Public and Business Fundraising
Public donations
The coronavirus pandemic presented our fundraising teams with unprecedented professional challenges. Major fundraising events were cancelled and campaigns postponed as we adjusted our work to the demands of the pandemic.
Despite a loss to our income across 2020 as a whole, the support we received from individual donations left us truly humbled. Our total income from individuals totalled €9.5 million - representing a small year-on-year decrease of 4 per cent.
The number of War Child ‘Friends’ - our regular monthly donors - increased by more than 4,500. Our number of Friends across the Netherlands totalled 91,600 by the end of the year.
We expanded our campaigning during 2020 to help maintain our fundraising income. Six campaigns were launched across the year as a whole - including two emergency campaigns to mobilise funds for our COVID-19 and Beirut explosions responses. This led to a 30 per cent increase in one-off donations to reach a total of €993,000. And all six fundraising campaigns outperformed those campaigns launched in 2019.
Income from legacies decreased by 30 per cent across 2020 as a whole to total €727,000. This can be attributed to a significant increase in revenues, rather than a loss in support from our long-standing legacy funds.
Our supporters
It was a source of great sadness for us that we had to cancel several events over the course of the year - meaning that for once we couldn’t meet the vast majority of our supporters in person. Yet, people across the Netherlands still did their utmost to support our work. 19 supporters took part in the Dam tot Damloop in aid of War Child from parks and their gardens.
We are also delighted to welcome Dutch indie icons Chef’Special to our family of official Ambassadors. The Haarlem five-piece performed a special physically-distanced concert to raise funds for our work and are currently hard at work developing a benefit track together with refugee children in the Netherlands.
We want to place on record our enormous thanks to everyone who supported us during 2020!
Our business partners
Companies make a significant contribution to our mission every year - and 2020 was no exception. The year saw companies of all types help fund our programmes, lend us their expertise and sponsor our products and services.
Income from ‘gifts-in-kind’ - companies donating free products and services to our mission - exceeded €1 million over the course of 2020. Total income from private companies was €2.6 million across the year as a whole - representing a year-on-year change of about 6 per cent.
Fundraising complaints
In 2020 we received 391 complaints related to our fundraising - representing a significant year-on-year increase. This surge in complaints can be attributed to a large increase in ‘door-to-door’ fundraising during the year - a method not always welcomed by the public.
War Child strives to respond to complaints within two working days, in which we succeeded in 99 per cent of all cases. Our policy concerning complaints is available on our website.