Public gifts and legacies help Swedish fundraising grow after 2023 decline

New data suggests that the Swedish fundraising market bounced back in 2024, with total income for Giva Sverige’s members expected to have grown 5% to SEK 12bn (€1.1bn).

This preliminary forecast comes from its latest quarterly data, which shows that 70% of members report an increase in public gifts for 2024 compared to 2023. Meanwhile, 57% saw increased legacy giving.

Between 2022 and 2023, corporate giving dropped by more than a third to SEK 1.1bn. For 2024, corporate giving remained “stable but shows no signs of increasing at the moment”, according to Charlotte Rydh, secretary general of Giva Sverige.

Giva Sverige says that the increase was modest for many charities, with middle-sized charities – those raising SEK 25m to 99m annually – performing most strongly across the year. Larger organisations saw more growth during the second half of the year, and were also more likely than middle-sized ones to report an increase in legacy income.

The 5% preliminary forecast for growth means that the sector has regained much of the ground lost in the previous year – in 2023, Swedish charities reported an average 12% drop in donations. That followed a particularly strong 2022, during which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted many extra donations.

Reflecting on this preliminary data Rydh, who was also EFA president from 2021 to 2024, says:

“It is fantastic to see that the commitment of Swedes continues to be strong. The needs both in Sweden and in the world are enormous right now and the long-term support of donors is more important than ever.”

Giva Sverige says that the full data will be published in May.

Picture by by Jasper Graetsch on Unsplash