The cultu­ral transformation

In a place where huge machi­nes previously inked letters onto paper, bright white­boards and big screens now invite us to formu­late our thoughts and ideas and share them with others. Even though it may well be a coin­ci­dence, our shift to being a digi­tal society can hardly be illus­tra­ted in a more stereo­ty­pi­cal way than with refe­rence to the demise of prin­ters. Fonda­tion Botnar set up office in a former prin­ters’ shop in Basel’s old town two years ago. It is flexi­ble, light and modern – a work envi­ron­ment that meet the needs of today. 

Karin Schu­ma­cher is Chief Opera­ting Offi­cer at Fonda­tion Botnar, and she worked with the entire team to design and create the office. Howe­ver, their task was more concep­tio­nal than cons­truc­tion-based. ‘We wanted to create space for agile proces­ses,’ she says. Colla­bo­ra­tion needs to work just as smoothly within the office and away from it in a decen­tra­li­sed fashion, when team members are out and about. New digi­tal tools form the basis of this. Schu­ma­cher had to rethink ever­y­thing from the very begin­ning to make this a success. ‘Things did not always run to plan. But that is part of it,’ she says. ‘We wanted to have room to expe­ri­ment and to be able to make mistakes.’

New ques­ti­ons, new potential

The world of chari­ties is hete­ro­ge­neous. Chari­ties’ objects are as varied as the 13,000 chari­ties regis­tered in Switz­er­land. They respond to the ques­tion of how to approach digi­ta­li­sa­tion in a simi­larly diverse way. Commu­ni­ca­tion, colla­bo­ra­tion, projects: new ques­ti­ons pop up in every area. What are the oppor­tu­ni­ties opened up by digi­ta­li­sa­tion, and where are the chal­lenges to be found? And how can a charity make use of the poten­tial on offer? At present, it would appear that chari­ties are at diffe­rent stages of digi­ta­li­sa­tion, and that they are each focu­sing on parti­cu­lar areas. 

Oppor­tu­nity goes hand-in-hand with responsibility

A newly estab­lished charity can approach this ques­tion and work through it from the bottom up. Although it was not a newly estab­lished charity, Fonda­tion Botnar found itself in a situa­tion where it could, and had to, repo­si­tion itself. Marcela Botnar foun­ded the charity as far back as late 2003 with an endow­ment fund of 25 million Swiss francs. Marcela was the widow of Octav Botnar, who had earned his wealth by import­ing and selling Datsun and Nissan cars to the UK. The couple were phil­an­thro­pists. When Marcela, Botnar’s widow, died in 2014, she left all her assets to Fonda­tion Botnar. The funds available to the charity swel­led over­night to around 3.2 billion Swiss francs. But with this money came respon­si­bi­lity: the charity had to reinvent itself. ‘We gave a lot of thought to the exper­tise, skills and proces­ses we would need to be able to handle the charity’s funds both profes­sio­nally and trans­par­ently,’ says Karin Schu­ma­cher. The team was put toge­ther as part of a meti­cu­lous process and has been in its final form since summer 2019. When they were desig­ning their work proces­ses, the charity under­took in-depth discus­sions as a team, drawing on the expe­ri­ence and exper­tise of its employees who had worked in other chari­ties, private compa­nies and NGOs previously. These proces­ses are now the chan­nels through which Fonda­tion Botnar gives out funds amoun­ting to around 60 to 70 million Swiss francs every year.

Rethin­king collaboration

Very few chari­ties have oppor­tu­ni­ties like those offe­red to Fonda­tion Botnar. Many do not even have their own offices, and often, charity work is under­ta­ken on a volun­t­ary basis. ‘Trus­tees are focu­sed on their care­ers. They need to be able to work in a decen­tra­li­sed manner,’ says Katha­rina Guggi, respon­si­ble for commu­ni­ca­tion and digi­tal stra­tegy at Swiss­Foun­da­ti­ons. She adds: ‘New digi­tal commu­ni­ca­ti­ons tools offer a huge advan­tage in terms of colla­bo­ra­tion at chari­ties because they make it much easier to work in a decen­tra­li­sed fashion.’ The Swiss­Foun­da­ti­ons asso­cia­tion now encom­pas­ses 170 chari­ties using their funds to support exter­nal projects. It is based in Kirch­gasse, in the heart of Zurich. When Katha­rina Guggi star­ted her role two years ago, she needed to work through the data at hand, view it and struc­ture it – and all in non-digi­tal form. It was clear to her that Swiss­Foun­da­ti­ons needed to explore how things worked at the charity itself. Digi­ta­li­sa­tion means that change at every orga­ni­sa­tion needs to start with the employees them­sel­ves. After all, if you want to tap into the poten­tial offe­red by digi­ta­li­sa­tion, you do not just need to digi­ta­lise the proces­ses you previously used. You need to rethink colla­bo­ra­tion proper. Digi­ta­li­sa­tion is always about change, and change often goes hand in hand with inse­cu­rity and inter­nal resis­tance. First and fore­most, it means using new tools yours­elf, getting used to them, and embed­ding these new oppor­tu­ni­ties in your day-to-day life. 

Part of digitalisation

Where­ver possi­ble, Katha­rina uses Slack instead of email, stores data in the cloud and hand­les projects digi­tally in Trello, the online kanban system. These tools all share a high level of trans­pa­rency. Ever­yone invol­ved can see where a project is at in Trello, and ever­yone who is a member of a parti­cu­lar Slack chat can follow the discus­sion there. The situa­tion descri­bed by Andrew Holland, Direc­tor of Merca­tor Switz­er­land, sounds rather simi­lar. The charity was foun­ded in 1998 by the descen­dants of Karl Schmidt, a German family of trad­ers and entre­pre­neurs, and is based in Zurich. Last year, they supported chari­ta­ble projects with funding to the tune of 19.5 million Swiss francs. Andrew Holland: ‘On a syste­ma­tic level, digi­ta­li­sa­tion begins in the office itself. We see oursel­ves as part of digi­ta­li­sa­tion. The new ways of orga­ni­s­ing our work and the use of modern colla­bo­ra­tion tools are alre­ady part of our ever­y­day lives.’ They want to use these tools to break down the comple­xity of modern topics. In the office, digi­ta­li­sa­tion occurs on three levels: in proces­ses and products, in ways of work and struc­tures, and in culture, gover­nance and management.

A charity with an unusual foun­ding story

Digi­ta­li­sa­tion chan­ges culture, but this process of change can be trig­ge­red by a change in staff. Small chari­ties, in parti­cu­lar, are shaped less by perso­nal commit­ment, so a change to (gene­rally small) teams can encou­rage digi­tal deve­lo­p­ment. The ‘Stif­tung der 5. Euro­pa­meis­ter­schaf­ten für Sehbe­hin­derte 1989 in Zürich’ is in the midst of this trans­for­ma­tion at present. Its name hints at the unusual story behind how it was set up: ‘It star­ted with a company event for Holder­bank Kies + Beton AG,’ says the new chair of the board of trus­tees, Rolf Zuber­büh­ler. To mark its 25th anni­ver­sary, the company wanted to support sport for visually impai­red people instead of thro­wing a huge party. Holder­bank Kies + Beton AG provi­ded the infra­struc­ture for the fifth Euro­pean Cham­pi­on­ship for the Visually Impai­red in Zurich. ‘Unex­pec­tedly, there was some money left over at the end,’ Zuber­büh­ler goes on, explai­ning the charity’s orig­ins. The charity was sustained through perso­nal commit­ment. Walter Boss­hard, supported by his wife Verena, led the charity for three deca­des along­side his fellow trus­tees, offe­ring innu­me­ra­ble hours of volun­t­ary work. Digi­ta­li­sa­tion as a topic was not on the table back then: invi­ta­ti­ons and docu­ments for meetings came in paper form, and they were deli­vered by the post­man. The charity’s storage system consis­ted of a row of lever arch files. Ever­y­thing always worked, thanks to respon­si­ble administration.

From lever arch files to digi­tal storage.

The charity’s clearly defi­ned object (to aid visually impai­red people) means that it appro­ves a high percen­tage of appli­ca­ti­ons. ‘It has hand­led around 500 requests for assis­tance over the past 30 years,’ says Zuber­büh­ler. ‘The charity provi­ded assis­tance in around three-quar­ters of cases.’ Howe­ver, chari­ties are faced with incre­asing requi­re­ments in terms of admi­nis­tra­tion, and new trus­tees are used to new forms of colla­bo­ra­tion. As a result, it cannot be seen as a surprise that digi­ta­li­sa­tion has taken hold as older trus­tees have been repla­ced with new ones. Invi­ta­ti­ons, minu­tes and requests are all distri­bu­ted digi­tally today. There is even a digi­tal storage system in the making, which the board of trus­tees can log into. The charity’s exter­nal appearance is also being spru­ced up. It had barely made people aware of its exis­tence previously, but its website is curr­ently in the plan­ning stage to help project owners and indi­vi­du­als to be able to find the charity easier. Rolf Zuber­büh­ler says: ‘It will enable people to see both the charity and its work.’

The website is the basis

The need for commu­ni­ca­tion can vary from charity to charity, with its website being the basis of digi­tal commu­ni­ca­tion to the outside world. Social media has led to addi­tio­nal online chan­nels being added to this: digi­ta­li­sa­tion has radi­cally chan­ged the way we commu­ni­cate. Fixed sender/recipient models have served their purpose. Modern-day commu­ni­ca­tion is shaped by dialo­gue, enab­ling chari­ties to discuss issues with their target groups quickly. A website alone is no longer enough, says WWF Schweiz. Insta­gram, Face­book and Linke­dIn enable them to gather feed­back imme­dia­tely and speci­fi­cally target their commu­ni­ca­tion. The World Wide Fund for Nature is one of the world’s largest envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­sa­ti­ons. ‘We’re deter­mi­ned to ensure that people and nature can thrive toge­ther, for gene­ra­ti­ons to come’: this is their mission. The WWF deals with a topic that is curr­ently on the public’s radar and is part of public discourse.

On the one hand, social media pres­ents the chance to react to oppor­tu­ni­ties at short notice, and, on the other, digi­tal commu­ni­ca­tion can be well plan­ned as part of a marke­ting stra­tegy. Of course, being inter­ac­tive also invol­ves risks, as both private indi­vi­du­als and orga­ni­sa­ti­ons alike can be left facing a crisis. 

The digi­ta­li­sa­tion of projects

All in all, chari­ties are not very active on social media, as data from Swiss­Foun­da­ti­ons reve­als. Ninety percent of its members do have a website, which is a very high figure compared to the over­all Swiss average of 15 percent. Howe­ver, its members are not parti­cu­larly present on social media, with three-quar­ters of them not active on these chan­nels at all. The WWF empha­si­ses that, while digi­tal commu­ni­ca­tion has poten­tial, you cannot unde­re­sti­mate the value of tradi­tio­nal chan­nels. In addi­tion, the WWF adds that digi­ta­li­sa­tion is not limi­ted to Face­book, Insta­gram and websites. Today, the WWF sees invest­ments in digi­tal inno­va­tion as also encom­pas­sing ways that it can reach its objec­ti­ves. Sensors, drones and AI are tools that the WWF is using alre­ady. For exam­ple, the WWF can use drones to better moni­tor the popu­la­tion of river dolphins in the Amazon, and, in China, AI-assis­ted photo traps help it to record the animal popu­la­tion auto­ma­ti­cally. The WWF is convin­ced that these tools might help it to boost the impact of its projects.

Digi­ta­li­sa­tion cannot be viewed in isolation

The digi­ta­li­sa­tion debate also affects chari­ties’ discus­sions about their impact in the present day. Impact is hugely important on an inter­na­tio­nal level. Howe­ver, we are slowly but surely heading towards ‘smart’ chari­ties. The digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion is picking up pace in the charity sector, as Katha­rina Guggi states, and chari­ties are posi­tio­ning them­sel­ves accor­din­gly. Katha­rina Guggi: ‘Chari­ties like Merca­tor Schweiz are expli­citly crea­ting offices to focus on the socie­tal chall­enge posed by digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion.’ They are also being speci­fi­cally asso­cia­ted with the charity’s objects and its projects. Torben Stephan is head of the digi­ta­li­sa­tion and society programme at the charity Merca­tor Schweiz. ‘At Merca­tor, we see digi­ta­li­sa­tion as an inter­play between tech­no­logy and society,’ he says. ‘For us, the key ques­tion is how we want to live along­side each other within an incre­asingly digi­ta­li­sed society in the future. That is why digi­ta­li­sa­tion is a cross-secto­ral issue, invol­ving every major topic (educa­tion, commu­ni­ca­tion, colla­bo­ra­tion, envi­ron­ment) that affects a charity. It cannot be viewed in isola­tion. Just as inter­nal forms of colla­bo­ra­tion are chan­ging, Merca­tor Schweiz’s projects see digi­ta­li­sa­tion having an impact on civil society, in parti­cu­lar. Civil society is a complex beast, loca­ted outside the commer­cial market­place and state struc­tures. Digi­ta­li­sa­tion gives civil society new oppor­tu­ni­ties to express itself and inter­act. Andrew Holland: ‘This means that civil society will gain the skills and know­ledge it needs to accu­ra­tely weigh up the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges offe­red by digi­ta­li­sa­tion and play a role in posi­tively shaping changes.’

Fight­ing the ‘digi­tal Rösti­gra­ben’ divi­ding Switzerland

The board of trus­tees at Merca­tor Schweiz has deve­lo­ped and signed off on a new programme with the aim of better equip­ping civil society in this regard. There are two million Swiss francs a year at its dispo­sal, with this figure reaching a total of ten million Swiss francs over the plan­ned term of five years. The programme consists of three strands: the first is that the wider public’s parti­ci­pa­tion in digi­ti­sa­tion should contri­bute to bridging the gaps between cultures. ‘The aim is not to leave anyone behind. At the moment, we are focu­sing on teaching skills, like data skills,’ explains Torben Stephan. There are also projects to mini­mise the urban/rural divide and avoid the crea­tion of a ‘digi­tal Rösti­gra­ben’, a modern-day equi­va­lent of the divi­sion between French- and German-spea­king Switz­er­land. The second invol­ves looking at major issues for the future, like arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, the block­chain or digi­tal values deba­tes, from the perspec­tive of civil society. Torben Stephan: ‘It is important that civil society forms an opinion on these issues, play­ing an active role in the space between the worlds of poli­tics, busi­ness and rese­arch.’ Accor­ding to him, the busi­ness world prede­ter­mi­nes the outcome of many issues at present. Thirdly, the aim is to use tech­no­logy in the service of society: inno­va­tion for the grea­ter good. 

Swel­ling chari­ties’ coffers

Digi­ta­li­sa­tion also enables civil society to make use of new ways to finance projects. Rea Eggli, co-foun­der of wema­keit says: ‘Our crowd­fun­ding plat­form wema­keit is the ideal coun­ter­part to chari­ta­ble funding; we do not see oursel­ves as a compe­ti­tor.’ wema­keit has been enjoy­ing a prac­ti­cal colla­bo­ra­tion with a charity for two years thanks to the ‘Science Boos­ter’. The ‘Science Boos­ter’ sees Gerbert Rüf support successful scien­ti­fic projects on wemakeit.com, doubling every Swiss franc dona­ted by the public. Public-private part­ner­ships are also an option. For chari­ties them­sel­ves, wema­keit is a digi­tal plat­form where they can disco­ver new projects, as a search subscrip­tion with keywords helps them to find inno­va­tive projects to support. This is one reason why part­ne­ring with wema­keit can be an exci­ting pros­pect for a charity, whether in terms of finding an issue to support or making it easier to process compe­ti­ti­ons between project owners. A charity can even tap into new target groups with crowd­fun­ding. wema­keit curr­ently has a commu­nity of more than 300,000 people. The chance that a project reaches its self-impo­sed goal is 61 percent, and more than 4,000 projects have alre­ady enjoyed success, coll­ec­ting a total of 48 million Swiss francs. In all these succes­ses, you need to bear in mind the effort put in by the people laun­ching the project in ques­tion, which cannot be unde­re­sti­ma­ted: ‘Crowd­fun­ding always takes a lot of effort in terms of commu­ni­ca­tion,’ says Rea Eggli. She adds that this is why she sees the propor­tion of crowd­fun­ded income in a project budget as origi­na­ting from the charity itself.

People are at the heart of things

Fonda­tion Botnar is turning to digi­ta­li­sa­tion and digi­tal inno­va­tions so it can pursue its chari­ta­ble objects. ‘The Future Now – For Child­ren World­wide,’ Botnar promi­ses on its website. Its dedi­ca­tion to children’s health and well-being is time­l­ess, but digi­ta­li­sa­tion has even been inte­gra­ted into the charity’s stra­tegy. Its current CEO, Stefan Germann, applied for his posi­tion at Fonda­tion Botnar in 2016 with a concept revol­ving around digi­ta­li­sa­tion and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, winning over the board of trus­tees. ‘Over the next 20 years, people will be crea­ting digi­tal health tech­no­lo­gies with smart algo­rithms and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. The speedy deve­lo­p­ment of these tech­no­lo­gies opens up unpar­al­le­led oppor­tu­ni­ties for public health on a global scale. For exam­ple, they could help combat the acute lack of health­care workers,’ he belie­ves. The Afya-Tek project, laun­ched in Tanz­a­nia in 2019, is typi­cal of Fonda­tion Botnar’s work. Its aim is to bring toge­ther public and private health­care systems within a digi­tally networked commu­nity. ‘We focus on child­ren and young people in medium-sized cities, known as secon­dary cities, in count­ries with limi­ted resour­ces,’ says Stefan Germann. ‘There is a great need for this, yet NGOs often limit their work to either capi­tal cities or rural areas. Our objec­tive is to imple­ment digi­tal solu­ti­ons in secon­dary cities and to achieve econo­mies of scale as a result.’ Fonda­tion Botnar is inves­t­ing in digi­tal inno­va­tions, deve­lo­ping sustainable solu­ti­ons that can be scaled up. Howe­ver, as Germann says,