Charities increasingly rely on private donations to raise more money for their causes. When it comes to donations, iRaiser Finland’s clients have seen a significant increase in Peer-to-Peer donations compared to previous years of about 300%! This trend is expected to continue across other fundraising channels.
The introduction of MobilePay for Finnish donors is expected to drive even more growth in the future – particularly in the areas of monthly giving.
In 2016, Finland contributed approx. 280,000 euros of about 3,500,000 euros donated through iRaiser’s Peer-to-Peer fundraising solutions in the Nordics.
In 2019, the Finnish share of donations has increased to over 700,000 euros – or approximately 14 percent of the total in the Nordic countries. In 2016, it only accounted for 8 percent of the total market share. A trend we should expect to accelerate, according to our team of fundraising experts.
Finnish donations account for 14% of total in Nordic Countries
At iRaiser, we have seen an increase in fundraising activities in the Finnish market with organisations becoming much more agile and progressive as they utilise leading fundraising platforms that are entering the market. Many have begun to experiment with Peer-to-Peer fundraising, and some have also begun to reap the rewards of updating their general collections and donor journeys with best-in-class software solutions. Using these online fundraising platforms allows them to raise more funds for less internal resources.
The real jump in results going forward, however, will come from charities now being able to use secure and feature rich tools for their monthly giving programs with leading payment methods like MobilePay, centralised in one fundraising application.
Making it easy to donate
According to surveys, the interest in supporting charities on a monthly basis has increased among Finnish donors. We know that in Finland it has been a challenge for charities to offer people the most effective ways to support them, and that area has required improvement for some time.
The new Fundraising Act (from 1.3.2020) will offer more opportunities as to how, and in which channels, charities can appeal to potential one-time and regular donors. This will also give opportunity for service providers to be more innovative and help charities in their fundraising actions.
"We’re pleased to see the introduction of leading fundraising solutions like iRaiser in Finland to support the NGO sector. Through these fundraising solutions, charities in Finland can offer monthly giving programs and leading payment methods”, said Pia Tornikoski, secretary general of the Finnish Fundraising Association (VaLa).
“For charities and NGOs, it is all about being efficient in fundraising, so as much money collected as possible can go to the cause. This is an integral part of being a professional fundraiser and paramount for the consumers’ willingness to donate. Therefore, any fundraising activity should focus on making it easy to complete the actual donation transaction, while still protecting the donors’ sensitive data. And when it comes to making it easy to donate, nothing beats the smartphone and MobilePay”, explains Fredrik Pernell, Sales and Partnership lead of MobilePay Finland.
“The mobile phone is part of the everyday life for almost all consumers today, increasingly being used for convenience, planning and direct shopping – and therefore also for donating to charities.
With leading partners like iRaiser for fundraising, we see a trend where more than 90% of donations are being driven by the mobile channel – for Denmark the figure is actually 97% – so with the introduction of MobilePay for fundraising in Finland, I expect donations to accelerate even more. It is exciting and we are proud to be part of doing good with our product”, says Fredrik Pernell.
Scouting for children, teenagers and donations!
Accepting mobile payments was important to The Guides and Scouts of Finland, aiming to provide more and better scouting opportunities for Finnish children and teenagers. According to Simo Pynnönen, in charge of fundraising activities at The Guides and Scouts of Finland, the combination of mobile payment and SaaS software solutions is the most professional choice for the modern fundraiser.
“The core of our purpose is to support scouting and be an organisation that drives that cause efficiently. We cannot spend our time following the latest developments in donor management or payment gateways. It would take our focus away from what we are here for. Therefore, we rely on partners to supply the most efficient software and best performing payment channels.
"I am excited to be among the first charities in Finland offering mobile payment for monthly gifts and I am very optimistic about our ability to generate more funds for scouting in Finland in the future.”
– Simo Pynnönen, The Guides & Scouts of Finland
Fundraising in Finland is becoming more efficient and donors are giving more.
According to data from iRaiser’s peer-to-peer fundraising activities in the Nordic countries, Finland has increased its share of donations from 8% in 2016 to 14% in 2019.
The introduction of MobilePay in Finland is expected to increase the amount and value of donations even more.
Read our article to discover how to increase monthly giving through advanced Mobile Payments and help your organisation raise more funds!