Foundations are an important source of funding for projects run by non-profit organizations. However, the search for the right funding foundation is a hurdle race. Online databases make the work easier. The offers at a glance.

Author: Bernhard Bircher-Suits, fundcom.ch

First published in "Fundraising-Magazin" in issue 03/2022 (see here).

If you want money from foundations, you are spoilt for choice in Switzerland: according to the Swissfoundations association, around half of the 13524 charitable foundations in Switzerland are grant-making foundations. They provide financial support for projects that correspond to the purpose of the foundation. Due to the large number of foundations, finding the right foundation for a project is often like looking for a needle in a haystack.

When researching, it is important to match the project topic with the foundation's funding objectives. Or to give an example: Where can I find the right foundation for a cultural project in Zurich that has the purpose of promoting culture in the Zurich region? If you have a realistic budget and a timetable for your project, you can start looking for suitable funding foundations. But where can you find suitable funding foundations? The problem is that there is no online database that coherently contains the data of all existing funding foundations and provides results throughout Switzerland, Europe or even worldwide. Researching foundations therefore often takes a lot of time. Online services make the search easier.

Official contact points: ESA foundation directory and Zefix register

Foundations under the supervision of the "Swiss Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations" (ESA) can be found free of charge in the directory of the Federal Department of Home Affairs (see: www.edi.admin.ch - "Stiftungsverzeichnis"). The foundations can be filtered by name, purpose or keyword. The disadvantage is that the filter options are rudimentary. The official "Central Company Index"(Zefix) is another free resource in Switzerland for all cantonal commercial register entries. The official portal also offers information on foundations, provided they are entered in the commercial register. The catch: Zefix data is also not very structured.

Relief organizations prefer to use Fundraiso.ch and DeinAdieu.ch

But which tools do professionals in aid organizations use to search for charitable foundations? According to the Donation Report 2021, the online platforms "Fundraiso.ch" and "Deinadieu.ch" are the most important for Swiss aid organizations. However, unlike Fundraiso.ch, Deinadieu.ch does not focus on foundation information, but on legacies. In third place in the popularity rankings is "Stiftungschweiz.ch" from Philanthropy Services AG in Basel (see chart & table ). Felizitas Dunekamp is Vice President of Swissfundraising and works as a fundraiser with her agency Dunekamp GmbH. She says: "At the agency, we mainly work with Fundraiso and recommend that our clients set up a premium account. We also occasionally use Zefix." Although Zefix is free, it does not offer any additional functions. National and cantonal foundation directories are "never complete". Pietro Tomasini is Head of Project Management at the Zewo-certified Swiss aid organization "International Project Aid", an organization for development cooperation. He says: "We work exclusively with Fundraiso. This platform offers everything we need. We work a lot with students, who then look for foundations for our joint project. We find that they can use this tool straight away."

A look across the borders shows: There is no national online register for foundations in Germany and Austria. Nevertheless, such a register is being planned in Germany. Meanwhile, the national platform Stiftungssuche.de of the Association of German Foundations in Berlin, which is partly subject to a fee, offers a remedy. In Austria, there is at least the book "Achtung, Stiftung!" with an overview of foundations.

Rainer Jauch, founder of the online platform Fundraiso.ch, says: "The various platforms complement each other quite well and of course compete in certain areas. Overall, fundraisers in Switzerland have an interesting selection of offers at their disposal, which can also be combined."