Regular donors in Norway are loyal but businesses giving less, finds report

Income for charities in Norway grew 15% to NOK 31bn (€2.66bn) in 2023, with the war in Ukraine playing a major part in that growth.

This is according to The Deloitte Fundraising Report 2024, produced by Fundraising Norge and Deloitte. The report is based on the finances of 57 of the country’s largest charities, including Stiftelsen Flyktninghjelpen (The Norwegian Refugee Council), with income of NOK 8.1bn for the year, a 5% yearly increase.

Grants from Norwegian authorities to charities rose by 18% to NOK 8.2bn during the year – with around half of that going to the Røde Kors (Red Cross) and Stiftelsen Flyktninghjelpen. However, disregarding donations relating to Ukraine, this income fell by 3%.

Funds from EU, UN and other international bodies also grew to NOK 7.8bn, a 13% year-on-year rise.

The amount of income received from regular donors was NOK 2.55bn in 2023, a 2% rise during the year. This was due to a 14% increase in the number of new regular donors recruited during 2023 versus 2022, while average donations rose very slightly, from NOK 2,158 in 2022 to NOK 2,169 in 2023 – but still slightly lower than the 2,177 figure of 2022.

Income from occasional donors dropped by nearly a quarter, from NOK 985m in 2022 to NOK 777m in 2023.

Contributions from the business world dropped by a similar margin of 27%, to NOK 918m in the year.

The survey also shows that email is now the most used marketing and fundraising channel among Norwegian charities, taking over from Facebook, ahead of the platform winding down its fundraising tool in Europe in 2024.

Looking ahead, nearly one in five (18%) of respondents suggested they would like to use crowdfunding as a fundraising method in future – in addition to 44% who already have done so.

Almost all (95%) of charities in the survey use payment platform Vipps.

Fundraising Europe reported earlier this year that, according to a Vipps survey, Norwegian charity donors have a more pronounced gender split than in other Nordic nations, and were also less interested than their neighbours in environmental causes.

Photo by Christoffer Engstrom on Unsplash