Swissfundraising selects new president, vice president & committee members

Hanspeter Bigler was unanimously elected as the new president of Swissfundraising, at the organisation’s recent general meeting.

Bigler is the head of communications and marketing at Christian aid organisation HEKS/EPER. He initially joined the Swissfundraising committee in 2021, and succeeds Sibylle Spengler who had served on the committee for 12 years, including six as president.

Sibylle Spengler, who steps down after 6 years as president

Bigler will work alongside newly-elected vice-president Fabienne Schmidli, who by day works at the university ZHAW in Zurich. Schmidli first joined the committee in 2020.

Silvia Beyeler of children’s charity SOS-Kinderdorf; Ruth Wagner from the agency one marketing; and Christine Bill from the agency asm Agentur für Sozialmarketing; have also joined the nine-person committee.

Presenting her final annual report to the 50 members in attendance, Spengler noted that Swissfundraising now had 1,065 members, that the organisation again ended the year with a turnover of more than 1m CHF (€1m), and a small profit (7,500 CHF). She added that demand for seminars and meetings was high, and that SwissFundraisingDay in June had attracted more than 400 attendees.

Swissfundraising director Roger Tinner also thanked Spengler for her service and hard work, noting that the membership had more than doubled during her time on the committee.