Spotlight Resource Mobilisation

Many Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies (NS) depend highly on project funding from international partners.

The Swiss Red Cross (SRC) assists Sister National Societies (SNS) in broadening and diversifying their funding sources, enabling them to attain sustainable, efficient, and resilient status as organisations fulfilling their mandates.  By adopting a systematic and professional approach to fundraising in the private sector, NS can access new sources of domestic funding, providing greater flexibility in aligning projects and services with the needs of target groups. In addition to covering project-related costs, these funds can support organisations in meeting non-project-related expenses fostering long-term planning, growth, and professionalisation. 

The SRC offers SNS access to a wide range of expertise in a flexible, practical manner, providing tailored support that addresses the specific needs of each organisation. This assistance is provided at all levels and ensures that SNS can benefit from practical and relevant guidance from professionals who work collaboratively with them.

Key cumulative data 2022

In 2022, the SRC provided technical assistance, supported staff capacity building and invested in fundraising-related infrastructure and activities of Sister National Societies (SNS) in Bangladesh, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Lebanon, and Vietnam.

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The examples represent snapshots of our work and highlight some of the specific output results of the year. The impact of the different country programmes in resource mobilisation are highlighted in the Programme Domain National Society DevelopmentOpens a new window.

Enabling digital fundraising for National Societies

The global digital fundraising platform iRaiser is being supported by the Swiss Red Cross (SRC) as a vital initiative of the Virtual Fundraising Hub (VFH) of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. The online platform iRaiser provides a user-friendly and highly secure way to raise funds through individual donations and corporate contributions via employee giving programs. It also provides the opportunity for global fundraising campaigns. Since the launch in 2020, 24 National Societies (NS) have onboarded the platform, and since the beginning of 2022, more than 32 million USD have been raised through iRaiser on all campaigns. The SRC is allocating funding and human resources for the operation and dissemination of the iRaiser and hosts the project manager position at its headquarters in Switzerland.

Testing technical solutions

Although iRaiser covers 135 currencies, accommodates 37 languages, and offers a range of local and international payment options, a significant hurdle for NS in adopting the platform is the absence of dependable intermediate tools known as "payment gateways." During 2022, the SRC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) conducted trials of various payment gateways to facilitate the participation of more NS in the platform and enable them to benefit from the donations directly.

On board before the crisis starts

In times of crisis, iRaiser offers an efficient and straightforward solution to launch a fundraising campaign in minutes. The Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) provides a notable example of this, having promptly initiated an emergency campaign following the escalation of the conflict in February 2022. This was made possible due to their preparedness and training, along with the pre-existing digital infrastructure for fundraising that included the iRaiser platform. Within a few hours, the first donations started pouring in for URCS. By the end of 2022, they had successfully raised over 20 million USD from more than 100,000 new digital donors, primarily from the Ukrainian diaspora, using a reliable, secure, and high-performing digital platform. This was not the least possible because of continued peer-to-peer fundraising capacity-building support through the SRC in previous years.

Support for the decentralised structure of the IFRC

The Swiss Red Cross (SRC) is assisting the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in strengthening its decentralised structure, aiming to enhance the impact of its investments in this thematic focus area.

Investment into fundraising competencies in Europe

The SRC started to invest in 2018 in the enhancement of fundraising competencies through an expert based at the IFRC Regional Office for Europe in Budapest. Ever since the SRC has expanded its financial and technical support. In 2022, the SRC mainly contributed through funding for fundraising staff (experts in Corporate Fundraising and Face-to-Face Fundraising) and support to the regional Fundraising and Communications Skillshare event in Istanbul in October 2022. 45 National Societies (NS) discussed fundraising practices and drew inspiration from each other. The success of the Regional Office for Europe is visualised in the overview of the private source domestic fundraising income of the National Societies (NS) in the region.

The Fundraising network in Asia Pacific

The SRC provided support to the IFRC Regional Office for Asia Pacific (APRO) in 2022 to expedite capacity-building initiatives related to resource mobilisation and private source domestic fundraising for National Societies (NS) in the region. The APRO conducted a survey to identify ongoing fundraising efforts in the region and organised a roundtable with participating Red Cross Red Crescent Movement partners to establish a collaborative approach for the area. As a result, the Asia Pacific Fundraising Network (APFN) was reactivated, with the SRC providing funding to cover its secretariat costs. A fundraising skill-sharing event was organised, attracting nearly 200 participants.

Research on Private Source Fundraising Potential of African National Societies

With funding from the Dutch Government, the Netherlands Red Cross (NLRC) supports the financial sustainability of National Societies (NS) on the African continent. The SRC was appointed in 2022 to technically support the IFRC Regional Office for Africa and analyse the potential for private source fundraising in at least six African countries and the readiness of the respective RCRC-National Societies to tap into these resources.

A capacity-building process is coming to an end

In 2022, the Swiss Red Cross (SRC) reached its final year of financial and technical support to the Lithuanian Red Cross (LRC). The collaboration started in 2013 by accompanying the National Society (NS) in a change process at the governance and management levels. In the following years, the SRC financially supported LRC positions for fundraising and covered costs for fundraising-relevant infrastructure, including the website and the customer relationship management system (CRM). Both were crucial for the National Society (NS) to be ready to enter the individual giving market.

The branding of NS services

To increase its branding, LRC launched a TV campaign positioning the NS as an organisation with relevant projects like home-based care. With this new standing the LRC was ready to tap into the potential of the private market, benefiting from the 2% tax reduction that individuals can claim for donations to charitable organisations according to the national law.

With technical and financial support from the SRC and an expert from the IFRC Regional Office for Europe, the successful kick-start of face-to-face (F2F) fundraising in Lithuania was enabled.

Successful face-to-face fundraising

In the following years, the SRC continuously supported further developing fundraising capacity on various levels. In 2022, the LRC fundraised over 6 million CHF from private sources.
From 2013 until 2022, the SRC supported the LRC with a total investment of CHF 272'000. This includes the kick-off and cash reinjection for F2F- fundraising and related staff costs before LRC could cover themselves with unrestricted fundraising income.

Enhancing the fundraising capabilities of SNS is a primary focus of the SRC's efforts to support them. The SRC is committed to expanding its technical fundraising support for SNS and assisting the IFRC in global fundraising tools and staff training. This support for the IFRC will enhance the global impact of these initiatives.