Impact
Key Figures

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Finances
The 2020 financial year saw a year-on-year decline in infrastructure and operating expenses despite considerable additional spending on IT to ensure smooth teamwork while people worked from home. At the same time there was a decline in expenses for events and investor relations, likewise a result of the pandemic. Personnel expense was 2.3 percent up on 2019 because of slightly higher staff turnover. Overall we kept to our CHF 5.5 million budget.

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Communications
Unlike many other sectors of the economy, the pandemic did not slow Avenir Suisse’s research work. On the contrary: numerous publications resulted, for example, in a 24 percent year-on-year increase in page views and 9.6 percent growth in the number of newsletter subscribers. The mobile game Democratia, designed as a playful, digital way for a younger audience to experience Switzerland’s political system, turned out to be a great hit with the public. By the end of the year the game had been downloaded from the app stores more than 44,336 times.
Support Foundation
The Support Foundation is charged with securing sustained funding for Avenir Suisse by way of active fundraising. In the year under review 10 new donors were acquired, and 46 existing donors declared their willingness to renew their commitment when it came up. The donors (members of the support group) support the think tank through substantial one-time or recurrent contributions, generally paid over three to five years. Unfortunately both the big donor events, the annual dinner and the fall conference, had to be canceled at short notice because of the coronavirus pandemic.