Southwestern Advantage is a student summer work program under which participants travel to both Canada and the United States to sell books.

On Saturday, students in the program organized the Spring Knock (Kevadkoputus) charity campaign in Estonia, whose goal was to raise €100,000 in a single day by going door to door. The donations went toward renovating homes for children living in SOS Children's Village facilities across Estonia.

One of the event organizers and a Southwestern member, Hardo Hansar, said the fundraising goal had been met and that the donations went directly to charity. He added that Southwestern would not receive a single euro from the money collected.

On Saturday, however, a post appeared on the social media platform Threads in which a user named Jana shared her frustration. She wrote that she did not understand why a university student from Tallinn University, whom she did not know, would want to enter her apartment building at 9:30 a.m. Jana was not the only person approached for donations by someone introducing themselves as a university student while failing to mention the Southwestern program. As a result, it was the universities, rather than Southwestern, that drew criticism.

Hansar confirmed that the fundraising campaign had not been organized by any university. Monika Maljukov, a communications specialist at Tallinn University, also said the university had no connection to the initiative.

Hansar added that the students in fact had a specific script they were supposed to use when speaking at the door. "Our sales script specifically states that Spring Knock is an event organized by Southwestern's summer program, in which Estonian students collect as many donations as possible in one day for a specific cause," he said.

Hansar explained that how clearly the campaign was explained depended on the student and that the communication lapse may have been caused by nerves.

Hansar acknowledged that, in addition to raising donations, the goal of the partnership was also to give students practice going door to door. That is because students heading to the United States and Canada will also sell books door to door there. "Most students have never encountered anything like this before," he said.

Hansar said that because SOS Children's Village is fairly well known in Estonia, people tend to trust the students who come to their doors more readily.

A total of 179 students went door to door across Estonia on Saturday. Those who could not take part but still want to sell books will be seen going door to door next Saturday. There are nearly 20 such students.

Southwestern has organized Spring Knock for nearly 18 years. SOS Children's Village has been the organization's partner on nearly 16 occasions.

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