One day! That’s how long it takes for Swiss Solidarity to react to a disaster and organise a collection. ‘First off, we check whether the affected country needs – and, crucially, accepts – international aid,’ says Fabian Emmenegger, media spokesperson for Swiss Solidarity. Another prerequisite is for several of Swiss Solidarity’s 26 Swiss partner organisations to be present on the ground; this is necessary in order to provide the desired quality of assistance.
In 2023, this was also the case for the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East in addition to the earthquakes in Turkey, Syria, Morocco and Afghanistan.
Getting a national day of solidarity up and running takes a little longer. Around 300 volunteers ensure that collection centres are set up in Zurich, Geneva, Lugano and Chur within seven to ten days. Swiss Solidarity’s fundraising campaigns are dependent on the support of SRG (Swiss Broadcasting Corporation) and other private media outlets: media reporting plays a key role, alongside how people in Switzerland are affected. Fabian Emmenegger says: ‘In general, we have found that the nature of the disaster, Swiss people’s emotional connection to the issue and the geographical proximity, too, are decisive factors in the volume of donations received.’
The solidarity reflex
Swiss Solidarity enjoys a special status among fundraising organisations. It has a very focused approach and has a strong public presence after major disasters. ‘Swiss Solidarity is often seen as a Swiss “solidarity reflex”,’ says Fabian Emmenegger. When the association calls for donations, this often triggers great waves of solidarity. He cites the start of the war in Ukraine as one of the latest examples. According to the Swiss Solidarity Barometer, solidarity among Swiss citizens in general has also increased over the past two years.
Above all, they show solidarity with people in need, with these immediate issues holding greater sway with certain groups of the population than animals or the environment. The barometer also notes a clear preference for aid in a person’s own region.
There has been little change in the issues in question; donation statistics are very stable across the market as a whole. ‘Over the last five years, nature conservation, environmental protection and animal welfare, people with disabilities, and social and emergency aid have always been the four most important causes for donating to charities,’ says Roger Tinner, Managing Director of Swissfundraising.
Major crises abroad lead to an increase in donations owing to the media spotlight on them. However, it is not possible to make any definitive statements about the split between Switzerland and abroad, as many NPOs are active both in Switzerland and other countries, he points out.
Different countries, different issues
It is a different situation outside Switzerland’s borders. ‘For the first time, “health and medical research” has lost its lead in the ranking of issues for which the French are planning to donate,’ says Yaële Aferiat, Director of the Association Française des Fundraisers. Instead, ‘help for people in need’ takes the top spot, with 38 per cent wanting to donate in support of this issue.
Animal protection comes in third place. Yaële Aferiat says: ‘It’s a remarkable increase. This issue has been of such high importance for the second year in a row and has reached an unprecedented peak of 38 per cent, particularly among high-income donors.’ Emergency situations such as natural disasters, conflicts and humanitarian crises, on the other hand, have slipped to sixth place, having ranked third two years ago when the war in Ukraine started.
By contrast, the 2023 German Donation Monitor shows that the topic of ‘immediate and emergency aid in (civil) war and disaster areas’ is practically on a par with support for children and young people, which tops the list.
Claire Stanley, Director of Policy and Communications at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising in the UK, talks less about a shift in issues. Instead, she believes it is increasingly crucial to reach target groups with the right topics. ‘It’s never been more important to reach the right supporters with the right questions,’ she says.
‘By identifying the different motivations that cause someone to support a charity, fundraisers can explore new and exciting ways to inspire people to donate – and offer them a great experience in the process.’ She also finds that more and more young donors are becoming active in philanthropy, with issues such as environmental protection and social justice important to them. The crisis of the rising cost of living has gained in importance throughout society and is also reflected in philanthropy. ‘The affluent population in the UK responded with a considerable increase in large donations in the first quarter of 2023,’ says Claire Stanley. ‘In recent years, we have seen philanthropists working to ensure that charities and the communities they support can overcome this crisis.’
apisuisse, Pro Natura, FREETHEBEES and BienenSchweiz use continuous communication to reach their donors and achieve their desired outcome.
War and disasters
Roger Tinner also notes that crises and disasters have a major impact on how people donate: ‘Of course, the reasons for donating are complex and individual, but crisis situations always show that people are willing to support others – even if their own position is less secure than it would be in normal times.’ Trends in donation volumes have reflected this development in recent years: in Switzerland, donations have doubled over the past 20 years. According to Zewo’s donation statistics, 2020, the year of the pandemic, saw the 2 billion Swiss franc mark be exceeded for the first time, while the war in Ukraine set a new record of 2.5 billion Swiss francs in 2022. ‘These events definitely influenced donation behaviour, with solidarity not only taking the form of monetary donations, but also, to an extremely large extent, direct aid,’ says Roger Tinner. ‘Many people created space in their homes for refugees from Ukraine or travelled to Ukraine themselves with donated goods.’
The volume is falling for 2023, but the forecast still predicts 2.2 billion Swiss francs in donations. At 720 million Swiss francs, donations from private households remain at a high level. According to the 2023 Zewo donation report, 80 per cent of Swiss households donate an average of 400 Swiss francs.
It is not possible to draw a direct comparison between the figures from different countries owing to the different data available and the legal framework. Nevertheless, the figures still give a sense of the situation.
Donating more
The French population is also giving more. According to the ‘La Générosité des Français’ study by Recherches & Solidarités, tax-deductible donations grew dramatically from 2.2 billion euros in 2013 to 3.0 billion euros in 2022. Significant increases were seen in 2020 and 2022, in particular. The average amount donated has also risen to 605 euros. According to the Baromètre de la Solidarité, published in April 2024, 51 per cent of French people made at least one donation in 2023, one per cent more than in the previous year. Even among households with an annual income of less than 15,000 euros, the figure is 43 per cent. As the general situation is currently viewed as being more stable than it was a year ago, the proportion of donors who want to donate more this year has risen to 28 per cent. For 2022, Recherches & Solidarités estimated the total volume of donations from private individuals, including undeclared donations, at around 5.4 to 5.6 billion euros. In its ‘Bilanz des Helfens’ overview of charitable support for 2023, Deutscher Spendenrat e.V. (German Donations Council) reports a decline in donations from private individuals to around 5 billion euros. The level has returned to normal after two exceptionally good years. Meanwhile, the UK Giving Report expects donations to increase from 12.7 billion pounds in the previous year to 13.9 billion pounds in 2023. Major donors, above all, are responsible for this trend: there is no increase in the number of donors overall.
After death
Claire Stanley sees a lot of potential in wealthier individuals, in particular. She even believes that 3.4 billion pounds of unused capital is being lost. Referring to data from Onward’s ‘Giving Back Better’ report, she calculates that the 10 per cent with the highest incomes donate, proportionally, only half as much as the 10 per cent with the lowest incomes.
Lucinda Frostick, Director of Remember A Charity, also points to legacies as a source of income for NPOs. These are becoming increasingly important: NPOs currently raise 4 billion pounds a year through legacies. Ten years ago, this figure was 2.6 billion pounds. ‘It is predicted that bequests will bring in 10 billion pounds annually by 2050,’ she says. Bequests now account for about 30 per cent of the income generated by the UK’s leading charities.
The situation is different for Swiss Solidarity. A smaller proportion of its donations comes from legacies, although this varies greatly. By comparison, donations from companies and grant giving foundations following major disasters are more significant – and sometimes amount to very large sums indeed. ‘Swiss Solidarity typically receives around a third of all its donations from major private and institutional donors,’ says Fabian Emmenegger. Roger Tinner also notes that corporate giving has increased significantly, particularly in times of crisis. ‘Corporate social responsibility has become part of many companies’ day-to-day activities and motivates them to support NPOs financially – and, of course, to act sustainably in environmental, social and economic terms.’ By contrast, other forms of donation such as payroll giving, i.e. direct donations of part of a person’s salary, play a marginal role. This is most likely to occur at multinational corporations. Roger Tinner: ‘Community donations are probably not that important a form of donation, either – unless you include centuries-old forms of community donations, such as Sunday donations in church.’
Reverse decision-making
Various Swiss cities are home to forms of collective donation. Members of donation parliaments jointly decide on how donations are to be allocated, with the first of its kind, located in Zurich, supporting social and cultural projects since 2006. The Swiss Philanthropy Foundation goes a step further. In a new project, the largest umbrella foundation in western Switzerland is testing out devolving grant decisions to beneficiaries.
‘For us, it’s important to promote new ideas in philanthropy in order to strengthen foundations’ impact,’ says Sabrina Grassi, Managing Director of the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation. In the Demaimpact project, a group of ten young people between the ages of 18 and 30 decide on how donations are to be allocated. The idea was that it is not the donors, the funders or the boards of trustees who call the shots, but representatives of the community who benefit from the funds.
‘We want to see what happens when we trust them, how they make decisions, and how they organise themselves, too,’ says Sabrina Grassi. The project will also provide insights into how the model can be replicated with other groups of beneficiaries such as older people, people with migration backgrounds or people with disabilities. ‘We taught them the basics of philanthropy in an initial workshop,’ she explains. After all, the funds are to be used for charitable purposes. The project is designed as a three-year laboratory, with a new committee of ten young people formed each year. A significant amount of money was needed so that the decisions would have an impact. ‘That’s why we’ve teamed up with the Oak Foundation, the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation and a philanthropist,’ she says, enabling them to provide 400,000 Swiss francs per annum. The grant guidelines stipulate that the steering committee should use the funds for charitable projects that benefit young people in Switzerland.
The participatory method used by the consulting firm commissioned, WISE Philanthropy Advisors, enables young people to take full control of the decision-making and selection process for projects.‘To achieve this, we also had to adapt to the young people’s availability and provide them with the tools they needed from the off.’ They had full attendance for the first group. ‘Everything went as planned,’ says Sabrina Grassi, satisfied with the outcome of the first round. ‘The first group reached a mutual agreement on the projects that should receive funding,’ she says. They started by looking for projects. ‘The young people took a very professional approach to defining and implementing the selection criteria that they had jointly set out when the calls for projects were published.’ And she’s particularly pleased by the fact that ‘their decisions were not significantly different from what we would have gone for as a foundation.’ The group confirmed the relevance of the issues affecting young people: mental health, the transition from school to work and the environment, with these three themes appearing systematically in the challenges identified by the young people in both Demaimpact groups. The second round is currently underway.
The benefit of trust
In most cases, the recipients of donations are not involved in the decision to donate, which makes trust all the more important. The findings of the donation and image barometer in Switzerland show that trust in non-profit organisations is very high – both in principle and also in relation to individual NPOs. ‘In my view, this has to do with the high level of transparency that Zewo imposes on accredited organisations, and which many non-Zewo aid organisations also maintain,’ says Roger Tinner. He notes that transparency is a high priority for donors in the middle and younger generations. ‘Additionally, it is very important to them that they feel close to, or even associated with, the charity and its purposes,’ he says. The fact that membership of an organisation is still the most common trigger for donations shows that community thinking is important for both NPOs and donors alike.
Swiss Solidarity launched its appeal on the radio almost 80 years ago.
Looking for new channels
However, finding the right channels for communicating with their donors is a challenge today. Roger Tinner: ‘Medium-sized and small organisations in particular face major challenges, and are sometimes overwhelmed, in terms of fundraising – even when making this choice.’ The evolving media landscape and the multiplicity of communication channels are also changing Swiss Solidarity’s work. In the past, it engaged a great deal with radio and television. ‘Over the past few years, Swiss Solidarity has had to adapt to these changes in media consumption and actively establish contacts with new communication channels both within and outside SRG,’ says Fabian Emmenegger. ‘The SRG Media Yearbook shows that more than 40 per cent of the Swiss population no longer consume news; it is very difficult to reach these people via traditional media channels.’ Swiss Solidarity was launched on the radio: in 1946, it used the song ‘Y’a du bonheur pour tout le monde’ to roll out its first fundraiser for children affected by war. At that time, it was still collecting donated goods. Soon, it had its own radio show. It worked in line with the principle that those who were best at fulfilling one wish were allowed to determine the next one – thereby creating a chain of solidarity.