Swiss Philanthropy Foundation is what Sabrina Grassi, its Director General, and Marc Salzmann, its Partnership Manager describe as an umbrella foundation, providing hosting facilities as an alternative for individual philanthropists to set up their own foundations – among other things. Here, they explain the rationale behind it and its operation to Alliance.
AM: What was the rationale for setting up the foundation?
Sabrina Grassi
SG: In Switzerland, historically, umbrella foundations are not that common because we benefit from a liberal framework where it’s very easy to set up a classic, independent foundation. We have 13,000 foundations in Switzerland which, per head of population, is one of the highest ratios in the world – it’s 15.8 foundations for every 10,000 people, while in the UK, it’s 1.8 and in the US, 3.7 per 10,000. So when Swiss Philanthropy Foundation was set up in 2006, the vision was that the complimentary vehicle was needed because sometimes people didn’t set up a foundation of their own because it has a cost not only financially but also in terms of time and knowledge needed. So the idea was, first, to provide an easier flexible economical access to philanthropy and, second, as an alternative for people who maybe don’t have time because they have a business to run, for example. And we worked hard as Swiss Philanthropy Foundation to make the vehicle known, which was not an easy task at first, but in the past years we have benefited more and more from higher recognition from the sector.
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