Find out how monthly giving works
Monthly donations are an effective way of helping people in need, both in Finland and around the world.
On this page, you will find information about:
- What a monthly donation means
- How monthly donations work
- What the monthly donations are used for
- What the aid is like in practice
- How you can become a monthly donor
What does a monthly donation mean?
A monthly donation is a regular money donation that is debited once a month in the amount chosen by the donor. You can cancel or change your monthly donation at any time.
Making a regular donation is a way to do good on every day of the year and help those who need it the most.
This is how monthly donations work:
- The selected donation amount will be debited once a month
- You can change the amount of your monthly donation or pause it at any time
- Donors get to choose where to target their donations:
- To aid in Finland;
- or to the Disaster Relief Fund;
- or half to aid in Finland and half to the Disaster Relief Fund.
As a monthly donor, you ensure that help is always close at hand, every day of the year.
Monthly donations help in Finland
By donating to our work in Finland, you help us distribute food aid and bring a friend to someone who feels lonely. Your monthly donation helps keep youth shelters open year round to support young people and their families. The donation is also used to train and maintain the first aid skills and emergency teams of volunteers. In the event of accidents or disruptions, we support and complement the work of the authorities.
Monthly donations to the Disaster Relief Fund help when it is needed the most
Monthly donations to the Disaster Relief Fund are not committed to any specific purpose in advance. Therefore, the funds can be spent quickly where the need for aid is the greatest, both in Finland and around the world.
With the support of your monthly donation to the Disaster Relief Fund, we can deliver food, water, shelter and the necessary aid to crisis and conflict zones. With your help, people living in the midst of conflicts and natural disasters can receive emergency aid and support to rebuild their lives. In Finland, your donation helps in searching for missing persons and supporting those who have lost their home in a fire, for example. We can also use it to provide emotional support in a crisis.
The 50/50 donation combines long-term aid with emergency aid
By donating half to the Disaster Relief Fund and half to aid in Finland, you can help those who need it the most during times of crisis and support the aid provided by volunteers in Finland. Your help will reach near and far.
Thanks to your monthly donation, aid supplies and workers are able to help people every day of the year, both in Finland and around the world.
Why are monthly donations important?
A monthly donation ensures that aid reaches those in need quickly and effectively, both in Finland and in crises around the world.
Monthly support is particularly important, as it ensures that help reaches those in need both in the event of an immediate crisis and when crises are prolonged. Thanks to regular donations, we are able to respond quickly to sudden disasters. You can help us save lives, even in crises that don't always make the news. In the aftermath of the crises, your regular support will help people rebuild their lives.
Your monthly donation helps those who are the most vulnerable: children, families, seniors, people with illnesses, and those who feel lonely. Around the world, your monthly support helps not only in times of crisis, but also in the long term.
When donations are made on a regular monthly basis, the aid reaches its destination in a cost-effective manner. Monthly donations require less administrative work from us at the Red Cross than one-off donations. This means that more people can receive support exactly when and where it is needed the most. As a monthly donor, you help ensure that the chain of aid remains unbroken – and that hope endures even in difficult times.
Three reasons to become a monthly donor
- Your support reaches those in need quickly: as a monthly donor, you help ensure that aid can be sent out as soon as a crisis strikes. Regular support allows us to respond quickly and help save lives in Finland and around the world.
- Long-term support: monthly donations make our aid work more predictable. Thanks to them, we can plan our operations, prepare for the future, and provide support even when a crisis is prolonged and the need for aid persists.
- An easy and reliable way to help: monthly donations are easy and flexible. You can change or pause your monthly donation at any time. The funds will be used responsibly where they are needed the most.
How monthly donations work
Step 1: Select the target and the amount you wish to donate
Choose the cause you wish to support, choose a monthly donation amount that suits you, and fill out your details.
Step 2: Your contact details and donation payment method
Choose the payment method that suits you best for your monthly donation: e-invoice, MobilePay or direct debit.
If you select an e-invoice as your payment method, you will receive an email with your reference number and simple instructions for creating an e-invoice in your own online bank. We will confirm your monthly donation by email.
If you choose MobilePay as your payment method, you can easily join as a MobilePay monthly donor via your phone by filling out the MobilePay donation form. You will receive a link in the reply message on your phone, which you can use to finalise your monthly donation in the MobilePay app.
If you choose to pay by direct debit using an authorisation on paper, we will send the authorisation to your home address by post. Please return the completed and signed authorisation in the return envelope (postage has already been paid). We will use the authorisation to set up your monthly donation via direct debit with your bank.
Step 3: The aid will go where it's needed
A monthly donation is one of the most effective ways to help, as it ensures that aid reaches those in need quickly when crises strike and provides long-term support when the need for aid continues. Thanks to regular support, we are able to help people in Finland and around the world. We can provide emergency aid, such as food, shelter and medical care, as well as support people in rebuilding their lives. In Finland, we use monthly donations to provide food aid, alleviate loneliness through our friend visitor activities, keep youth shelters open, and support the authorities in the event of accidents or disasters.
Your monthly donation transforms into concrete help where it is needed the most.
In the newsletter for monthly donors, you'll find the latest news and facts about the impact of your monthly donation. In addition to our experts, our newsletter also features our volunteers and aid workers who deliver aid on the ground. You'll also hear directly from the aid recipients about what your support means to them.
We would also like to invite you to our webinars for donors, where our experts and aid workers who have worked in crises around the world will talk about the aid work made possible by your support. You'll also have the chance to ask any questions that you may have.
What are the donations used for?
In Finland:
- first aid and emergency preparedness
- volunteer training
- domestic disaster relief
- supporting young people.
Around the world:
- clean water
- healthcare and vaccinations
- disaster relief
- reconstruction.
Even a small donation can make a huge difference
€5: a course of antibiotics for 5 children in a disaster area
€9: a food package for one week for a family who have faced a disaster
€10: a warm blanket to provide shelter for those who have faced a disaster
€15: clean water for a child for a year in a disaster area
€50: emotional support in a crisis – volunteer training in Finland
€180: clothes for a person who has lost their home in a fire in Finland
Frequently asked questions
Yes, that is possible. However, regular donations are the most effective way to help those who need it the most. For this reason, we do not recommend paying e-invoices on an occasional basis, as a transaction fee is incurred for every e-invoice sent. The Red Cross has to pay the fee regardless of whether the e-invoice is accepted, rejected or left entirely unprocessed.
Yes, you can do that. You can pause your monthly donation via our Donor Services by calling +358 (0)20 701 2192 (Mon–Fri, 8.30–16.00) or by emailing lahjoitukset@redcross.fi
You can target your monthly donation in the following way:
Disaster Relief Fund – allows for rapid aid in the event of natural disasters, conflicts and other crises around the world. Read more about donating to the Disaster Relief Fund.
Aid in Finland – supports our aid work in Finland. Read about donating to aid in Finland.
50/50 – you can split your donation equally between the Disaster Relief Fund and aid in Finland.
We only receive uncommitted funds as monthly donations. The need for aid can change suddenly due to natural disasters, conflicts or epidemics, for example. The uncommitted funds allow us to use the donations quickly and flexibly where the need is the greatest.
Regular support provided through monthly donations, without committing them to a specific cause, allows not only a rapid response but also long-term aid work.
For these reasons, among others, monthly donations are particularly valuable to us.
In our face-to-face (F2F) fundraising, we focus on securing monthly donations, which allow us to respond quickly to needs for aid while also building long-term aid work where the need is the greatest – both in Finland and around the world. Regular donations are the most effective way to help those who need it the most.
We aim to use our available resources as effectively as possible to raise funds. In face-to-face fundraising, collecting one-off donations is not cost-effective. As such, it is not the best way to help people in need.
If your bank does not transfer your e-invoice or direct debit orders to your new account, you can complete the switch by setting up a new e-invoice order or by contacting our customer service team to obtain an authorisation. We will send the authorisation to the bank to activate the order.
If you are unsure whether your bank processes the orders, the best thing to do is to contact our customer service team. This way, we can work together to ensure that your monthly donation continues. You can contact our Donor Services by calling +358 (0)20 701 2192 (Mon–Fri, 8.30–16.00) or by emailing lahjoitukset@redcross.fi.
We do not send payment reminders, nor do we collect unpaid donations.
However, some banks may charge a service fee for e-invoices and direct debit requests if the debit from your account has failed, e.g. due to insufficient funds – you can check this with your bank.
The collection expenses of the Disaster Relief Fund must not exceed 20%. This means that at least 80% of the donations are used for aid work.
The amount of collection expenses is monitored by the board and council of the Finnish Red Cross. Collection expenses are expenses incurred from fundraising, such as fundraising personnel costs, the printing and mailing costs of donation request letters, acquisition costs of the collection equipment, marketing costs, and fees collected by external service providers, including operators and banks.
The rules of the Disaster Relief Fund and its monitoring regulate the use of the donated funds.
Yes, you can do this by contacting Donor Services.
You can also stop receiving post using the form:
Please contact Donor Services by email, phone or the online form so that we can make a permanent change to your donation amount. If you wish to change the amount of a specific e-invoice, you can do so via online banking.
You can cancel your monthly donation via Donor Services by calling +358 (0)20 701 2192 (Mon–Fri, 8.30–16.00), by emailing lahjoitukset(at)redcross.fi, or by notifying us using the form:
