Philanthropy in Numbers
Philanthropy includes every voluntary private action for a charitable purpose. On this page we would like to present you some interesting facts about philanthropy in Switzerland.
- The amount of private donations by the Swiss population was estimated at more than CHF 2.05 billion in 2021 (Spendenreport Schweiz, 2022).
- The average estimated donation per household was around CHF 360 in 2021 (median) (Spendenreport Schweiz, 2022).
- 80% of all Swiss households reported donating in 2021: 83% of households in German-speaking Switzerland, 68% of households in Italian-speaking Switzerland and 75% of households in French-speaking Switzerland (Spendenreport Schweiz, 2022).
- Women (83%) donated more often than men (77%) in 2021 (Spendenreport Schweiz, 2022).
- Different age groups donated to varying degrees in 2021. Around 68% of 15-34 year olds, around 84% of 35-54 year olds and around 88% of 55-99 year olds donated (Spendenreport Schweiz, 2022).
- The development of digital donations is progressing. Every 5th person also donates digitally. Among people under 35, even every third person donates digitally (Spendenreport Schweiz, 2021).
- In 2021, companies donated a total of 95 million Swiss francs to the approximately 500 statistically recorded organisations with the ZEWO Gütesiegel (Spendenreport Schweiz, 2022).
- The total volume of donations to Zewo-certified NPOs is CHF 1.32 billion in 2022 (Spendenreport Schweiz, 2022).
- In 2020, 41% of the population aged 15 and over did voluntary work (Bundesamt für Statistik, 2021).
- People who are actively involved in voluntary work spend 11.6 hours per month for formal (e.g. board member in the sports club) and 14.8 hours for informal (e.g. neighbourhood help) voluntary work (Bundesamt für Statistik, 2021).
- Relative to women, men participate more often in institutionalised volunteering, whereas women participate relatively more often in informal volunteering. In total, women were more often involved in volunteering than men in 2020, at 42.1% to 39.9% (Bundesamt für Statistik, 2021).
- 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 costapproach, these hours worked can be valued at approximately 41 billions Swiss Francs (Bundesamt für Statistik, 2015).
- Neighborly help is widespread in Switzerland. 72 % of the Swiss population aged 15 and over provides small amounts of neighborly help in the course of a year (Freiwilligenmonitor Schweiz, 2020).
- There are 13,667 charitable foundations in Switzerland (Swiss Foundation Report, 2022).
- A new foundation every day. In 2021, 365 new foundations were established (Swiss Foundation Report, 2022).
- After ten years, just over half (52.2%) of the charitable foundations have already been liquidated again (Swiss Foundation Report, 2021).
- The canton of Geneva has the highest growth in foundations with 48 new foundations in 2021 (Swiss Foundation Report, 2022).
- Basel-Stadt is the canton with the highest density of foundations (with 46.3 foundations per 10'000 residents). Zurich is the canton with the most foundations in Switzerland (2,232 in total) (Swiss Foundation Report, 2022).
- The Swiss average in foundation density is 15.5 foundations per 10,000 inhabitants (Swiss Foundation Report, 2022).
- Despite a slight increase, the proportion of women in foundation councils is still in the minority. In terms of gender, 68.3% of the total is made up of men and 31.7% of (Swiss Foundation Report, 2022).
- The internationality of the Swiss foundation sector is noteworthy: 12.9% of foundation board members are not Swiss citizens (Swiss Foundation Report, 2022).
- An estimated number of 76'438 associations exist in Switzerland (Helmig et al., 2010).
- In 2016, around 2.8 million members were part of 19'487 sports associations (1.99 million of them as active members). In 1995, 3.4 million members were counted in 27'090 sports associations (Lamprecht et al., 2017).
- 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).
- Bundesamt für Statistik (2015): Satellitenkonto Haushaltsproduktion - Periode 2013. Neuenburg: Bundesamt für Statistik.
- Bundesamt für Statistik (2021): Zeitaufwand für Freiwilligenarbeit nach soziodemografischen Merkmalen. Neuenburg: Bundesamt für Statistik.
- Bundesamt für Statistik (2021): Freiwilligenarbeit. Neuenburg: Bundesamt für Statistik.
- Guggi, Katharina / Jakob, Dominique / Jakob, Julia / von Schnurbein, Georg (2021). Der Schweizer Stiftungsreport 2021, CEPS Forschung und Praxis Bd. 23, Basel: CEPS.
- Jakob, D. / Jakob, J. / von Orelli, L. /von Schnurbein, G. (2022). Der Schweizer Stiftungsreport 2022, CEPS Forschung und Praxis Bd. 28, Basel: CEPS.
- Helmig, Bernd / Lichsteiner, Hans / Gmür, Markus (2010): Der Dritte Sektor der Schweiz. Länderstudie zum John Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project (CNP). Bern: Haupt Verlag.
- Lamprecht, M. / Bürgi, R. / Gebert, A. / Stamm, H.P. (2017): Sportvereine in der Schweiz: Entwicklungen, Herausforderungen und Perspektiven. Magglingen: Bundesamt für Sport BASPO.
- Lamprecht, M. / Fischer, A. / Stamm, H.P. (2020): Freiwilligen-Monitor Schweiz 2020. Zürich und Bern: Seismo Verlag.
- Swissfundraising / Stiftung Zewo (2021): Spendenreport Schweiz 2021. St.Gallen/Zürich: Swissfundraising / Stiftung Zewo.
- Swissfundraising / Stiftung Zewo (2022): Spendenreport Schweiz 2022. St.Gallen/Zürich: Swissfundraising / Stiftung Zewo.