Increase in donations from the public fundraising domain

Financial donations from private individuals and institutions help pay for the growth of the registry of blood stem cell donors. Donations in 2021 totalled CHF 1,436,465

During the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, both private and institutional donors once again demonstrated their solidarity with patients by supporting new registrations. Swiss Transfusion SRC has to raise the money to pay for registry growth itself, as no funding is provided for this purpose in connection with its mandate from the Swiss government.

In 2021, private and institutional donors donated a combined total of CHF 1,436,465 which is 3,4 per cent more than the total for 2020 (CHF 1,387,584). A good three-quarters of this came from private individuals, associations and companies; the other quarter from institutional donors.

More donations from the public fundraising domain

Swiss Transfusion SRC has the good fortune of being able to rely on a large circle of loyal benefactors who actively support blood stem cell donation. In 2020, they donated a total of CHF 1,072,545. This resulted in an increase in public fundraising revenue by around 13 per cent compared to 2020 (CHF 780,671).

The supporter programme launched by Swiss Transfusion SRC in 2020 contributed to the good public fundraising results once again in 2021. Almost 2,200 new supporter agreements were signed in 2021. These, combined with amounts from existing supporters, brought in CHF 348,361 in donations. The name of this programme will be changed to the «benefactor programme» in March 2022, in order to position it more clearly going forward.

Appeals for financial donations addressed to various groups (direct marketing) resulted in contributions amounting to CHF 288,648 down from CHF 371,874 in 2020. The decrease was due to the fact that the mailings sent out in 2021 offered not only the option of a one-time donation, but also that of joining the support programme, revenue from which is now shown in a separate category (see chart). An additional CHF 58,355 came in as individual or event-related donations (2020: CHF 107,022). These might be in connection with the death or birthday of an individual or from companies, for instance. Unlike the case in 2020, some benefit and charity events on behalf of blood stem cell donation could be held in 2021: the student association Marrow hosted a virtual national Leukemia Charity Run, for instance, and Golf Club Payerne organised a golf tournament with players from the professional ice-hockey team HC Fribourg-Gottéron. Thus, total income in this category, CHF 119,722, was significantly higher than the total for 2020 (CHF 9,833), when the coronavirus pandemic made such events impossible.

Greater financial contribution towards costs of registration

Newly registering donors contributed CHF 257,459 in 2021, and thus only slightly less than the figure for 2020 (CHF 264,176), despite the fact that significantly fewer people joined the registry in 2021. Fortunately, a quarter of all of those who joined the registry in 2021 contributed towards those costs, and the average contribution made was significantly higher than in the previous year. The fact that there were many people below the age of 30 among the newly registering donors is a very positive development for the blood stem cell registry. In addition, the younger generation has been underlining its commitment to solidarity with patients by making a contribution.

Foundations and lottery funds

Income from institutional fundraising, which is to say, contributions from foundations, funds and lottery funds, amounted to CHF 363,920 in 2021, and was thus about 20 per cent less than the total for 2020 (CHF 452,653). A significant portion of the income in this category in both 2019 and 2020 consisted of money received from lottery funds. This form of income was not available in the year under report due to the rule that organisations must wait for a certain period after receiving funding before they can apply for another year of funding. While numerous foundations remained loyal to the cause of growing the registry of blood stem cell donors, others shifted their funding focus to projects relating to the Covid-19 pandemic.