For Greece at its best

Culture, educa­tion, and health are the three central pillars of the non-profit Alex­an­der Onas­sis Foundation—things that people need in order to truly live and not just survive, as foun­da­tion presi­dent Anthony Papa­di­mi­triou is convin­ced. The scho­lar­ship program was the first mile­stone: since 1978, the Onas­sis Foun­da­tion has awarded over 7,800 scho­lar­ships to students, rese­ar­chers, and artists. The foun­da­tion is omni­pre­sent in the Greek capi­tal Athens, home to important cultu­ral insti­tu­ti­ons such as the Onas­sis Stegi, a cultu­ral center for thea­ter and dance perfor­man­ces, art exhi­bi­ti­ons, discus­sions, and lectures, and the Onas­sis Library with its histo­ri­cal book coll­ec­tion. The new, award-winning light­ing of the Acro­po­lis in Athens was also reali­zed with the support of the foun­da­tion. Athens is also home to the Onas­sis Cardiac Surgery Center, which the foun­da­tion dona­ted to the Greek state in 1992 and which will soon be supple­men­ted by Onas­sis Natio­nal Trans­plant Center. Its signi­fi­cance goes beyond medi­cine, explains Anthony Papa­di­mi­triou: «The Onas­sis Foun­da­tion fights against entren­ched preju­di­ces, beliefs, and social conser­va­tism and aims to be a cata­lyst for social change in all areas of organ dona­tion. Greece curr­ently has the lowest rate in Europe.»

Active world­wide, focu­sed on Greece

The non-profit foun­da­tion was estab­lished in Decem­ber 1975 in accordance with the last will and testa­ment of Aris­totle Onas­sis. The Greek shipow­ner wanted to honor the memory of his son Alex­an­der, who died in a plane crash in 1973. Since its incep­tion, the foun­da­tion has been based in Vaduz, a place that, accor­ding to the foun­da­ti­on’s presi­dent, offers «the rule of law, poli­ti­cal stabi­lity, and highly deve­lo­ped finan­cial services.» The foun­da­tion is active world­wide and parti­ci­pa­tes in events such as the annual film festi­val in Liech­ten­stein. Howe­ver, all projects are rela­ted to Greek society, culture, and civi­liza­tion. «We are not a funding orga­niza­tion,» empha­si­zes Anthony Papa­di­mi­triou: «We use all our resour­ces for our own projects. We also prefer to finance and manage large-scale projects.» The foun­da­tion supports important chari­ta­ble projects, but indi­vi­dual charity is not permit­ted under Aris­totle Onas­sis’s will. All acti­vi­ties of the chari­ta­ble foun­da­tion are finan­ced exclu­si­vely from the profits of the auto­no­mous and insti­tu­tio­nally inde­pen­dent Alex­an­der S. Onas­sis Foun­da­tion, which is also based in Vaduz. The corpo­rate foun­da­tion holds compa­nies which are mainly active in the areas of ship­ping, real estate, and finan­cial product invest­ments. Forty percent of its annual net profit goes to the chari­ta­ble Onas­sis Foun­da­tion, with the rema­in­der being reinvested.

Anthony Papa­di­mi­triou was elec­ted to the Board of Direc­tors in 1988 on the recom­men­da­tion of then-Presi­dent Chris­tina Onas­sis, and has served as Presi­dent since 2005. Of course, all of the foun­da­ti­on’s projects are close to his heart, but at the moment he is parti­cu­larly exci­ted to see how the latest «child­ren» deve­lop: in addi­tion to the afore­men­tio­ned trans­plant center, this includes the estab­lish­ment of 22 public Onas­sis schools in soci­ally and econo­mic­ally disad­van­ta­ged areas of Greece. Over a period of twelve years, more than 22,000 students are expec­ted to bene­fit from this initia­tive. The infra­struc­ture is only the foun­da­tion, says Anthony Papa­di­mi­triou: «It is the teachers who make a good school, not the beau­tifully pain­ted walls. We stand by them and support them with concrete measures.»

A cata­lyst for progress

The Alex­an­der S. Onas­sis Public Bene­fit Foun­da­tion has remained true to its goal of being a cata­lyst for progress and demo­cra­tiza­tion through inno­va­tion and pionee­ring spirit for 50 years, says the foun­da­ti­on’s presi­dent: «Inno­va­tion and disrup­tion, pionee­ring spirit, and the deter­mi­na­tion to never stand still are among our core prin­ci­ples.» At the same time, howe­ver, the foun­da­tion is also «Darwi­nian»: «We are constantly adap­ting our resour­ces to the needs of a society that is constantly evol­ving.» Today, it is incre­asingly commit­ted to acces­si­bi­lity and inclu­sion in all social areas, as well as to envi­ron­men­tal and climate protec­tion. Since 2010, the foun­da­tion has awarded a bien­nial envi­ron­men­tal prize worth 250,000 Euros for outstan­ding rese­arch contri­bu­ti­ons to solving envi­ron­men­tal problems. «As a cata­lyst for progress, we strive for part­ner­ships across all areas of society,» explains Anthony Papa­di­mi­triou – by dona­ting over 13 million face masks to Greek health­care workers during the coro­na­vi­rus pande­mic, as well as by buil­ding or reno­vat­ing public play­grounds and sports courts in Athens. «What we want is Greece at its best.»