GRÜN optimizes online fundraising at SCM Bundes-Verlag

Less work - more donations: GRÜN spendino digitizes the fundraising process at SCM Bundes-Verlag gGmbH. New, donation-financed offers planned. Success through transparency.

The SCM Federal Publishing House is a Christian magazine publisher with an evangelical-free church character and is based in Witten. The publishing house has been spreading Christian messages with its magazines for over 125 years and has been part of the Christian Media Foundation.

With its classic magazines and digital offerings, the publisher has a wide range of topics and thus serves numerous target groups. The majority of the magazines are financed by the readers' subscriptions, but that alone does not cover the costs of the wide range of offers. In addition to the magazines, there are numerous offers that can be used free of charge. Including the information and discussion portal Jesus.de and the Intercession Portal At the end. Therefore, the publisher is also dependent on donations, including through the Online donation form from GRÜN spendino to be collected.

From classic to digital fundraising

SCM Bundes-Verlag started its first fundraising campaign in 2003. Under the motto 1 € for Jesus.de was called in the classic way to donate by bank transfer for the free and at that time unrivaled portal "Jesus.de". "The classic donations involve a lot of work, involve colleagues on a daily basis and it paralyzes operations," says Daniel Wildraut, head of the Jesus.de and Amen.de portals at SCM Bundes-Verlag.

Hence the idea of ​​digitizing fundraising. The publisher has been collecting donations through the Online donation form from GRÜN spendino: “The online donation form is practical and targeted donors who don’t donate traditionally by bank transfer,” reports Nathanael Ullmann, online editor and fundraiser at SCM Bundes-Verlag: “It is an incredibly convenient tool. We also guarantee that everything is compliant with data protection regulations. Everything works flawlessly and we only had to integrate a small snippet into our website. ”The online donation form was integrated on the website of the SCM Bundes-Verlag as well as on the Jesus.de or Amen.de websites. The workload for processing the donations could be digitized and optimized.

With GRÜN spendino on more free offers

The federal publishing house is financed to a large extent by the income from the magazine subscriptions. Further income is generated from the charitable commitment of the readers, which is to be further expanded in the future: “We have a great vision: We want to get the best message in the world to the people. We achieve this specifically through digital media and we want to get in there more, ”explains Nathanael Ullmann:“ We want to start digital projects that are based on traditional magazines, but do not have a classic payment model, but are increasingly financed by donations. The importance of online donations is therefore increasing for us. ”For the fundraising measures of the projects, the publisher is increasingly relying on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The donation proceeds are used, for example, to reach as many young people as possible with the Christian message via the social media platform TikTok. Newsletters or traditional letter mailing are also part of the publisher's regular fundraising measures.

As part of the new projects, donations should of course be made via the online donation form from GRÜN spendino are collected: "When we do campaigns, we always use the online donation form," reports Daniel Wildraut.

Success through transparency and self-confidence

The publishing house recently opened its own fundraising department, which deals with the relationship with the donors and their needs. This created more transparency for donors and more self-confidence for the publisher when it comes to fundraising.

Donors can find out more about the donation projects on the publisher's website. It is openly communicated what the donations will be used for and what costs are incurred in the various projects. In the online donation form from GRÜN spendino, specific donation amounts are preset, which are based on the costs of the respective project. Of course, the donor can adjust the donation amount at any time. However, the results show that many donors are willing to actually donate the proposed amounts: “There was an experiment in the past as to how willingness to donate is in general. We were pleasantly surprised at how big it is. It used to be an uncertainty because we didn't know how much we could even ask. Now we are more confident and know how much our projects are worth, ”explains Nathanael Ullmann.

Screenshots of the websites of SCM Bundes-Verlag


"We want to start digital projects that are based on the classic magazines, but do not have a classic payment model, but are increasingly financed by donations. That is why the importance of online donations is increasing for us."

- Nathanael Ullmann, online editor and fundraiser at SCM Bundes-Verlag

Nathanael Ullman
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