Fewer donations from the public fundraising domain

Financial donations from private individuals and institutions help pay for the growth of the registry of blood stem cell donors. Donations in 2022 totalled CHF 1,397,697.

Swiss Transfusion SRC receives no funding for the registration of new donors in connection with its mandate from the Swiss government; Swiss Transfusion SRC has to raise the money to pay for this itself. The necessary outlay is largely covered by donations from private and institutional donors.

In 2022, private and institutional donors donated a combined total of CHF 1,397,697, which is 2.7 percent below the total for 2021 (CHF 1,436,465). Almost three-quarters of this came from private individuals, associations and companies; the other quarter from institutional donors.

Increase in donations linked with direct mail appeals

Swiss Transfusion SRC has the good fortune of being able to rely on a large circle of donors and benefactors who are stalwart supporters of blood stem cell donation. In 2022, they donated a total of CHF 1,007,697. This represents a six per cent decrease in public fundraising revenue compared to 2021 (CHF 1,072,545).

Swiss Transfusion SRC changed the name of its “supporter” programme, which was launched in 2020, to “benefactor” programme in the year under report. A total of 1,048 new benefactor agreements were signed in 2022. A large number of these were acquired through telephone marketing activities focussing on people already registered as blood stem cell donors. A total of CHF 417,087 (2021: CHF 348,361) in revenue was generated from the 5,312 benefactorships active at the end of 2022 (2021: 4,264).

Appeals for financial donations addressed to various groups (direct mail marketing) generated CHF 303,617 in contributions (2021: CHF 288,648). This 5.2 per cent increase was the result of the additional telephone marketing campaign in the autumn and the increased revenue from the Christmas mailing. A further CHF 93,449 came in as individual or event-related donations (2021: CHF 58,355). Deaths and birthdays are examples of events associated with this type of donation, others might be donations from businesses. In addition, CHF 60,302 in revenue was generated by benefit and charity events held on behalf of blood stem cell donation (2021: CHF 119,722). This significant decrease is explained by the fact that, unlike in 2021, for instance, no large-scale event of this kind was held in 2022. The virtual national Leukemia Charity Run hosted by the student association Marrow, which collected CHF 49,556 (2021: CHF 80,000), and the “Movember” donation drive by employees of Basel’s professional fire brigade on the “Inspire now” donation platform, which brought in CHF 6,400 are thus particularly noteworthy.

Fewer people contributing towards the costs of their registration

At CHF 133,242, the total amount contributed by newly registering donors was well below the 2021 figure (CHF 257,459). This is partly because fewer people registered, registrations were down by a third compared to 2021, but the percentage of people who contributed towards the costs of their registration also fell (20 per cent in 2022 vs. 25 per cent in 2021). The average amount of contributions fell only slightly (CHF 81.85 in 2022 vs. CHF 82.31 in 2021).

Foundations and lottery funds

Income from institutional fundraising, which is to say, contributions from foundations, charitable funds and lottery funds, amounted to CHF 390,000 and thus rose by around 7 per cent compared to 2021 (CHF 363,920). This is encouraging, because the years when no money is received from lottery funds (2021/2022) are generally weaker years and because interest incomes have fallen so low that the foundations have had to decrease the amounts of their grants. Many foundations have set up emergency funds in response to Covid-19 and are thus focussing more on projects related to the crisis and efforts to overcome it.