Donor services & FAQ

At the start of each year you will automatically receive a receipt for any donations from the previous year if you did not receive individual donation confirmations for them. Please check the relevant tax regulations in your country to determine when and where you should submit them to the tax office. If you need a different type of receipt, then please contact us with the details. 

Please inform us whenever you change your address.

If you receive an annual donation receipt with the wrong address, please send it back to us with the new address details. We will then immediately send you a corrected annual donation receipt.

If you have any questions about your donation receipts, please contact our Donor Service at Tel.: + 49 (0) 221 - 93 18 98 21 or write to spenden(at)medicamondiale.org

medica mondiale e.V.
Sparkasse Köln Bonn

IBAN: DE92 3705 0198 0045 0001 63
BIC: COLSDE33

This depends on the statutory regulations in the country you are donating from.

medica mondiale is a recognised non-profit entity. The organisation does not pursue commercial, profit-oriented interests. Its objectives are exclusively for the common good.

This depends on the statutory regulations in the country you are donating from. Please note that the law obliges us to only issue a donation receipt for the date we received the money. This is determined by the date the money was booked into our account, not the date it was deducted from your account.

• In our experience, this means submitting the direct debit authorisation for a donation by SEPA direct debit two regular banking days before the end of your current financial year (by post or online). Please also consider the public holidays here in Germany, especially those at the end of the calendar year. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve also count as whole-day bank holidays.
• In the case of donation by credit card, the date our account is credited will depend on the contractual conditions of your credit card issuer. This can sometimes take several weeks.

medica mondiale does not accept any material donations. Relief supplies are generally bought in the region where they are needed. Fetching materials, storage, transport and customs formalities during international shipping all cause costs and problems which can be avoided by purchasing locally.

Local procurement also has the additional advantage of supporting the economy in the countries of the region and involving local companies.

Nonetheless, there are ways to support us by means of material donations. For example, you could auction off the goods on eBay and send us the proceeds. Or hold a jumble sale. Further pages on our website detail more ways to support our work, such as online donations, regular donations or other possibilities to getting engaged.

You can use various payment methods to make a donation to medica mondiale: bank transfer, direct debit, PayPal, Klarna or credit card. You are welcome to call us by telephone to give us your payment details. Or you can use our online donations form if you pay by direct debit, PayPal, HelpCard or credit card.

All of these transactions are encrypted and your data is protected. Please read our data protection information.

As a regular donor to medica mondiale you have the possibility of supporting our work in a long-term way and increasing the impact you make with even small amounts. And beyond this there are various options for taking a stand to join us supporting women and girls. As a private individual, as a company, or as the organiser of a fundraiser or by sending a donation as a gift – there are no limits to your imagination! You can find inspiration on our donor pages. In our Media Centre and on the Press section of the website you can also find more useful information and materials.

By filling in the donation form, you can grant us a direct debit authorisation. You can choose whether you want to support the women and girls in war and crisis areas with a monthly, quarterly or half-yearly donation, or with an annual donation. At the beginning of each calendar year, medica mondiale will automatically send you an annual donation receipt listing all of your donations, which could be tax-deductible.

Or you can set up a regular bank transfer yourself, via your bank. This ensures your bank will send the amount you have chosen to benefit women and girls in war zones and crisis areas at the regular intervals you choose. And you can cancel this regular transfer whenever you wish. Of course, for donations via regular bank transfers, you will also receive an annual donation receipt.

It is not a problem at all to increase or decrease your regular donation. Simply send an e-mail to spenden(at)medicamondiale.org and tell us the new amount you wish to donate, and we will adjust it.

Direct debit authorisations can be withdrawn at any time, without notice, and without naming a reason. All you have to do is send an e-mail to spenden(at)medicamondiale.org, or send a letter, or call us.

By filling out our simple donation form you can grant us a direct debit authorisation for the desired amount of your donation. Or you can send us a donation by using PayPal, Klarna or credit card to make the payment. It is quick and easy. 

1. Donate online by credit card or PayPal: For a donation by credit card from abroad, please use our online donation form on our English pages. 
2. Donate by bank transfer

Transfers from EU member states

Since 2003, transfers from EU countries using the IBAN international bank account number and BIC bank identifier code are charged at the same rate as inland bank transfers.

The details you need for our donations account are:

IBAN: DE92 3705 0198 0045 0001 63
SWIFT-BIC: COLSDE33

medica mondiale is an international non-governmental organisation, registered in Germany, that works around the world to benefit women and girls in war zones and crisis areas. We support women and girls there who have experienced sexualised violence – irrespective of their political standing, ethnic origin or religious affiliation.

Our women’s rights and relief organisation takes the side of women and girls, advocates for their right to live a life of dignity and self-determination, works to prevent sexualised wartime violence, and supports effective protection and support measures. medica mondiale is independent and has committed itself to humanitarian and feminist values. Our vision: “Women and girls are living in a world free of violence; they live in dignity and justice.” You can find out more about our vision and mission here.

The staff in our Donor Service will be very happy to answer your questions.

medica mondiale e.V.
Donor Service
Hülchrather Straße 4, 50670 Cologne/Germany
Tel.: + 49 (0) 221 - 93 18 98 21
E-mail: spenden(at)medicamondiale.org

Office hours
Mon - Thu: 9.00-13:00 and 14:00-17:00 (CET) Fri: 9:00-14:00

Our work at medica mondiale would not be possible were it not for the commitment and donations of many people in Germany and other countries. Without this support we would simply not be able to help the women in war and crisis areas. We evaluate out impact closely, you may find everything about evaluation and quality of work here.

You can decide how your donation is used. Your donation will be earmarked for a specific project if you name one, or it will be used where the most urgent needs are if you prefer to make a general donation.  On our online donation form you can enter a particular country, or opt for the projects in our Project Funds, and we guarantee that we will earmark your donation for use where you indicate.

By making a donation without indicating a specific intended purpose, you help us to provide support where it is most urgently needed. These non-earmarked donations are essential if medica mondiale is to be able to react flexibly should the women in any particular project have needs that go beyond the planned funding. This happens for different reasons. For example, when we are suddenly told there is an increasing number of women needed medical assistance. Or when we find out that in one of the crisis regions there are women who are in definite need of psychosocial assistance and advice. Then we can help quickly and unbureaucratically: your general donation can be quickly sent where it is needed.

By making a regular donation, you ensure long-term help can be provided to traumatised women. It enhances the ability of medica mondiale to plan and provide reliable help to benefit women in war and crisis areas. This enables us to provide secure support to the women for as long as needed, which is very important: in order to cope with experiences of violence, women need long-term, continual support.

A regular donation also makes it possible for us to react flexibly and rapidly to unusual developments and acute needs. For example, we might receive an urgent call telling us about women in a new conflict region who urgently need medical or psychosocial assistance. A look at our regular donations helps us to gain an idea of whether and how it will be possible for us to intervene quickly.

Paying regular donations by direct debit or setting up a regular bank transfer also cuts down on red tape: there are fewer administrative steps and hence fewer expenses. A greater percentage of the donations then directly benefits the local women.

medica mondiale monitors its finances to ensure proper and correct use of all funds. We can assure you:

• donations are spent sensibly, economically and carefully
• clear and transparent accounting and reporting of all the organisation’s activities
• expert and appropriate rendering and auditing of accounts
• truthful and economical fundraising activities that respect the dignity of the beneficiaries and inform donors of how monies are used
• the average proportion of the organisation’s budgets used for fundraising and administration each year is less than 25 per cent

medica mondiale conducts regular impact monitoring and evaluation. Independent consultants and our own staff visit the project countries and check the results of our work by means of interviews, expert discussions or workshops. The same is true for our work in Germany.

It is our utmost obligation at medica mondiale to adopt the most responsible and trustworthy manner of managing donations, as well as private and public funding. On average, three quarters of the expenditure flows directly into the projects internationally and in Germany. This includes spending on international projects, trauma work and the public awareness, education and human rights work (2022: 82%). On average over the last five years (2018-2022), around 21 per cent of expenditure was used to cover fundraising, public relations and administration costs. As a comparison: In its evaluation criteria for its Donations Seal, the German Central Institute for Social Issues (DZI) stipulates 30 per cent as the upper limit for a responsible and effective proportion of the overall budget spend on advertising and administration costs.

We are happy to respond to your preferences. Please tell us, for example, if you want to receive information only once a year, or if you only want to receive the memo donors magazine, which is sent out twice a year. Or perhaps you only want to receive our information by e-mail?

Please contact us directly:
Tel.: + 49 (0) 221 - 93 18 98 21 or
E-mail: spenden(at)medicamondiale.org

Ever since the beginning of our activities, our commitment and the impacts have persuaded many people to make a donation in order to benefit women in war and crisis areas. Without their support it would not have been possible for us to develop our work to eliminate sexualised violence. Today, thanks to the trust shown in us by these supporters, medica mondiale is primarily financed by private donations. This trust gives us the duty to report without great delay and with true, illustrative examples about the progress being made by our local projects. So we have the fundraising newsletters and our donors’ magazine, memo, to provide this information on the successes and challenges of our work. We are certain it is this comprehensive information which convinces many donors of the value of their support, which makes our commitment to the rights of women possible. The appeals for donations also help to gain new supporters.

In general, the fundraising letters can be seen to prompt about one half of our donation income. This form of advertising costs time and money, but it is a rewarding investment for the fulfilment of all our objectives. For every euro we spent on fundraising letters, we receive approximately four euros in donations. So we can lever a great deal of help with relatively low resources. A guiding principle in our fundraising letters is respect. This needs to be shown to our donors, who have a right to know what their money is being used for. And it also needs to be shown to the affected women: we want to empower them and show their dignity rather than exposing them in text and images.

Especially in times when there is less media interest shown in our work, we have to become active ourselves. If newspapers, radio and television are not spreading the message about our objectives and work, then we have to make contact with people directly and ask for donations. And especially because our approach is long-term, we need to deploy instruments that attract the resources we need to implement this.

At first glance this would appear to be true. But a closer look reveals a different insight. For example, we could save money on printing and postage if we stopped sending out our memo magazine and the associated appeals for donations. However, the donations we receive in response are many times higher than these costs. So we would miss out on this income and it would not be available for our project work. So the small proportion of money we invest in fundraising brings in much more money we can use for our work with women.

If you have any changes to your personal data, please contact us by telephone, in writing or by using our online form.

medica mondiale e.V.
Donor service
Hülchrather Straße 4
50670 Cologne, Germany
Tel.: + 49 (0) 221 - 93 18 98 21
E-mail: spenden(at)medicamondiale.org

medica mondiale only uses the personal data you provide (name, address, e-mail, bank account details) to carry out our services. We take the protection of your data very seriously.

• Your personal data is stored by medica mondiale e.V. At any time you can send a letter or an e-mail to withdraw your permission for us to store your data.
• The data is stored in electronic form in a database at medica mondiale e.V.
• Only authorised staff of medica mondiale e.V. have access to this data.
• medica mondiale e.V. accesses a user’s stored personal data only for the purposes indicated by the user.
• medica mondiale e.V. does not provide personal data to any third parties.
• medica mondiale e.V. does not compile user profiles by combining personal and usage data.
• medica mondiale e.V. records for statistical purposes the frequency of access to its own websites and the browser versions used by site visitors. You can read further information in our Data Protection Declaration.

In order to protect your data from unauthorised access by third parties, all the data you enter into the online form is encrypted before it is sent to us. And we do not pass on your data to third parties. You can find further information in our Data Protection Declaration.

medica mondiale does not pass on your address to other aid organisations or to companies. If you find you are receiving a lot of post from companies or aid organisations and you are not already their customer or donor, they could have your address from various sources. These include publicly accessible information such as the telephone book, or commercially traded collections of names and addresses.
If you are in Germany and want to receive fewer letters like this, you can register your address in the “Robinson List” maintained by the German Direct Marketing Association (DDV): DDV, “Robinson-Liste”, Postfach 1401, 71243 Ditzingen, Tel.: +49 7156 - 95 10 10 or at www.robinsonliste.de.