Last Saturday, on May 28, 2016, the Night of the Tip raised no less than €65.000. In the fourteen participating cities, half of the amount was received from tips that hundreds of catering establishments in the Netherlands donated to charity that night. The amount from these tips has been doubled by the organization Wilde Ganzen.
This accessible way of contributing to development aid was devised in 2005 by a Groningen student. Last weekend the twelfth edition of Night of the Tip place in fourteen cities in the Netherlands. Various catering establishments in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, Rotterdam, Wageningen, Leiden, The Hague, Maastricht, Eindhoven, Den Bosch, Delft, Nijmegen, Tilburg and Breda handed over received tips to the organization.
The objective was to raise €80.000 to raise a number of sustainable projects to be fully financed. This amount has not been reached, but nevertheless many projects can be supported. Investments will be made in weaving and spinning machines in Bangladesh, in a tuk-tuk repair shop in India, 75 toilets in the poor town of Thalavadi in India, a rainwater collection system in Nicaragua, solar-powered lamps in Nigeria and start-up capital and guidance for the setting up own businesses by Ghanaian families.
The total amount of tips has been doubled by partner Wild Geese: a private development cooperation organization that fights poverty worldwide through financial support, knowledge and experience for small-scale projects. This year, more venues participated throughout the Netherlands, but on the other hand, less was collected; the edition in 2015 yielded a total of €75.000. More than 100 establishments in Groningen took part and an estimated €5.000 was collected in tips.
