2025 Year in Review

The year 2025 has been an eventful, challenging, and ultimately successful one. The operating conditions for many nonprofit organizations were anything but easy. In particular, the drastic cuts to U.S. development aid posed major challenges for numerous programs in the areas of global health and poverty reduction.

Against this backdrop, we are pleased that Effektiv Spenden was able to continue growing in 2025. While the overall donation volume in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland has stagnated, more people than ever have chosen to make impact-driven donations—which is great news!

In this year-in-review, we take a look at the most important developments, figures, and milestones for Effektiv Spenden in 2025—how much was donated through us and which causes the funds went to. If you’d prefer to experience the review in detail and in a dynamic format, you can find the webinar recording of the year-in-review here:

A special milestone: Over 100 million euros for highly effective organizations

Let’s start with a very special highlight: In December, we reached a major milestone. Since our founding in 2019, we raised more than 100 million euros for highly effective charities. By the end of 2025, the total amount had already exceeded 110 million euros.

Thank you very much to everyone who made this milestone possible!

At a glance

• In 2025, we were able to raise approximately 30 million euros for highly effective organizations. This represents growth of approximately 35 % compared to the previous year.
• Through 16,000 people donated via Effektiv Spenden in 2025—more than ever before.
• Through our 6 Donation Funds and personalized donation recommendations, more than 80 organizations could be supported.

In addition to the approximately 30 million euros, over 1 million euros went directly to Effektiv Spenden. These funds are not included in the total amount of donations we raised and are used to finance our own work. They enable us to further develop our platform, establish new funding areas, and inspire even more people to engage in effective giving.

Solid Growth in the DACH Region

In Germany and Switzerland, we saw steady, solid growth—even though the overall volume of donations in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland is stagnating.

We have also continued to expand geographically. In addition to our work in Germany and Switzerland, we have officially launched in Austria. Thanks to the work of Thomas Moispointner, donors can now make tax-deductible donations to selected, highly effective organizations there as well. In just the first year, we were able to raise nearly half a million euros in donations through our Austrian platform.

In Switzerland, too, we were able to further expand our presence thanks to our Country Manager, Philipp Augenstein. Together, we are working to raise awareness of effective giving throughout the German-speaking world.

We were able to increase the donation volume by >30 % in 2025

Stable growth in both countries—and welcome, Austria!

Where did the donations go? A detailed look at the cause areas

The breakdown of donations across our core areas shows which issues were particularly important to our donors in 2025.

The distribution of donations is largely similar to that of the previous year: “Fighting Extreme Poverty” remained our largest cause area with €14.4 million (48.3 % of the total donation volume), followed by climate protection with €6.3 million (21.2 %). The area “Safeguarding the Future”, including “Ensuring Safe AI” has grown significantly, with 3.6 million euros. (12.1 %). This was closely followed by “Defending Democracy” with 2.7 million euros (9.0 %) and “Improving Animal Welfare” with 2.2 million euros (7.3 %). An additional €500,000 went to umbrella organizations in the effective altruism community.

1. Fighting poverty remains our top cause area in 2025 as well

As in previous years, Fighting Poverty remains the cause area which is most donated to. Over 14 million euros were allocated to this area in 2025—roughly half of the total donation volume of Effektiv Spenden.

About 50 % of this amount went directly into our “Fighting Poverty” Giving Fund, which we developed together with GiveWell and the All Grants Fund. In addition, many donors choose to support specific organizations such as GiveDirectly. (17.8 %) or the Malaria Consortium (5 %).

The importance of this area became particularly clear in 2025: Worldwide, government funding for development cooperation drastically reduced or discontinued. The Dissolution of USAID and further cuts have left funding gaps in many effective aid programs. In response, we have launched a fundraising campaign through which we raised additional 100,000 euros to support particularly effective development cooperation. With our funds, we were able to provide support to Ministries of Health in Africa in dealing with the short-term loss of financial assistance, as well as Compensating for Supply Shortages of Malaria Diagnostic Tests.

Private donations cannot completely replace government funding. However, they can help sustain particularly effective programs and continue to provide people with life-saving assistance.

2. Mitigating Climate Change: A Focus on Innovative Solutions

With about 6 million euros raised last year, climate protection remained our second-largest cause area. Here, too, a good half of the donations went to the Giving Fund: Mitigating Climate Change, whose funds we are managing together with Founders Pledge. For individual top recommendations, we also draw on the analyses of GivingGreen.

In this area, we support organizations that identify and leverage particularly effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, support was provided to individual organizations working to promote technological innovations, policy reforms, and accelerated decarbonization of key economic sectors.

These include, for example, Future Cleantech Architects (FCA) and Clean Air Task Force (CATF). Based in Germany, the FCA advocates for the development and policy support of innovative climate technologies that have often been neglected in the past—particularly in industrial sectors that are difficult to decarbonize. The Clean Air Task Force works globally to advance policy frameworks and technological solutions aimed at reducing emissions from energy, industry, and transportation.

Founders Pledge estimates that donations to the Clean Air Task Force are among the most cost-effective climate action measures. According to its analysis, every dollar donated to CATF results in a long-term reduction of at least one metric ton of CO₂ equivalents.

In 2025, this area was also so important because some international climate change funding organizations shifted their priorities. For example, Bill Gates announced to increase funding for global health and development programs in order to offset funding gaps resulting from government cuts. Previously, he had been one of the world’s largest donors in climate philanthropy. Given this situation, we decided to fund the Innovation Initiative to promote the preservation of existing knowledge in the field of climate-friendly technologies and to prevent the fragmentation of this ecosystem.

3. Improving Animal Welfare: A Highly Neglected Area

In 2025, we were able to support organizations working to reduce animal suffering in industrial animal agriculture with over 2 million euros.

Although billions of animals are affected worldwide every year, only a fraction of donations is allocated to this area globally. Thank you to all the donors who keep this cause in mind!

In collaboration with the EA Animal Welfare Fund and Animal Charity Evaluators, we support organizations that advocate for better living conditions and long-term structural changes.

Our top recommendations here include The Humane League and Sinergia Animal. Both organizations rely on corporate campaigns to improve the living conditions of millions of farm animals through binding commitments by major food companies.

Example of Sinergia Animal’s Effectiveness: The organization works primarily in the Global South to encourage companies to adopt higher standards in animal husbandry. In Asia alone, 5 billion chickens are kept in cages. Through targeted campaigns and public pressure, they are persuading companies to make binding commitments to higher animal welfare standards, such as switching to cage-free eggs. By 2025, this approach had resulted in 16 new corporate commitments. This approach is particularly effective because individual corporate decisions can improve the living conditions of millions of animals. Sinergia Animal supports companies in this effort over the long term and monitors the implementation of their commitments. By the way, Carolina Galvani, the CEO of Sinergia Animal, visited us in Berlin in 2025 and gave a talk about her work and her own story.

Note: The Good Food Institute (GFI) runs in our cause area “Mitigating Climate Change”, based on the evaluation by Giving Green, even though it also makes a massive contribution to reducing animal suffering through the development and promotion of meat alternatives.

4. Safeguarding the Future & Ensuring Safe AI: Our Newest Field

The donation volume in this cause area has more than doubled compared to last year and reached a total of 3.6 million euros. This record-breaking result was driven, among other things, by a generous donation from Switzerland. The number of donors grew by an encouraging 48 %.

In this area, we support initiatives that help, in particular, to reduce serious global risks, such as uncontrolled AI, pandemics, or nuclear weapons. With our Giving Fund: Safeguarding the Future for example, we support organizations such as the RAND Meselson Center, which conducts research aimed at preventing future pandemics.

In doing so, we work closely with Longview Philanthropy, who support us both by providing recommendations and by advising individual major donors.

Since December 2024, we’ve expanded: In addition to this donation fund, we now also offer the Giving Fund: Ensuring Safe AI. This fund is aimed at people who want to specifically support projects that address the risks of Artificial Intelligence and contribute to the safe development of these technologies.

Impact example: Designing Artificial Intelligence Safely with SaferAI

The Paris-based organization develops independent risk management and evaluation standards for the most powerful AI models. While safety assessments are standard practice in many other industries, comparable standards have often been lacking in AI development until now.

SaferAI’s work is also gaining importance because the development of high-performance AI systems is increasingly subject to international competitive pressure. Companies and governments are increasingly viewing AI as a strategic and geopolitical advantage. In such an environment, there is a growing risk that security will take a back seat to competitiveness.

5. Defending Democracy: A New Research Partner

This cause area, which was launched in 2024, Defending Democracy was marked by major advancements in 2025. Throughout 2025, we received 2.7 million euros in donations.

January through July 2025: Democracy “beta”

In the first half of the year, we still managed the fund ourselves and allocated the Funds from the donation fund and from separate large donations to clear priorities in Germany:

• Support for pro-democracy media (Among others, the following were funded: HateAid and Correctiv)
• Strengthening Civil Society and the Judiciary (e.g., the Constitution blog and Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (Society for Liberty Rights))

By July 2025, a total of 1.5 million euros were raised to support effective democratic projects in Germany.

Since August 2025: A New Chapter with Power for Democracies

Toward the end of the year, with Power for Democracies as a specialized research partner, we finally were able to reach a new scientific foundation. As a newly established research institute they published their first well-founded recommendations for highly effective democracy work worldwide. To this end, €1.2 million from Germany and Switzerland were raised in a short period of time. The founder of this think tank, Markus Beeko explained how they exactly they work at one of our events in November 2025.

Among the top recommendations:

• CELS (Argentina): The Center for Legal and Social Studies strengthens democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression in Argentina through strategic litigation, research, and political advocacy. As one of the country’s most important civil society actors, the organization works to combat abuses of power and attacks on democratic institutions.
• MLSA (Turkey): With approximately 150 strategic lawsuits per year, the Media and Law Studies Association helps protect independent media and freedom of expression in Turkey. In 2025, it won 87 % of its cases.

How do our donors know about us?

To ensure that our donations effectively reach the heart of society, we continued to experiment with many new formats in 2025 and built on our proven approaches to further expand our reach and visibility. And we were successful: More than 16,000 people donated via Effektiv Spenden in 2025, and our website recorded about 58,000 active users.

In our Newsletter and Blog we continue to provide our existing community with regular updates, including new recommendations, research findings, and insights into our work (sign up here).

How do people become aware of us?

• Through Personal recommendations (18 %) and Search engines (14 %)
• The Effective Altruism Community (17 %) For many people, this remains the way they first learn about Effektiv Spenden.
• Podcasts & Influencers (13 %): We have successfully placed ads on high-reach podcasts such as “Lage der Nation” and “Apocalypse & Filterkaffee”. Our first YouTube campaign with Maurice Höfgen was also a success.
• Media reports (13 %) and press (4 %): One of the highlights of the year was an article on effective giving in the ZDF satirical show “Die Anstalt”. The broadcast led to a significant increase in the number of new donors, in particular to GiveDirectly. It was one of the main ways people first became aware of Effektiv Spenden in 2025.

What we’ve learned: Many of our initiatives worked very well in 2025. These included, for example, our podcast campaigns, messages recorded personally by the hosts, and collaborations with selected content creators.

Other measures fell short of our expectations: Our collaboration with an external PR agency did not achieve the desired results and generated hardly any measurable media coverage. This has provided us with important insights into which communication measures are particularly well-suited to our goals and where we want to allocate our resources. These insights have been incorporated into our strategy for 2026 and are shaping our priorities for the coming year.

In addition to traditional donations, we will, of course, continue to offer the option of Last will and testamentary donations, Donation vouchers and stock donations. In addition, we are the German partner of Giving What We Can’s 🔶10% Pledge and we offer the opportunity to set up your own Fundraising Campaign like this one.

We continue to offer customized Donor Advisory and we always look forward to hearing from our donors.

How is Effektiv Spenden funded?

Our income

The donations channeled to aid organizations do not fund our work. Effektiv Spenden is funded exclusively through separate grants, donations, and interest income, which allows it to operate independently. In 2025, we received around 2 million euros for our work.

The support we receive comes primarily from four sources:

1. Institutional donors (e.g., Coefficient Giving)
2. Direct donations to us
3. Donate to us using the “tipping” feature at the bottom of the donation form
4. Interest income, because we only distribute the donations twice a year

In 2025, we were able to fully finance our budget of approximately 1.15 million euros through donations and interest income. Nearly half a million euros of that amount was contributed via the “tipping ” feature at the bottom of the donation form.

We’d like to take this opportunity to once again extend a big thank you to everyone who supports our work with their donations!

What do we spend money on?

Our expenses

Our operating budget for 2025 was approximately 1.15 million €. Personnel costs remained the largest expense item, at about 750,000 € (roughly 65 % of the budget). Other major expenses included marketing and communications, at around €180,000, as well as costs for accounting, tax consulting, and legal counsel, totaling approximately €100,000. The remaining funds were allocated to other expenses such as our coworking space, IT infrastructure, insurance, and other ongoing operating costs.

For 2026, we are planning a budget of up to 1.5 million euros. We intend to use the additional funds primarily to further expand our reach. Far too few people are still aware of the opportunity to make their donations particularly effective. The more people learn about Effektiv Spenden, the more money can reach highly effective organizations and make a difference there.

Our multiplier effect

Thus, our multiplier—that is, the total of all donations we have collected for the charities we recommend, divided by our costs—for the year 2025 amounts to 26. Over the next few years, we aim to continue growing—particularly in terms of donation volume—while maintaining a stable cost base, which should further increase our leverage.

Outlook for 2026: What’s Next?

In 2026, we aim to continue growing and will place a special emphasis on activities and initiatives designed to inspire even more people to donate effectively. We’ll build on what’s already working well while also testing new channels to reach people outside our current target audience.

Plans include, among other things:

1. New experiments with podcasts, influencer partnerships, and other channels
2. Greater Visibility in AI-Powered Search Systems
3. Expanding Our Public Relations Efforts in Switzerland
4. The launch of our own podcast featuring engaging interviews about the work of the organizations we support
5. And a surprise at the end of the year!

Behind all the numbers in this review are people who have decided to use their money to do as much good as possible. A huge thank you to them!

We are delighted by the positive response and look forward to continuing on this journey together with you. The challenges of our time remain significant—which makes us all the more excited to see what we can achieve together in the coming year. Many thanks to everyone whose donations help us make a greater impact together.

About the author

Anna Rosa Huber

Volunteer

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Anna Rosa studied psychology and explores how society can be shaped in a sustainable and effective way. At Effektiv Spenden, she is inspired by the combination of scientific analysis, vision, and fairness. She supports the team as a volunteer in operational processes, communications, and campaign work.