Gene­rate more impact together

Foun­da­ti­ons coope­rate with a range of part­ners. This allows them to pool their finan­cial resour­ces, share know­ledge and gene­rate added value for stake­hol­ders and society as a whole.

The Migros Culture Percen­tage also took part in the project, entit­led ‘Elderly people’s freely disposable income in Switz­er­land’ or the Income Study. Migros offers support to projects in the fields of culture, society, educa­tion, leisure and busi­ness, often within colla­bo­ra­ti­ons, on the basis of the commit­ment made by the company’s foun­der, Gott­lieb Duttweiler. 

Working as equals

‘The new thing about this alli­ance was that the funders approa­ched the rese­arch insti­tute with a shared idea,’ says Brigit Wehrli-Schind­ler. She explains that the oppo­site would normally be the case, with rese­ar­chers seeking funding for their projects from chari­ties. If a project wins funders over, it can be finan­ced by multi­ple chari­ties, all of whom know about each other. ‘In the Income Study project, rese­ar­chers and repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from chari­ties held regu­lar discus­sions about the progress of the project and about commu­ni­ca­ting its findings,’ she says. The roles were set out in a contract, but its success lay in the fact that the part­ners in the colla­bo­ra­tion trea­ted each other as equals. Unlike in a spon­so­ring arran­ge­ment, prefe­rence was not given to one major donor. ‘It is important that ever­yone has the same chance to shine, regard­less of how much they’ve put into the pot,’ says Corne­lia Hürze­ler. To ensure that this works, you need trust and a careful approach, along­side clearly defi­ned roles. A good colla­bo­ra­tion stra­tegy is foun­ded on ensu­ring that ever­yone works toge­ther to do as much as they can and shares a commit­ment to the task at hand. ‘That’s not always some­thing you can plan,’ says Corne­lia Hürze­ler. If it works out, ever­yone wins. ‘Migros Cultu­ral Percen­tage carries out lots of acti­vi­ties on its own, but colla­bo­ra­ti­ons encou­rage dialo­gue. In turn, they create a sense of commu­nity,’ says Corne­lia Hürze­ler. She also explains that finan­cial oppor­tu­ni­ties are much grea­ter when seve­ral chari­ties team up toge­ther. ‘And you also see a lot more exper­tise coming toge­ther, parti­cu­larly in terms of rese­arch skills and commu­ni­ca­tion,’ she explains. Brigit Wehrli-Schind­ler also empha­si­ses the added value of this. She says: ‘The discus­sions among the chari­ties help to expand their specia­list know­ledge of the topic in ques­tion.’ Any issues are worked through in detail, and the chari­ties are encou­ra­ged to exch­ange ideas for everyone’s bene­fit. ‘Each charity has a diffe­rent perspec­tive on the project, depen­ding on their objec­ti­ves,’ she says. The size of the charity, howe­ver, has little bearing on such discussions.

Networ­king

The Beis­heim Foun­da­tion is also invol­ved in laun­ching and assis­ting with colla­bo­ra­tive projects, such as the Income Study. Recently, it was invol­ved in a charity colla­bo­ra­tion on ‘good-quality care in old age’. ‘Colla­bo­ra­tive projects give us an excel­lent oppor­tu­nity to network with other chari­ties and stake­hol­ders in the field,’ says Mana­ging Direc­tor Patri­zia Rezzoli.

Win-win

The Edith Maryon Foun­da­tion also works with other orga­ni­sa­ti­ons, as demons­tra­ted by its insti­tu­tio­nal colla­bo­ra­tion with Green­peace. ‘Some­ti­mes a donor is inte­res­ted in giving real estate to Green­peace,’ explains Ulrich Kriese, member of the board respon­si­ble for public rela­ti­ons at the Edith Maryon Foun­da­tion. Often, owners are under the impres­sion that their home will be preser­ved if they donate it, thin­king that it will be mana­ged along soci­ally respon­si­ble, eco-friendly lines. Howe­ver, Green­peace is not a property mana­ger, so the charity would instead sell the property to the highest bidder. This is where its colla­bo­ra­tion with Edith Maryon comes in. This foundation’s objec­tive is to stop people using resi­den­tial and busi­ness proper­ties for finan­cial specu­la­tion, aiming instead to preserve them for use as afforda­ble homes and commer­cial proper­ties. Ulrich Kriese says: ‘In this case, the house is signed over to us. We pass the net value onto Green­peace, and ever­yone wins.’ 

If neces­sary, Edith Maryon acts as a guaran­tor for tenants’ depo­sits, and, in addi­tion, it works with chari­ties that look after soci­ally margi­na­li­sed groups. ‘People who find it hard to find a home on the housing market,’ as Ulrich Kriese puts it. The Markt­halle in Basel, home to indoor stalls and shops, is a special case within Edith Maryon’s port­fo­lio. ‘This project revol­ved around keeping the core concept of the Markt­halle, with its common land in the middle, as a public space,’ he says. ‘Someone else mana­ges this property for us, too. In this case, it is in the hands of Markt­hal­len Basel AG.’

A minor miracle

Today, the Markt­halle is just one property of many in an impres­sive port­fo­lio mana­ged by the foun­da­tion. Looking at their port­fo­lio, it’s hard to believe how little capi­tal the foun­ders had when they star­ted. ‘The secret to our success is not a secret – it’s a minor mira­cle,’ says Ulrich Kriese. The three foun­ders each put in 4,000 Swiss francs. In fact, the organisation’s success hinged on their deep-seated convic­tion and the concept behind the foun­da­tion. It has recei­ved a lot of support to date, whether in the form of dona­ti­ons, gifts, lega­cies or inte­rest-free loans. The phil­an­thro­pists who invest their money in a sub-foun­da­tion within the Rütli Foun­da­tion also want to make a diffe­rence. A sub-foun­da­tion within the Rütli Foun­da­tion will set you back 100,000 Swiss francs. 

This keeps costs down and ensu­res that prac­ti­cally 100 percent of the money goes towards its projects, she says. The sub-foun­da­ti­ons take the form of limi­ted-term trusts, meaning that, over the years, the capi­tal can make a diffe­rence to the chari­ta­ble projects that have been selected.

It’s all about impact – not preservation

‘Above all, the new phil­an­thro­pists want to make a diffe­rence. It’s not about making them­sel­ves immor­tal,’ explains Clau­dia Inei­chen. If someone deci­des to set up their own foun­da­tion with 500,000 Swiss francs, their objec­tive should not be to keep this capi­tal intact, hardly giving out any funds for the foundation’s purpose because they’re only permit­ted to make use of the yield gene­ra­ted by the capi­tal. ‘You can have more of an effect by giving out 50,000 Swiss francs each year and using up the capi­tal,’ she says, ‘which means that the money goes to society.’ It is fitting that the sub-foun­da­ti­ons are not inte­res­ted in publi­city. Clau­dia Inei­chen: ‘A sub-foun­da­tion is a good way to have a phil­an­thro­pic impact, and remain anony­mous.’ At the same time, it gives people the chance to put their own wishes into prac­tice, in a targe­ted fashion. Every sub-foun­da­tion has their own contract, and while the purpose of the umbrella foun­da­tion is formu­la­ted in rela­tively broad terms, it is tigh­tened up via the sub-foun­da­ti­ons’ contracts. Clau­dia Inei­chen explains the advan­ta­ges of this solu­tion: ‘It means you can adjust how the money is used at a later point. If someone wants to start offe­ring support in new areas, they can. Of course, they can only do so if this does not violate the requi­re­ments of their chari­ta­ble status.’ The Rütli umbrella foun­da­tion makes use of another perk: it takes a very active approach to networ­king. ‘There are sub-foun­da­ti­ons who are nevert­hel­ess able to take on projects. In that case, we have a look at the projects and orga­ni­sa­ti­ons we’ve been asso­cia­ted with for years, on behalf of the donors, to see if any of them fit,’ says Clau­dia Inei­chen. As part of this, she notes that incre­asing numbers of chari­ties are ente­ring into colla­bo­ra­ti­ons in the inte­rests of putting projects into prac­tice. The ideal situa­tion is when a donor commits to making a dona­tion for more than a year, which means that project mana­gers can plan for the longer term.

Many hands make light work

Colla­bo­ra­tion between various aid orga­ni­sa­ti­ons is behind a ‘brand’ that most people in Switz­er­land are fami­liar with, though the majo­rity are more likely to asso­ciate it with consu­mer goods than with charity work: Max Havel­aar. ‘At present, the chari­ta­ble orga­ni­sa­ti­ons are most noti­ceable on the board of trus­tees,’ says Renato Isella, CEO of Max Havel­aar.

Even when it was set up back in 1992, its expli­cit objec­tive was to get on the shel­ves of at least one of these retail­ers. ‘We wanted to make fair trade some­thing that was main­stream, not just for niche products,’ says Renato Isella. This impact was included in their plans from the off. ‘As a result, we got used to advo­ca­ting for our values in front of big compa­nies and putting them into prac­tice,’ he says. Max Havel­aar does not trade the products itself. ‘We allow part­ners to use our label, provi­ded they meet Fair­trade stan­dards,’ says Renato Isella. He is aware that there are retail­ers that want to add one or two Max Havel­aar products to their range for the sake of projec­ting a sustainable image. In these instances, he seeks out dialo­gue with the retail­ers in ques­tion: fair trade is a matter close to people’s hearts and should not be used to pull the wool over people’s eyes. Most compa­nies are commit­ted to the cause, and, for them, the label is an important way of proving this commitment.

Making use of synergies

The label guaran­tees that Fair­trade stan­dards are complied with. These stan­dards apply to every company invol­ved – in all four corners of the globe. They are laid down at the gene­ral meeting of the umbrella orga­ni­sa­tion Fair­trade Inter­na­tio­nal, where votes are distri­bu­ted equally across the north and the south. At the heart of this inter­na­tio­nal move­ment are the 1.7 million farmers and workers in deve­lo­ping count­ries. Simi­larly, natio­nal Fair­trade orga­ni­sa­ti­ons in 25 indus­trial count­ries, such as Fair­trade Max Havel­aar, also play a role. ‘By talking to each other, we can learn from each other, make use of syner­gies, simplify proces­ses and boost our impact,’ says Renato Isella. ‘Inter­na­tio­nal colla­bo­ra­tion plays an important role in this.’ We need to increase aware­ness within our society to ensure that produ­cers in the south can bene­fit from fair trade. We need ever­yone to come toge­ther if we want to improve living condi­ti­ons for disad­van­ta­ged people in deve­lo­ping count­ries in the long term: ‘The state provi­des the frame­work, compa­nies take on their respon­si­bi­li­ties – and chari­ties help them via their advice, their exper­tise and their inde­pen­dence.’ Brigit Wehrli-Schind­ler also under­stands the importance of drawing poli­ti­ci­ans’ atten­tion to important topics. These colla­bo­ra­ti­ons can help put chari­ties (and their concerns) on a stron­ger footing in their inter­ac­tions with the state. In turn, chari­ties can play a role in putting certain topics on the poli­ti­cal agenda – such as the issue of caring for the elderly and how this is finan­ced. Brigit Wehrli-Schind­ler says: ‘Colla­bo­ra­ting with chari­ties and rese­arch insti­tu­tes enables us to expand our know­ledge of current issues.’ Migros Cultu­ral Percen­tage is also invol­ved in colla­bo­ra­ti­ons at various levels. ‘We’re colla­bo­ra­ting with the state, the market and civil society,’ says Corne­lia Hürze­ler. ‘Tempo­rary short-term initia­ti­ves are simply perfect. We can’t assume that ever­yone invol­ved will share the same objec­tive at the same time.’ This is based on an under­stan­ding of how orga­ni­sa­ti­ons func­tion: they deve­lop and change, and take on new objec­ti­ves if the old ones no longer work for them.

Bridging the gap