Financial Statement 2019

Basic information

This annual financial statement has been prepared in accordance with the Swiss GAAP FER 21 financial reporting guidelines for charitable and social non-profit organisations.

For the statement of accounts, according to FER 21, it is important to report the year-end result after changes in funds. Donations are assigned directly to the fund (and thus recorded in the fund’s income statement). Earmarked or non-earmarked donations contained in the fund will then be used in accordance with Swisscontact’s overall objective to finance project activities (and thus recorded in the expense statement). This may be done during the year the donations were received, or else in subsequent reporting years.

The cost structure and allocation of administrative expenses, administrative programme expenses, and direct programme expenses comply with the ZEWO Foundation guidelines.

Important benchmarks and figures

Income
In the reporting period, the project volume increased slightly compared to the previous year, from kCHF 98,367 to kCHF 100,404 (+2.1%). The acquisition of Springfield Centre for Business Development Ltd. contributed to the growth of the project volume.

Donations and contributions (donations tied to specific tasks) - excluding Federal contri- butions - amounted to kCHF 15’083 (previous year: kCHF 13’296).

In addition to earmarked donations and contributions, non-earmarked contributions reached kCHF 88 (previous year: kCHF 214). Similar to the previous year, no use was made in the year under review. As a result, the free fund for non-earmarked donations experienced a growth from kCHF 1,452 to kCHF 1,540.

Expenses
Expenses for communications and fundraising amounted to kCHF 1,038 (previous year kCHF 1,178). This represents 1.0% of total expenses compared to the previous year’s 1.2%.

Our global administrative expenses as a percentage of total expenses increased from 4.9% in the previous year to 6.1% in 2019. This increase resulted on the one hand due to the costs in relation to the acquisition of Springfield Ltd. and on the other hand due to capacity building to meet the increased demands of both clients and (local) compliance requirements, including the associated transformation project KAIROS.

Organisational capital
The consolidated accounts of Swisscontact close with a loss of kCHF 93, whereas the Foundation recorded a profit of kCHF 1,167 in the previous year.

The result is above expectations, taking into account special effects such as the reorganization and the acquisition. The expenses incurred in relation with the acquisition were charged in full to the income statement of the subsidiary Swisscontact Services Ltd. The resulting goodwill is reported under intangible assets. Taking into consideration currency influences and the change in the free fund, the organizational capital decreased slightly from kCHF 13,504 to kCHF 13,481.