The SpendeDirekt association

SpendeDirekt allows you to donate directly to selected, local organisations and to follow how your donation is used.

The direct contact between donors and the local organisations does more than make giving efficient. It allows communication on an equal footing and fosters mutual understanding. The project reports and news the organisations publish here serve this purpose. We are convinced that there is a lot to learn from each other.

There are several ways:

• Online by card or TWINT: Use the donation form. You pay on the payment page of our payment provider Payrexx. Online donations are currently one-off only.
• Bank transfer or standing order: Transfers within Switzerland cost us no fees.
  IBAN: CH25 0077 8209 7640 5200 1
  BIC/SWIFT: LUKBCH2260A
  Bank: Luzerner Kantonalbank
  In favour of: SpendeDirekt, Schellenrainstrasse 9, 6210 Sursee

Online donations are currently one-off only. You can give regularly with a standing order from your bank to our account (IBAN CH25 0077 8209 7640 5200 1, Luzerner Kantonalbank). We are also happy to send you a QR payment slip: write to info@spendedirekt.ch. Recurring donations you set up on the previous website continue to run.

Everyone at SpendeDirekt works on a voluntary basis; there are no salaries in Switzerland to be paid from your donation. Your donation goes to the organisation you chose, minus the share for the association that you set yourself (see next question). The only other deductions are the fees for the payment and for the transfer abroad.

In the donation form you can give part of your donation to the SpendeDirekt association. The share is voluntary: 5 % is preselected, and you can also choose 0 % or 10 %. You see and change it in the form before you go to payment. We show the association's share separately in the transparency overview.

For online payments by card or TWINT, our payment provider retains a fee per payment. Bank transfers within Switzerland cost us no fees. To transfer the donations to the partner organisations abroad, we pay 2 to 3 % in bank and exchange fees in our experience. We show the fees for these transfers in the transparency overview.
Such costs arise with every donation abroad, but are rarely shown openly. It is important to us to be transparent with you.

We know all the partner organisations in person and visited them. Through this initial quality management during the onboarding process we are able to vouch for our partners. Additionally, all the partner organisations are scanning und uploading their receipts. This enables us to spot possible abuses and potentially intervene.

You can donate either to the general fund for all organisations or to a single organisation. The organisations then decide themselves which of their published projects they use the donations for.
The board decides every year how donations from the general fund are distributed among the organisations, according to need and in dialogue with the partner organisations.

SpendeDirekt aims to grow sustainably. That means we do not collect donations for the sake of collecting, and we explicitly have no growth targets. Should the partner organisations nevertheless be overwhelmed by the amount of donations, we reserve the right to transfer the money in stages and, in dialogue with the organisations, to find projects in which the donations can be used meaningfully.

All our partners have been proposed by people working in development aid and are known to us since multiple years. On top of that, all our organisations are led by local people and have a size, where impact is created even with small donations.

SpendeDirekt is a tax-exempt association in the canton of Lucerne, Switzerland. If you would like to become a member, write to info@spendedirekt.ch.

Yes. SpendeDirekt is a tax-exempt association, so you can deduct donations to us from your taxes in Switzerland. We send the donation receipt for the previous year every January. If we have your e-mail address, we send it by e-mail; please also check your spam folder. We need your postal address for the receipt, so please enter it in the donation form.
TWINT donations made through our donation form are not anonymous: you enter your name and e-mail address there, and the donation appears on your donation receipt.

In the donor portal you can see your donations and your recurring donations. Enter your e-mail address there. If we know it as a donor address, we send you a personal access link; it can be used once and is valid for 3 days.

There are three roles:
board, active member and passive member.

Passive members believe in the SpendeDirekt association and its concept. They act as ambassadors of the association and spread its idea. They get a look behind the scenes by being kept informed about what is happening. They are invited to the association's general meeting and have voting rights there.

Active members have all the rights and duties of passive members. They actively work for the association in their respective roles and, where needed, get access to the SpendeDirekt platform, for example to publish news.

The board has all the rights and duties of active members. In addition, it decides on board-level matters, for example approving disbursements. The board also leads and prepares the association's meetings.

If you would like to become a member, write to us at info@spendedirekt.ch.

All disbursements must be decided, approved and justified by the board.

SpendeDirekt has three categories for allocating the budget:

General donations for all organisations
Specific donations for individual organisations
Donations to the association

Regular disbursements:

Donations are generally paid out to the organisations on site every quarter. This keeps the administrative effort and fees low, so that more money ultimately reaches the organisations directly. Payouts follow the distribution key for general donations.

Ad-hoc disbursements:

Larger amounts donated directly to an organisation can also be paid out outside the quarterly cycle if the donor, the organisation or the SpendeDirekt association wishes. Ad-hoc disbursements must also be approved and justified by the board.

Distribution key for general donations:

General donations allow SpendeDirekt to balance disbursements beyond the direct donations to individual organisations. This lets SpendeDirekt make projects possible and strengthen organisations regardless of how well known they are. The board sets the distribution key every year, in the interest of a fair distribution and depending on the current situation and needs on site.

If you have additional questions, please send us an email: info@spendedirekt.ch