letshelp.ch – Zewo, Swissfundraising and Swisscom launch a digital donation platform for Switzerland

It’s often difficult for potential charity donors in Switzerland to gain a quick and simple overview of the numerous fundraising projects being run by the various aid organisations. What’s more, maintaining online platforms is a costly and time-consuming exercise for aid organisations. That’s why Zewo, Swissfundraising and Swisscom are launching letshelp.ch, a monitored digital donation platform for Switzerland. It has never been so easy for people to donate to specific projects run by trustworthy aid organisations, anywhere and at any time. 15 aid organisations have already made their projects available on letshelp.ch.

By Armin Schädeli

Swiss people are generous, and the nation is one of the most charitable worldwide. According to Zewo’s statistics, aid organisations received around CHF 1.7 billion in donations in 2014. Currently, 99% of donations are made through traditional means of payment such as postal and bank transfers rather than donation platforms. With letshelp.ch, Zewo, Swissfundraising and Swisscom are now offering aid organisations the ability to present campaigns to a large audience easily and effectively online, without having to worry about maintaining the digital platform or administrative processes. Donors are given an overview of various aid organisations’ fundraising projects and can filter these by organisation or subject area. Donations can be made for a specific cause – anywhere, at any time and using all widely accepted means of payment. “Together with Swisscom, we are enabling donors to access specific projects run by trustworthy and regularly monitored aid organisations that comply with our standards,” explains Zewo CEO Martina Ziegerer. Swissfundraising, the professional association of fundraisers in Switzerland, is also supporting the new platform as a communications partner: “With letshelp.ch, Switzerland will for the first time have a donation platform with a great deal of potential for the aid organisations involved,” says Swissfundraising CEO Roger Tinner.

Commitment to Swiss aid organisations

In the first phase, letshelp.ch will be open to all aid organisations bearing the Zewo quality seal. There are around 500 such aid organisations in Switzerland. The following organisations have already posted a project on letshelp.ch: ADRA, Caritas, CBM Christian Blind Mission, HEKS, Helvetas, Iamaneh, insieme, INTERTEAM, Medair, Save the Children, the Swiss Red Cross, Sozialwerke Pfarrer Sieber, Stiftung Kinderdorf Pestalozzi, Stiftung SOS-Kinderdorf Schweiz and Terre des Hommes. Other aid organisations can subsequently undergo an assessment to check whether they too meet Zewo standards. Only those that successfully make it through Zewo’s rigorous assessment process will gain access to the platform. This quality assurance process is what sets letshelp.ch apart from other donation platforms.

Swisscom developed letshelp.ch on the basis of its crowdfunding platform and is responsible for its operation. “letshelp.ch gives us the opportunity to combine our technical expertise and our longstanding commitment to aid organisations,” says Stefan Nünlist, Head of Group Communications & Responsibility at Swisscom. With its quality seal and the checks it carries out, partner organisation Zewo takes responsibility for the quality of the organisations. The aid organisations themselves are responsible for the communication campaigns accompanying their projects. For the donations collected, letshelp.ch charges the aid agencies a fee to cover the platform’s operating costs. There are no fees for donors.

Press contacts

Swisscom: Swisscom AG, Media Relations, 3050 Bern, media@swisscom.com

Zewo: medienanfrage@zewo.ch

Swissfundraising: Roger Tinner, roger.tinner@swissfundraising.org

ADRA: Sibylle Schuppli, Sibylle.Schuppli@adra.ch

Caritas: Jörg Arnold, jarnold@caritas.ch

CBM Christoffel Blindenmission: Stefan Leu, stefan.leu@cbmswiss.ch

HEKS: Dieter Wüthrich, dieter.wuethrich@heks.ch

Helvetas: Peter Haberstich, Peter.Haberstich@helvetas.org

Iamaneh: Manuela Di Marco, mdimarco@iamaneh.ch

Insieme: Jürg Wälder, juerg.waelder@insieme-zuerich.ch

INTERTEAM: Erik Keller, keller@interteam.ch

Medair: Nathalie Fauveau, nathalie.fauveau@medair.org

Save the Children: Sarah Frattaroli, sarah.frattaroli@savethechildren.ch

Stiftung Kinderdorf Pestalozzi: Remo Schläpfer, r.schlaepfer@pestalozzi.ch

Sozialwerke Pfarrer Sieber: Christoph Zingg, christoph.zingg@swsieber.ch

Stiftung SOS-Kinderdorf: Marc Bächler, Marc.Baechler@sos-kinderdorf.ch

Terre des Hommes: Souad von Allmen, s.vonallmen@terredeshommessuisse.ch

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