« Everyone’s a philanthropist»

The Philanthropist: Peter Buss, are you parti­cu­larly attrac­ted to hope­l­ess causes?

Peter Buss: What a question! What do you mean by that?

News­pa­pers are dying out all around us; circula­tion figu­res for prin­ted publi­ca­ti­ons are shrin­king on a daily basis. Yet you’ve deci­ded to launch a new print-based product in spite of this?

It does seem a bit crazy, if I’m honest. But no, there’ll always be a reader­ship for well-produ­ced specia­list maga­zi­nes – and there’ll always be compa­nies wanting to adver­tise in them because their target audi­ence is well-defi­ned. It’s the perfect pairing of readers and advertisers.

How did you come up with the idea?

My wife says that a news­pa­per always mana­ges to crop up where­ver I am and where­ver I play a role in making decis­i­ons. She’s comple­tely right: commu­ni­ca­tion has been close to my heart at every company I’ve led. In years gone by, we only had access to print media, not the inter­net. And when we recently asked oursel­ves how we could reach out to people in the chari­ta­ble sector, it was clear to us that we needed a specia­list magazine.

But do you need a prin­ted magazine?

Defi­ni­tely. To me, the online sphere is still a bit like a theatre where the play is being perfor­med behind a curtain: lots of people have no idea what’s going on. That’s espe­ci­ally the case for members of boards of trus­tees from the older gene­ra­tion who don’t have their mobi­les glued to their hand 24/7. We need to reach out to them in the print sphere, and our maga­zine invi­tes them to take a look behind the curtain. Tactile aspects are hugely important in this: it needs to be able to lie on a table, and people need to be able to take it at its word in the truest sense. Print media have a much stron­ger impact in this regard than vola­tile, digi­tal jour­na­lism floa­ting in the cloud.

Credi­bi­lity is key to ensu­ring that this works. The digi­tal plat­form StiftungSchweiz.com is behind the maga­zine: is The Philanthropist an adver­ti­sing publication?

Yes, of course it is. But it’s adver­ti­sing an idea, not a product. We want to make our readers aware of the digi­tal world by provi­ding content that shows people how digi­ta­li­sa­tion can bene­fit phil­an­thropy – but also by reve­al­ing its nega­tive side. I hope that our content makes people think and helps our readers to realise that you can use digi­tal tools to do phil­an­thro­pic deeds in a diffe­rent way. It would be wonderful if the maga­zine played a role in helping the sector grow toge­ther and work more effi­ci­ently, too.

Digi­ta­li­sa­tion is opening up all kinds of new oppor­tu­ni­ties for phil­an­thropy and it could really help make things more efficient. 

Peter Buss

You laun­ched Stiftungschweiz.ch at the end of Septem­ber. Is the maga­zine linked to the platform?

There is a link, of course, but the maga­zine opera­tes inde­pendently of the plat­form, both in terms of the tech­no­logy and commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. And the subscrip­tion fee for the maga­zine is inclu­ded within the subscrip­tion fee for the platform.

Why do we actually need a digi­tal plat­form like StiftungSchweiz.ch that encom­pas­ses the entire phil­an­thro­pic sector?

I think that there is a huge gulf at play. As far as charity is concer­ned, we have the luxury of innu­mera­ble indi­vi­dual areas of acti­vity that func­tion side by side while being utterly sepa­rate. As a result, everyone’s a philanthropist – or at least, they could be. We’ve got various opti­ons at our dispo­sal. It’s proba­bly less noti­ceable when I make a small private dona­tion of 50 Swiss francs, say, than when someone gives three million Swiss francs, but the moti­va­tion behind it could be the same. Chari­ties with their own funds to play with need project owners just as much as they need spon­sors: nobody can have an effect on their own. And despite this, there’s often a lack of mutual compre­hen­sion. That’s why we want to break down these barriers and empha­sise the shared aspects of phil­an­thropy. This will boost the chari­ta­ble sector as a whole and, above all, show that it’s fun to get invol­ved in it.

How can the plat­form help with this?

One of the ways it helps is by provi­ding digi­tally guided work proces­ses and a host of useful infor­ma­tion about the sector. Digi­ta­li­sa­tion is opening up all kinds of new oppor­tu­ni­ties for phil­an­thropy and it could really help make things more effi­ci­ent. For exam­ple, we’ve made it easier to pair up project owners looking for dona­ti­ons to finance their work with chari­ties offe­ring funds and private donors who want to finance these projects and orga­ni­sa­ti­ons. And we’ve made it possi­ble for people to request assi­stance online from every single regi­stered charity in Switz­er­land with its own funds at its dispo­sal. We’re working with highly quali­fied part­ners to cons­truct a veri­ta­ble online ecosy­stem. Our commit­ment can be summa­ri­sed as phil­an­thropy that does as much as possi­ble with as little as possi­ble; phil­an­thropy that ever­yone can see and expe­ri­ence, and which makes people happy.

Lots of chari­ties don’t even have a website …

… around 15 percent of chari­ties in Switz­er­land that run on the basis of their own funds have an online presence.

Do you think it’s reali­stic to expect that they’ll make use of a digi­tal service?

It’s a huge oppor­tu­nity for us! Just because a charity doesn’t have a website doesn’t mean that they’ve turned their back on digi­ta­li­sa­tion. Some believe they can’t afford it or fear that they’d receive even more requests for assi­stance if people could find them online. We can use StiftungSchweiz.ch to get the ball rolling on this front. For exam­ple, every charity can use StiftungSchweiz.ch to run their own website, for free, and hugely reduce the number of requests for assi­stance they get as a result if they give people this infor­ma­tion on their microsite.

But what if a charity doesn’t want to be found at all because they don’t accept any requests for assi­stance whatsoever?

Then they can simply write ‘we do not respond to requests for assi­stance’ on their micro­site. This infor­ma­tion is hugely helpful because project owners know the situa­tion right away, and we can draw the aware­ness of people making these requests to it, as well.

So that means that the plat­form also encou­ra­ges transparency.

Chari­ties need to have an inte­rest in trans­pa­rency, even in a formal sense, given that they operate in a tax-free envi­ron­ment. Their autho­rity comes cour­tesy of their chari­ta­ble status. This is, of course, reviewed by the super­vi­sory autho­rity, but this really isn’t enough. Charity work is a public asset; the public no longer want to be solely repre­sen­ted by the super­vi­sory autho­ri­ties. Plus, there’s a prac­ti­cal reason, too: trans­pa­rency makes their work easier, boosts effi­ci­ency and redu­ces costs. When I explain what I do and why I do it, for exam­ple, this helps us to pair people up better.

And yet some people still have reservations?

Trans­pa­rency redu­ces the power that boards of trus­tees can wield. When they make their decis­i­ons comple­tely off their own bat, they can give one project 100,000 Swiss francs while giving another abso­lut­ely nothing. When their decis­i­ons are trans­pa­rent, they also become traceable, and they need to provide the reasons behind them. This places limits on the decis­i­ons that they can make at their own discretion. Of course, when chari­ties are deal­ing with their own funds, it is important that they have a bit of leeway: it’s the only way that they can be an important, effec­tive coun­ter­part to the state. They can kick-start deve­lo­p­ments and initiate things in areas where the state can’t or doesn’t want to get invol­ved. And, in turn, this can create truly important things for society, which is why it’s even more important that this takes place as part of an open dialo­gue with society itself.

Is the plat­form itself a phil­an­thro­pic project?

At the start it is, no doubt. But it should also finance itself one day, of course. That’s the only sensi­ble approach: it lets its users decide what’s necessary.

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Peter Buss began his profes­sio­nal career in 1985, as a self-employed lawyer based in Basel. He is foun­der and CEO of Nonpro­Cons AG, Basel, a firm offe­ring manage­ment consul­ting and fund­rai­sing services for non-profit orga­ni­sa­ti­ons, which he has run since 1992. He laun­ched Phil­an­thropy Services AG, Basel, and the first itera­tion of the online plat­form StiftungSchweiz.ch in 2013. This plat­form was re-laun­ched at the end of Septem­ber 2019 as a new version that encom­pas­sed the entire phil­an­thro­pic sector. In addi­tion, Phil­an­thropy Services AG publishes a maga­zine, called The Philanthropist. With more than 30 years of profes­sio­nal expe­ri­ence, Peter Buss is a veri­ta­ble expert on issues rela­ting to mana­ging and finan­cing clubs and chari­ties. He also works as a univer­sity lectu­rer and spea­ker, and has published nume­rous works, inclu­ding the semi­nal work Fund­rai­sing – Grund­la­gen, System und stra­te­gi­sche Planung. He co-foun­ded Zurich’s Round Table of Phil­an­thropy and the Verband Asso­cia­tion Manage­ment Compa­nies Schweiz amc.