Overall Swiss giving stable but digital donations half as generous as offline

The average digital donation of 95 CHF (€102) made to a group of major Swiss charities last year was half the average of those made through more traditional methods, like bank transfer or post (198 CHF).

This is a key finding of a new report written by Zewo Foundation, with support from the University of Fribourg, and published in both French and German.

The report looks at trends around donations to organisations holding the Zewo certification – a standard meaning that the charity meets certain expectations in areas including ethics, governances, transparency, and fundraising and communication.

The study also estimates that total giving in the country in 2024 was 2.25bn CHF, the same figure as in 2023, as previously reported by Fundraising Europe.

The 2023 and 2024 figure is 10% lower than in 2022, but still higher than all other previous years, and represents a doubling of giving in the past two decades – the figure in both 2003 and 2004 was 1.1bn CHF.

International strength

Overall, 55% of Zewo-certified charities experienced a decline in fundraising income. This picture changes based on charities’ focus – 60% of organisations working in Switzerland experienced a decline, while for internationally-focused organisations it was lower, at 45%.

However, total income for these organisations rose by 2.7% to 5.1bn CHF. This was thanks mainly to Government funding increasing during 2024 from just less than 1.9bn CHF to a little more than 2bn CHF.

In total, 51% of Zewo-certified organisations’ fundraising income comes from public donations; 27% from other churches and other nonprofits (including major fundraising campaign La Chaîne du Bonheur); 18% from legacy gifts; and 4% from enterprises.

Digital drop

As well as showing that digital donations are typically half as valuable as donations through traditional methods, the value of online giving has fallen year-on-year.

For digital donations on Twint, the most popular digital platform among Zewo-certified charities, the average value dropped from 117 CHF in 2022 and 101 CHF in 2023 to 86 CHF in 2024. Digital donations using credit cards also dropped from 168 CHF in 2022 to 108 CHF in 2024, while PayPal gifts have more than halved in average value from 160 CHF in 2022, to 74 CHF in 2024.

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