Sweden

Giva Sverige – Swedish Fundraising Association

Giva Sverige is a fundraising infrastructure organisation and was established in 1991, with its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.

Key topics of Giva Sverige are Swedish giving, civil society, fundraising practice, and donor engagement.

(Research) questions guiding their work are, among others:

• How can research and practitioner knowledge in fundraising and philanthropy be effectively connected, translated, and applied to improve philanthropic practice?
• What characterises young donors’ motivations, preferences, and giving behaviours, and how do these differ from those of other donor groups?
• What are the patterns, drivers, and forms of corporate giving, and how are these shaped by organisational, economic, and societal contexts?
• What factors influence regular giving, donor retention, and long-term donor relationships in contemporary philanthropic environments?
• How are philanthropic and foundation giving evolving in the current social, economic, and regulatory environment, and what implications does this have for civil society organisations?

Introduction to Philanthropy Research in Sweden

By Johan Vamstad, Stefan Einarsson and Mårten Palmefors

Philanthropy is a relatively small academic field in Sweden and is mainly studied within the broader field of civil society research. The largest research centre is the Centre for Civil Society Research at Marie Cederschiöld University in Stockholm. Its interdisciplinary research includes political science, sociology, business administration, history, social work and theology.

A cornerstone of Swedish research on individual giving is the National Survey of Civic Participation, conducted every four to five years since 1992. It provides longitudinal data on donations to civil society organisations alongside other forms of civic participation.

The Stockholm Center for Civil Society Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics has also developed a substantial research programme on civil society and philanthropy. Its work includes comparative research on foundations, research foundations, venture philanthropy and social investment. The JEDI-lab at Linköping University contributes experimental research on the behavioural and psychological motivations behind charitable giving.

An important non-academic actor is the Swedish Fundraising Association, Giva Sverige. Its approximately 200 member organisations account for an estimated 85–90% of donations made to organisations in Sweden. The association collects fundraising data, conducts regular public surveys and publishes analytical reports. The Swedish Fundraising Control provides a second major source through financial reporting by its 462 certified fundraising organisations.

Overview of Giving in Sweden

Giving by individuals

Individual giving is relatively widespread. The National Survey of Civic Participation found that 71% of Swedes had made at least one charitable donation during the preceding twelve months.

International aid, human rights and refugee-related organisations were the most frequently supported causes, with 51% of respondents reporting donations. Health was supported by 37%, domestic public and social-benefit causes by 19%, environmental, nature and animal-related causes by 17%, religion by 14%, and culture by 4%.

Sport and recreation are not measured as a separate donation category because Swedish sports organisations generally rely more heavily on membership fees, public funding and volunteer labour. Donations to education and research are also not separately recorded in the survey. Medical research donations, which are substantial, are instead included under health.

Estimates of average giving vary by dataset. The Swedish Fundraising Association reports an average of approximately €169, or SEK 1,800, while the Centre for Civil Society Research estimates an average of approximately €331, or SEK 3,515. The difference largely reflects the reporting periods: six months in the former survey and twelve months in the latter. In the Centre’s survey, the median annual donation was approximately €301 and the most common amount was around €47.

The Swedish Fundraising Association estimates that its member organisations received more than €499 million in individual lifetime donations. Because its membership is concentrated among charitable aid organisations, the figure does not capture all individual giving in Sweden, particularly donations to religion, education and sport.

No reliable monetary breakdown of the €499 million across different causes is available. Survey respondents could support multiple causes, so the participation percentages cannot be used to divide the total amount among sectors.

Bequest giving

Information on charitable bequests is more limited. The most reliable available source is the Swedish Fundraising Association, whose member organisations received approximately €175 million, or SEK 1.859 billion, in bequests in 2023.

There is no detailed national breakdown by cause. However, a substantial proportion of these legacies is believed to support organisations involved in treatment and research related to chronic and terminal illnesses.

A broader figure of approximately €954 million in individual-related income is reported by the Swedish Fundraising Control, but this combines lifetime donations, bequests, membership fees and income from goods and services. Because these categories cannot be separated, it is less suitable for estimating either lifetime giving or bequests independently.

Corporate giving

Corporate philanthropy is a growing source of funding for Swedish civil society, although available data are less comprehensive than for individual donations. Corporate support frequently takes the form of longer-term partnerships or activities integrated into Corporate Social Responsibility strategies rather than conventional one-off gifts.

The Swedish Fundraising Association reported approximately €104 million, or SEK 1.103 billion, in corporate donations to its member organisations in 2023. The Swedish Fundraising Control, which covers a larger group of recipient organisations, reported a higher figure of approximately €151 million, or SEK 1.601 billion.

Corporate giving was exceptionally high in 2022. The Fundraising Association recorded €165 million and the Fundraising Control €239 million. This was largely caused by extraordinary mobilisation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including a major matching campaign by a large real-estate company. Because 2022 is regarded as an outlier, the €151 million figure for 2023 is used as the more representative estimate of corporate giving.

The available data do not provide a comparable national breakdown of corporate giving across different charitable causes.

Foundations

Sweden has particularly strong data on foundations. A national research database was first established at the Stockholm School of Economics in 2002–2003, building on the registration requirements introduced through the 1996 Foundation Law.

The original database covered approximately 12,500 foundations. Subsequent updates expanded this to around 17,500 in 2012 and approximately 22,000 foundations in 2024. The database includes information on capital, purpose, type and year of establishment. Researchers have supplemented these administrative data with annual reports and a stratified sample of foundations to estimate national grantmaking.

Based on these data, approximately 10,900 endowed foundations were estimated to make grants, with average annual grantmaking of around €84,500.

Total foundation giving was estimated at approximately €921.25 million. Education and research received by far the largest amount, approximately €696 million, or 75.6% of the total. In practice, this funding is primarily directed towards research, particularly medicine and technology, rather than education.

Domestic public and social-benefit causes received approximately €160 million, or 17.4%. Culture received €18.27 million, health €17.4 million, sport and recreation €8.7 million, environmental causes €8.7 million, religion €4.35 million and international aid, human rights and refugee causes €3.48 million.

Foundation giving is highly influenced by a small number of large foundations, including foundations associated with a wealthy Swedish family that has made research linked to Swedish industry a major philanthropic priority. Unlike individual and corporate giving, which largely supports civil society organisations, much foundation funding flows directly to universities and research institutions.

Charity lotteries

Charity lotteries have a long tradition in Sweden, although data are more fragmented than for several other sources of philanthropy.

In 2023, member organisations of the Swedish Fundraising Association generated approximately €5.8 million from lotteries that they operated themselves. This figure excludes distributions from external charity lotteries.

The Swedish Postcode Lottery is by far the largest external charity lottery. In 2023, it distributed approximately €76 million, or SEK 804 million, to member organisations of the Swedish Fundraising Association.

Combining the Postcode Lottery with organisations’ own lotteries produces an estimated €82 million in charity-lottery contributions in 2023. The true figure may be somewhat higher because other external lotteries are not comprehensively recorded.

Sources of Contributions in Sweden

The combined estimate amounts to approximately €1.83 billion. Foundations are the largest source, at approximately €921.5 million, followed by individual lifetime giving at €499 million, bequests at €175 million, corporate giving at €151 million and charity lotteries at €82 million.

The figures should be understood as an indicative overview rather than a perfectly harmonised national total. In particular, the most representative figures for bequests, corporations and charity lotteries refer to 2023, while the foundation and individual-giving estimates are reported for 2022. The publication’s overall table combines these latest available figures.

Foundation data are comparatively comprehensive because Swedish foundations are subject to registration and have been systematically mapped through dedicated research. Individual and corporate estimates depend more heavily on reports from recipient organisations, meaning giving outside established fundraising organisations is less well captured.

A distinctive characteristic of Swedish philanthropy is its relationship with the universal welfare state. Individuals tend to support causes that supplement areas insufficiently covered by public provision, particularly international aid and health, while foundations concentrate strongly on research. Philanthropy therefore generally complements rather than replaces the role of the state.

Source

Vamstad, J., Einarsson, S., & Palmefors, M. (2026). Philanthropy in Sweden. In B. Hoolwerf & J. Vamstad (Eds.), Philanthropy in Europe: Mapping Research and Data on Donations by Households, Bequests, Foundations, Corporations and Charity Lotteries (pp. 317–330). European Research Network on Philanthropy.

You can download the full publication here: Philanthropy in Europe.