persuade people in Britain to donate their unwanted small change in order to create real change in Africa.

In February 2012, we created a unique live event at Westfield Shopping Centre, where passers-by could donate money by texting a digital poster screen. As soon as their text arrived, they got a personal thank you on the screen – and their money dropped into place to create one of a series of portraits of African women, made entirely of pennies.

Donors also got a credit on our dedicated microsite, where all the portraits were displayed.

70,000 people saw the poster in its first weekend, and Twitter users spread the message to a further 250,000 around the world.