Review of the year 2023
2023 was our best year ever. We have never raised more money from more people for our recommended charities than in 2023.
At a glance
We were able to increase the volume of donations by almost 25% in 2023
How much was donated?
In 2023, we were able to pass on € 19 million in donations to highly effective organizations. Compared to the previous year, we grew significantly, especially in Switzerland. By the end of 2023, we have given a total of more than €58 million to organizations with a proven track record.
We have grown significantly in Switzerland in particular
Donations by cause area in 2023
As in previous years, “Fighting poverty” remains our largest area of focus, accounting for nearly 50% of our giving. “Mitigating climate change” is our second largest area with €4.4 million in 2023, followed by “Improving animal welfare” with €1.7 million. Due to the overall low level of donations for this issue, our donors are already making a very important contribution to improving animal welfare worldwide! In 2023, we received approximately €1.7 million for our “Safeguarding the future” issue area, which was only introduced in 2022, a significant increase over the previous year’s figure of approximately €300,000. The remaining €1.9 million will go to meta-themes and to democracy, where we are currently establishing a research institute with major donors.
Fighting Poverty remains our largest cause area
Who donates to us?
Last year, our donations were broken down as follows:
- As in the previous year, 95% of our donors each donated up to € 5,000. This accounted for around 32% of our donation volume.
- A further 4.7% of our donors gave between €5,000 and €100,000 each and this also amounted to 32% of our total volume.
- 0.2% of our donors are our major donors, who donate over €100,000 each. Their donations amounted to 36% of the total volume.
What have we achieved in 2023?
In the area of Fighting poverty, our Giving Fund and donations to GiveDirectly are among our most popular donation options, as in the previous year.
Fighting Poverty in 2023
To illustrate this, a case study using the example of “Deworm the World by Evidence Action”:
- The 1.8 billion deworming treatments enabled by Deworm the World over the past 10 years are projected, according to models, to result in $23 billion in productivity gains.
- And the data shows that we are winning the fight against worm diseases in some regions.
- For example, in Kenya, the prevalence of helminths has decreased from 32% in 2012 to just 6% in 2022 – a reduction of over 80%, which means that Deworm the World is making its work in some regions unnecessary!
Mitigating Climate Change in 2023
In the area of climate, over 40% of donations went to our climate fund, which we allocate twice a year to organizations with a proven impact based on recommendations from our partners.
Here too, a case study by Future Cleantech Architects illustrates the impact - in a completely different way to the area of poverty.
- High visibility of the expertise of FCA via formats such as the world climate summits (COP) and publications on the World Economic Forum
- Contact by the rapporteur of the EU Parliament for the Renewable Energy Directive with a request for participation as part of a stakeholder briefing
- An FCA proposal for a quota (5%) of investments by member states for highly innovative technologies is adopted, the procedure is accompanied by the FCA (and other partners in Brussels) and makes it through the entire legislative process.
- Among other achievements, this success enabled FCA to positively influence European climate policy even more than Founders Pledge initially expected.
Improving Animal Welfare in 2023
Unfortunately, animal welfare continues to be one of the smaller areas - for us, but also in general. The majority of donations here also went into our donation fund.
Using the example of the The Good Food Institute we see how important it is to raise issues on the international stage and influence legislation:
- GFI is helping to ensure that food is at the center of the world’s largest climate conference (COP28) for the first time.
- Through GFI India alternative proteins become one of the top six priorities of the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology.
- Together with a leading Israeli research university, GFI Israel is opening the $20 million Sustainable Protein Research Center.
- GFI Europe has influenced an important report by the European Parliament and successfully removed a provision that could delay the market launch of cultured foods.
Safeguarding the Future in 2023
Our most recent topic area, “Safeguarding the future”, has grown significantly compared to the previous year. Here we focus on the fund and follow the recommendations of external experts such as Longview Philanthropy and Founders Pledge.
What else has happened?
In addition to presentations at selected companies, service clubs, and universities, we tried new event formats for the first time in 2023. Notably, we hosted a public evening event with Professor William MacAskill and some of our donors (the complete conversation with our CEO Anne Schulze can be found here). In a smaller gathering in December 2023, we gave around 50 guests the opportunity to meet live and directly with some of the charities we recommend in Berlin. Additionally, we supported some of our most dedicated donors in organizing private evenings in various cities, where they could meet like-minded individuals.
We have also introduced various new offers on our website and as part of our donation advice service. For example, we now offer Donation vouchers resp. Donation vouchers for companies where the recipient of the voucher can decide for themselves how the donation is used.
For people who are interested in a Last will & testamentary donation or Estate donation we have, in cooperation with a law firm, developed a here has compiled a wealth of information.
Through the expansion of our collaboration with Charity Entrepreneurship, a startup incubator for highly effective charities, we now offer major donors the opportunity to directly invest in promising non-profit startups with us. And the best part: these, as well as our existing offerings and donation options, are now also available in English.
What do we spend money on?
Our income in 2023
We are still completely financed by donations and use 3 main sources for this
- Institutional sponsors
- Direct donations to us
- “Donate” function at the end of the donation form.
We raised around €1.5 million for our own expenses in 2023. Around 45% of this came from Open Philantrophy, and 11% from Founders Pledge. A further 33% from direct donations to us and 11% from the “co-donate” function.
Our expenses in 2023
Our expenses amounted to around € 960,000 in 2023, the majority of which (around € 701,000 thousand) are personnel costs. A further € 201,000 thousand was incurred for external services and consultancy services, such as lawyers, tax consultants and advertising.
Our leverage effect
This means that our multiplier, i.e. the total of all donations we have collected for the aid organizations we recommend divided by our costs, will be around 20 or 23 for 2023 (if we also take indirect donations into account). In the coming years, we want to continue to grow, especially in terms of donation volume, while maintaining a stable cost base, so that our leverage should increase again.
About the author
Managing Director
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