Strengthening fundraising and engagement
Throughout 2023, our BP Fellows, volunteers and staff came together to build relationships and the necessary platforms to help us achieve our collective vision of raising an additional USD 100 million for World Scouting. As we entered the second year of our strategy implementation, we were excited to see positive developments both in donation income and increased engagement with our stakeholders. Our work is carefully planned to ensure that we maximise the impact of each contribution made and we thank you for your continued support!
Engaging with our BP Fellows
Our generous supporters are at the heart of everything we do. In 2023, we were delighted to reconnect with BP Fellows, partners and other supporters of Scouting from around the world at key engagements, including a number hosted together with our local Chapters, National Scout Associations and during World Scouting events. We are grateful, too, for the continued support of our volunteers in promoting World Scouting and engaging BP Fellows in their local communities.
New partnerships to increase support for Scouting
The strengthening of existing institutional partnerships and the development of new ones is key to the achievement of our Strategy and remained a clear focus of our work in 2023. Foundation Board and staff members organised and participated in key events throughout the year, together with the World Organization of the Scout Movement, to engage long-standing and new partners who share our vision.
Digital Engagement
Throughout the year, our team worked tirelessly to also increase online engagement, in particular to build a culture of regular and lifelong support for World Scouting in our BP Fellows and other supporters.
In May 2023, the World Scout Foundation and World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) jointly launched the new Scout Donation Platform, a dynamic crowdfunding solution which gives Scouts the tools and resources to successfully crowdfund for their grassroots projects from a global network of supporters of Scouting. In 2023, a total of 18 local Scouting projects received funding on the new Scout Donation Platform.
We continued our digital transformation to engage BP Fellows online via fresh, relevant content, tailored journeys and outreach, driving long-term annual giving. The focus with other donors and e-news subscribers is on increasing and sustaining our reach to new prospects and driving repeat donations via online appeals. We consistently achieve excellent open rates and click-to-open rates for all audiences (significantly above the average of M+R Benchmarks and Campaign Monitor) and our increasing social media on all channels performed above-average for our segment.
We strongly believe that the best way to maximise the impact of your support is to plan for and confidently commit to more complex, long-term projects. To foster a culture of regular giving, we launched our second Annual Appeal in 2023, which ran from October to December, raising over USD 1.2 million for World Scouting. Thank you to everyone who participated.
Progress against our Strategic goals in 2023
Thank you
There are a number of special individuals — volunteers and staff — who have dedicated their time in 2023 to advance the Foundation’s work. Our grateful thanks t0:
- All of our WSF volunteers — Board Members, Committee Members, technical teams and individuals. We value and celebrate your commitment and support.
- Colleagues at the World Scout Bureau and WOSM volunteers for our strong collaboration throughout the year.
- María Florencia “Flor” Cagliero, for your volunteer support to our Partnership Roundtable Event and 75th BP Fellowship Event, and your hard work for the Foundation since the end of 2023 as an intern for SoLeBi Finance GmbH, including support for fundraising and engagement.
- Józefina Wandfluh, our former Office Manager for your work and sunny disposition.
- The leadership and Scouts of the Federação Escotista de Portugal who welcomed us to Cascais, Portugal, with a special mention for all of the coordination undertaken with José Pamplona, International Commissioner.
- The leadership of the Mouvement Scout de Suisse and Kandersteg International Scout Centre, and every single Pinkie (KISC staff member) and all of the St Felix Rover Scout helpers, for everything you did to support our successful 75th BP Fellowship Event in Kandersteg, Switzerland!
- Yossr Baaziz, Gidds Bambaga, María Florencia “Flor” Cagliero, Andy Chapman, Mihaela Ciobanu, Nina Ferencic, Hannah Kentish, Edward Nyamwera, Tania Roach and Lisa Strehlke for supporting our 2023 Impact Seminar.
- Eliane Baumann, Thijs Stoffer and Beat Wenger for your hands-on support and solutions-finding for our 75th BP Fellowship Event.
- May Abdelhadi, Mohamed Bassem Bouchaala and Mihaela Ciobanu for helping to locate inputs for this report.
- George Michael Rofaeil, our design volunteer, for continued support throughout the year, in particular for 2023 Annual Appeal and Annual Report.
- Myles de Hoog and Dani Moreira for your AV support throughout 2023, for events, our Annual Appeal and Annual Report. Special thanks, Myles, for four of the videos in this report!
- Alex Killby, for IT and knowledge management support, for the set-up of our digital annual reports, and technical support for the 2023 edition.
- Victor Ortega, for ongoing design and video production, including for our 2023 events.
