More Data Needed for Philanthropy

Trans­pa­rency Increa­ses Trust

Katja Schö­nen­ber­ger, you have only been the mana­ging direc­tor of Swiss­Foun­da­ti­ons for half a year and were thus only margi­nally invol­ved in the Jour­ney. Nevert­hel­ess, you are stron­gly advo­ca­ting for grea­ter trans­pa­rency and a better data foun­da­tion. Why?

Katja Schö­nen­ber­ger: Data are essen­tial for the broad accep­tance of the foun­da­tion sector. They allow us to trans­par­ently show what we do and the exten­sive impact of our work. Trans­pa­rency is a major concern for Swiss­Foun­da­ti­ons. That’s why we also support the third prin­ci­ple of the Swiss Foun­da­tion Code, which states: “The foun­da­tion main­ta­ins as much trans­pa­rency as possi­ble about its foun­da­ti­ons, goals, struc­tures, and acti­vi­ties.” It couldn’t be clearer.

How could impro­ved data coll­ec­tion influence the work of SwissFoundations?

K.S.: More precise data coll­ec­tion would allow foun­da­ti­ons to better align their stra­te­gies and ther­eby promote more effec­tively. Better-infor­med, data-driven decis­ion-making would lead to more effec­tive action.

What concrete steps should be taken to improve the data situation?

K.S.: The first step is to improve the quality and acces­si­bi­lity of data—both quali­ta­tively and quan­ti­ta­tively. This would bene­fit all stake­hol­ders in the sector. Open Data plat­forms could also play an important role, as they make available data anony­mi­sed and aggre­ga­ted broadly acces­si­ble. There is an active commu­nity around Open Data in Switzerland.

Data Quality Often Inadequate

Lucía Gómez-Teijeiro, you accom­pa­nied the Jour­ney from a scien­ti­fic perspec­tive as a staff member of the Univer­sity of Geneva—how would you assess the quality of the current data situa­tion in philanthropy?

Lucía Gómez-Teijeiro: The quality of the data is often lack­ing. For exam­ple, to assess the substan­tive focus of a funding orga­ni­sa­tion, we often only have the foundation’s purpose to go on. Howe­ver, this is metho­do­lo­gi­cally insuf­fi­ci­ent because the foundation’s purpose is rarely updated and says little to nothing about current grant prac­ti­ces or opera­tio­nal focu­ses. This leads to analy­ses based on this data giving the impres­sion that phil­an­thropy is static— which is defi­ni­tely not the case. This lack of quality and depth in data sever­ely limits analy­ti­cal possi­bi­li­ties. It affects the vali­dity of state­ments and ulti­m­ately also signi­fi­cantly rest­ricts the useful­ness of our rese­arch findings for the ever­y­day prac­tice of philanthropy.

How does the data situa­tion look in other count­ries, speci­fi­cally in the USA?

L.G.: In the USA, parti­cu­larly through the publicly acces­si­ble Form 990, there is a unified report­ing stan­dard, leading to a far better data foun­da­tion that enables detailed insights and analy­ses. This also faci­li­ta­tes the coor­di­na­tion of phil­an­thro­pic efforts. Over­laps are avoided, and syner­gies are better utili­sed. The clear presen­ta­tion of acti­vi­ties and results enhan­ces the impact of orga­ni­sa­ti­ons as they can offer more targe­ted support and respond more effec­tively to socie­tal needs. Addi­tio­nally, the trans­pa­rent accoun­ta­bi­lity to private donors increa­ses trust and encou­ra­ges private giving by show­ing how and where funds are actually used.

Which data would be parti­cu­larly valuable from a scien­ti­fic perspec­tive and why?

L.G.: What is needed are detailed data on actual acti­vi­ties, in the sense of “walking the talk.” Espe­ci­ally valuable would be detailed infor­ma­tion on annual budgets and thema­tic focu­ses. This would provide a compre­hen­sive over­view of the third sector’s perfor­mance. We could better under­stand how non-profit orga­ni­sa­ti­ons deve­lop inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons and comple­ment or enrich govern­ment services with new ideas. This would also make the effec­ti­ve­ness of funding measu­res more tangible.

Parti­cu­larly valuable would be detailed infor­ma­tion on annual budgets and thema­tic focuses.

Lucía Gómez-Teijeiro, Assistant Profes­sor, Berner Fachhochschule

Open­ness Crea­tes Legitimacy

Katja Schö­nen­ber­ger, what bene­fits does grea­ter trans­pa­rency bring to the members of SwissFoundations?

Non-profit foun­da­ti­ons are under incre­asing legi­ti­macy pressure—and that is a good thing. Foun­da­ti­ons have nothing to hide; on the contrary, they bene­fit from more people knowing what they do and why. Grea­ter trans­pa­rency means the gene­ral public better under­stands the socie­tal contri­bu­tion made by funding foun­da­ti­ons. This impro­ves rela­ti­onships with various stake­hol­ders, which ulti­m­ately enhan­ces our credi­bi­lity and effec­ti­ve­ness as a sector.

Grea­ter trans­pa­rency means the gene­ral public better under­stands the socie­tal contri­bu­tion made by funding foundations.

Katja Schö­nen­ber­ger, Mana­ging Direc­tor, SwissFoundations

The current legal disclo­sure requi­re­ment for tax-exempt foun­da­ti­ons in Switz­er­land is very modest—should this change?

K.S.: A compre­hen­sive data coll­ec­tion across the entire sector is crucial, not just among Swiss­Foun­da­ti­ons members; only then can we obtain data that is repre­sen­ta­tive. Adjus­t­ments to the legal frame­work were propo­sed during the Lear­ning Jour­ney, for exam­ple, by Nils Güggi, Head of the Fede­ral Super­vi­sory Board for Foun­da­ti­ons. This would likely be the appro­priate means for compre­hen­sive sector-wide data avai­la­bi­lity. Howe­ver, such a law takes a lot of time—I don’t think we should wait that long.

A Volun­t­ary First Step

Stefan Schöbi, StiftungSchweiz has recently added a statis­tics section to the orga­ni­sa­tio­nal profiles. What do you speci­fi­cally hope for from this?

Stefan Schöbi: It’s a first step, but an important one. Firstly, it allows the parti­cu­larly valuable data mentio­ned by Lucía Gómez to be quickly captu­red. We are buil­ding on the alre­ady estab­lished and accepted Foun­da­tion Baro­me­ter, which we are repla­cing with a new panel approach. This makes data provi­sion much easier for orga­ni­sa­ti­ons and requi­res a frac­tion of the time. Secondly, the approach also allows for state­ments about future deve­lo­p­ments. What themes are top of the list this year? Do the available funds cover the needs evenly or do funding gaps become visi­ble? And thirdly, with the statis­tics section, we are buil­ding a coali­tion of the willing who prefer to move forward rather than get bogged down in funda­men­tal debates.

How else does StiftungSchweiz promote impro­ved data trans­pa­rency in philanthropy?

S. Sch.: Along­side the statis­tics section, we are intro­du­cing a series of badges on stiftungschweiz.ch that reco­g­nise and make visi­ble trans­pa­rency, enga­ge­ment, and networ­king. These digi­tal badges increase the trust­wort­hi­ness and visi­bi­lity of orga­ni­sa­ti­ons and moti­vate them to keep their profiles complete and up-to-date, which in turn impro­ves the quality and relia­bi­lity of the data available on our plat­form. We are the leading direc­tory for actors in Swiss phil­an­thropy and aim to further soli­dify this posi­tion through conti­nuous impro­ve­ments and expan­ded services.

Colla­bo­ra­tion as Key

Lucía Gómez, how could rese­arch and prac­tice colla­bo­rate better to improve the data situa­tion in philanthropy?

L.G.: We need more joint approa­ches and exch­ange plat­forms, such as StiftungSchweiz. If we coll­ect data coope­ra­tively, we can substan­ti­ally improve the foun­da­tion with little effort for all actors. An Open Data plat­form, as mentio­ned by Katja Schö­nen­ber­ger, would be a quan­tum leap.

What role do public and private actors play in impro­ving the data situation?

L.G.: The discus­sion in the Jour­ney showed that ever­yone is needed. In my view, there are various paths to the goal, and we should prag­ma­ti­cally focus on lever­aging syner­gies and advan­cing the data initia­tive together.

The Future of Data-Driven Philanthropy

Stefan Schöbi, how do you see the future of data-driven phil­an­thropy in Switzerland?

S. Sch: Digi­ta­li­sa­tion allows for effi­ci­ency gains and lays the foun­da­tion for data-driven and thus more impactful phil­an­thropy, bene­fiting all actors. That’s why we offer simple digi­tal tools at afforda­ble prices through StiftungSchweiz. At the same time, the digi­tal world also pres­ents new chal­lenges that we should not ignore. For exam­ple, because digi­tal tech­no­logy is more anony­mous, we need to scru­ti­nise the authen­ti­city of actors and the inte­grity of data more carefully. In the end, ever­yone bene­fits from this—well, at least the honest ones (laughs).

Digi­ta­li­sa­tion enables effi­ci­ency gains and crea­tes the basis for data-driven philanthropy.

Stefan Schöbi, CEO, StiftungSchweiz

Hand on Heart, How Secure Are Sensi­tive Data at StiftungSchweiz?

S. Sch: xperi­ence shows that no tech­ni­cal secu­rity measu­res offer abso­lute safety. Overly rigo­rous imple­men­ta­ti­ons also quickly come at the cost of user-friend­li­ness. A sense of propor­tion is ther­e­fore requi­red. And good team culture, because almost always, humans are the weak­est link in the chain. We have commit­ted oursel­ves to this at StiftungSchweiz.

So users can be sure that their data is not being sold off under the table?

S. Sch.: With the data policy published a year and a half ago and recently exten­ded, we volun­t­a­rily set strict limits on the use of data stored on our plat­form. We go much further than, for exam­ple, the NZZ, which many actors would likely regard as a refe­rence. Recently, it became known that the NZZ sells user data quite indis­cri­mi­na­tely to increase adver­ti­sing reve­nue. Such a sale is expli­citly excluded in our data policy. As a provi­der of soft­ware for Swiss phil­an­thropy, it is crucial for us to be a trust­wor­thy partner—and that in the long term.

Phil­an­thropy in the Digi­tal Age
In the joint essen­tial “Digi­tal Phil­an­thropy for Funders,” Swiss­Foun­da­ti­ons and StiftungSchweiz present their vision of modern phil­an­thropy in the digi­tal age. Disco­ver how digi­tal tools can maxi­mise impact and shape funding stra­te­gies and acti­vi­ties of the future.
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