RFSU’s business model makes a difference
Did you know that when you purchase a product from RSFU AB, you help support the fight for human and sexual rights in Sweden as well as in large areas of the rest of the world? RFSU's business model is the same today as it was 90 years ago. RFSU AB's condom sales are a way of generating revenue to continue to pursue sexual policy issues and create change.
Elise Ottesen-Jensen was a passionate journalist who started the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) to change society for the better when it comes to issues around sexuality. In 1933, Sweden was a country where sex education, contraceptives and abortions were illegal. Even homosexuality was against the law. Elise wanted to change all this. To finance the organization’s SRHR*-work, a corporation was established that among other things, sold condoms.
Read more about Elise Ottesen-Jensen and RFSU’s history.
RFSUs’s original organizational model remains the same: an association promoting important human and sexual rights issues (RFSU) coupled with a corporation selling products that improve people’s quality of life and providing financial stability for the association (RFSU AB).
*SRHR stands for sexual and reproductive health and rights. Sexual rights mean that all people have the right to decide about their own bodies and their own sexuality. Reproductive rights mean access to contraceptives and sexuality education as well as women’s right to decide how many children they will have.
The company RFSU AB is profit driven and sells products that take care of your intimate and reproductive health and make your sex life safer and more pleasureable. RFSU AB is owned by the RFSU association and the commercial side of RFSU is important to furthering the vision of Elise Ottesen-Jensen – a world where everyone is free to decide for themselves and take pleasure in their own bodies and sexuality.
“Elise Ottesen-Jensen was a deciding factor in RFSU becoming an important player in sexual politics. She was one of history’s most important pioneers within sexual politics and SRHR, and her courage inspires us to this day,” says Ingela Holmertz, RFSU General Secretary since 2020.
Ingela Holmertz is responsible for running RFSU on a national and global level. She has a long history with social issues and extensive experience in leading organizations within the non-profit sector, both in Sweden and internationally. Working beside her is RFSU’s Lina Fridén, who in her role as President of the association, leads the board in its work with responsibility for and driving RFSU’s different divisions. Through her work, she also has close contact with RFSU’s membership.
“Elise understood early on that true change requires engagement by many people. That is why a democratic membership organization was established, which could run operations locally,” says Lina Fridén, who was chosen as the association president at the RFSU Congress in 2023.
Today, RFSU has some 15 local chapters in Sweden that contribute to and create change in the form of a passionate, citizen-driven movement, exactly as Elise hoped for. In the Nordic region, RFSU cooperates with other members within IPPF, an international federation of organizations fighting for sexual and reproductive health and rights in 45 different countries, by strengthening local efforts in the best way possible.
RFSU’s business model provides strength and independence
Ingela Holmertz and Lina Fridén highlight the cooperation with the commercial side of RFSU as another great strength in the association’s work.
“Being supported by a for-profit corporation provides us with the security to carry out our work independently, regardless of how controversial our issues may be perceived,” says Lina Fridén.
Even if much has improved when it comes to human and sexual rights since Elise Ottesen-Jensen started her much-debated business in the 1930s, the fight for sexual and reproductive rights must continue, both at home and around the world.
“That we are self-financed gives us courage and a sense of security. We even have the opportunity to test new things and scale up operations that no one else prioritizes and that need financial resources,” says Lina Fridén.
Improving equality in society for all groups is something RFSU works with continuously.
“For example, this can be about showing how racism can be an obstacle to equal healthcare or working on ensuring the needs of different groups are met, for example people with diverse abilities,” says Ingela Holmertz.
An important part of the operations is the RFSU Clinic in Stockholm, which operates under funding from Region Stockholm and Stockholm City, along with self-financing.
“Our experts there help us identify the needs of different social groups, so we can develop our operations and train others as well within neglected areas with the help of the knowledge ascertained by the clinic,” says Ingela Holmertz.
RFSU’s products – developed based on people’s needs
Listening to and identifying people’s needs can also result in new products being launched on the market. When RFSU AB launches its products, it’s done in cooperation with professionals from the RFSU association, the RFSU clinic and other experts. It also investigates the target group’s challenges, for example through surveys and focus groups. Products are thus developed based on the consumer’s specific needs and using the considerable knowledge within the association, which is a key source of support.
“One example is our initiative for women undergoing menopause,” says Anette Otterström, Head of Brand & Communication at RFSU AB. “Through our comprehensive Nordic menopause survey Klimakteriekollen, we could see that knowledge of the different symptoms and problems that can arise during menopause was low, among women as well as healthcare workers.
“The insights we got resulted in our product launch being complemented by solid knowledge-building content. We created digital training for pharmacy staff on different menopause symptoms, a digital self-diagnosis test and the Nordic region’s first comprehensive product series, FemCare, which contains supplements, hormone tests and intimate hygiene products for the most common menopause problems that the survey found.”
Communication as an important tool
One of Elise Ottesen-Jensen’s core issues was that everyone should have access to high-quality sexuality education. Today, RFSU offers sexuality education in 16 languages. Within RFSU, there is a strong collaborative effort to develop communication that reaches people and makes a difference, characterized by long-term thinking, humility and courage.
One example of a successful cooperation between the RFSU association and RFSU AB is meeting young people in their own environments to talk about sex, protection and consent. Through a significant initiative with honest and courageous communication about condoms, and through being on the ground together at festivals throughout the Nordic region, the use of condoms in the region increased by 12 percent in 2023. The so-called condom gap decreased as well by 6 percent. Which made 2023 a historically positive year for the condom, 90 years after Elise Ottesen-Jensen started selling condoms.
“Creating communication that cuts through the noise is a challenge in and of itself. We have the advantage that sex is always interesting, although our content being censored in many media channels creates significant challenges. But with our long experience, knowledge and courage, we succeed anyway, time and time again,” says Anette Otterström.
RFSU’s products do double duty
Products from RFSU have a doubly positive effect. In part because the person buys the product for their own needs, in part because the profit from the sale has a higher purpose and creates change far beyond Sweden’s borders.
“Having access to self-financing makes RFSU’s international work possible as well,” says Lina Fridén.
Today, the association has 40 partners in over 20 countries where there is a huge lack of access to sexual and reproductive health and of rights. For example, the right to abortion and access to sexuality education are limited and sexual rights are not respected. It is also about fighting for LGBTQ rights in countries where people’s rights are violated when they stray from the norm or lowering maternal mortality rates in places where many women die during childbirth.
“The financing from RFSU AB makes it possible for us to be pioneers,” says Ingela Holmertz.
When you buy a product from RFSU AB, you contribute to:
All sales profits from RFSU AB’s products go to RFSU’s work For The Freedom Of Every Body – human and sexual rights – around the world.
Next time you buy a product from RFSU – remember that you are an important part of the fight for:
- Improving people’s sexual rights. That everyone should be able to decide about their own bodies and sexuality without facing discrimination, infringement of rights or violence, regardless of gender, ethnic background, different ability, gender identity, sexuality or age.
- Giving more people a satisfying and safe sex life without concern for disease, the freedom to plan for and make possible having children, access to good health care that offers women the chance to be pregnant and give birth safely.
