Switzerland

Different data sources exist on private donations, volunteering, nonprofits’ activities, foundations etc. in Switzerland. An overview can be found in the below table, followed by a brief description of the corresponding organizations.

Overview of Data Sources

Swiss Federal Statistical Office (BFS)

The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (BFS) coordinates the public statistics system of Switzerland. The office collects data on the voluntary activity of Swiss inhabitants above 15 years every three to four years since 1997, within the framework of the Swiss Labor Force Survey (SAKE).

Schweizerische Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft (SGG)

The SGG (engl. Swiss Public Welfare Society) was founded in 1810. The organization has created a monitoring tool of the voluntary action in Switzerland, called “Frewilligenmonitor”. The initial survey was published in December 2007, with updates approximately every three years.

Schweizerische Zertifizierungsstelle für gemeinnützige Spenden sammelnde Organisationen (ZEWO)

The foundation ZEWO is the Swiss certification authority for nonprofit organizations that collect charitable donations. On an annual basis, ZEWO collects data on the revenue structure of its ZEWO accredited organizations. The main findings are later on published in the so called “ZEWO Spendenstatistik”.

GFS-Forschungsinstitut (gfs-zürich)

The private social research institute gfs-zürich publishes an annual “Spendenmonitor” whose insights stem from a survey on donation behavior and public image of nonprofit organizations in Switzerland.

One marketing services

In 2008, the privately owned market and social research institute published in 2008 a study called “Spendenmarkt Schweiz”.  The study focuses on the donation behavior of Swiss inhabitants above 15 years. It has not been updated in recent years.

Center for Philanthropy Studies (CEPS)

The Center for Philanthropy Studies (CEPS) collects and prepares data on foundations in Switzerland and on their central organizational indicators such as employees, budgets, projects etc. on a regular basis. Initial findings are being presented in working papers and are generally available on the center’s website. Key research findings on the Swiss foundation sector are published annually in the “Swiss Foundation Report”, together with the umbrella organization SwissFoundations and the Center for Foundation Law at University of Zurich.

1. Descriptive statistics

Philanthropy includes every voluntary private action for a charitable purpose. In the below section, some interesting facts and key figures about philanthropy in Switzerland are presented.

Donations

• The estimated value of private monetary donations was 1.7 billion CHF in 2014 (ZEWO Spendenstatistik, 2014)
• Swiss households donated more in 2013 than in average in the years before. The estimated average donation sum per household counted approximately 490 Swiss Francs in 2013. This increase in the average donation sum per household ran parallel in the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. In German-speaking regions, people donate about 522 Swiss Francs, whereas 285 Swiss Francs were donated in average in French-speaking regions (gfs Spendenmonitor, 2013).
• In average, a Swiss household supported a total of 4 charitable organizations in 2013 (gfs Spendenmonitor, 2013)
• In 2014 two-thirds of the Swiss private households have donated for charitable organizations. Most frequently donations have been done for disease control, disabled persons and children. Payments for refugees have increased the most. It’s little less than the year before (gfs Spendenmonitor, 2014).
• As in the years before there have been made more donations from women than from men (69% vs. 63%) and as most of the times the giver proportion in the Romandie in 2014 is significantly lower as in the German speaking part of Switzerland (57% vs. 69%) (gfs Spendenmonitor, 2014).
• Young people donate strictly less than the average of the population. The point of time at which substantially people spend more is laid between 27 and 28 years (gfs Spendenmonitor, 2014).

Time Donations

• People who are actively involved in voluntary work spend 13.3 hours per month for formal (e.g. board member in the sports club) and 15.3 hours for informal (e.g. neighbourhood help) voluntary work (Bundesamt für Statistik, 2013).
• Every fourth person in Switzerland performs an unpaid activity.  (Bundesamt für Statistik, 2013).
• The total amount of formal and informal voluntary work is estimated to be 665 million hours per year. This equals 80 million working days. By using the labour cost approach, these hours worked can be valued at approximately 41 billions CHF. (Bundesamt für Statistik, 2015).

Foundations

• There are 13,046 charitable foundations in Switzerland. The total amount of their endowments adds up to around 70 billion CHF.
• The annual payout of Swiss grant-making foundations is estimated to be 1.5 – 2 billion CHF.
• Over 85% of the charitable foundations administer an endowment of less than 5 million CHF (Swiss Foundation Report, 2015).
• The share of charitable foundations that have been founded since 2000, is at 41.6%. (Swiss Foundation Report, 2016)
• Basel-Stadt is the canton with the highest density of foundations (with 45.7 foundations per 10’000 residents). Zurich is the canton with the most foundations in Switzerland (2,261 in total). (Swiss Foundation Report, 2016)

Associations

•  An estimated number of 76’438 associations exist in Switzerland (Helmig et al., 2010).
• In 2004, around 2.7 million members were active in 22’578 sports associations. In 1995, 3.4 million members were counted in 27’090 sports associations (Lamprecht, 2005).
• All of the unpaid hours of work in the third sector in Switzerland add up to approximately 80’000 full time positions (Helmig et al., 2010).

For Profit Organizations

• In 2014, companies donated a total of 32 million CHF to the 446 organizations holding the ZEWO-Gütesiegel (ZEWO Spendenstatistik, 2014).
• The total amount of donations from companies is estimated to be 1 billion CHF in 2009 (von Schnurbein/Bethmann 2010; Ammann et al. 2004)

Details on sources used in the above section can be found here >>.