The competence center for charitable foundations "As a foundation, we must demonstrate agility and flexibility."

Mr. Kappeler, the outbreak of the war in Ukraine put numerous families in a state of emergency in the blink of an eye. How did the SOS Children's Villages foundation in Switzerland react to this?

Alain Kappeler: We responded immediately and were one of the first organizations in Switzerland to request donations for emergency aid. This enabled us to provide the children and families in need with food, personal care products, and medicines, for example. In Ukraine itself, we have two Children's Villages in the Kiev and Luhansk regions. The first evacuations took place just before the war began, and in Brovary (Kyiv) immediately afterwards.

This situation was a first for our local foundation. Until then, we had only been active in developing countries, which we call "focus countries," such as Ethiopia and Nepal. In the light of current events, we decided to support a project in Switzerland for the first time ever. To this end, we worked with the "tipiti" association to give Ukrainian foster families and children and young people from orphanages the opportunity to come to Switzerland so that they could benefit from various childcare services and financial support.

What lessons for the future can you draw from this situation?

The fact that we have become personally active in Switzerland is especially important for our organization. In addition, our database now contains many new donors that had not previously supported our organization. We wanted to fulfill their expectations as far as possible with our quality standards, which posed great challenges to us as a small organization.

What advice would you give to foundations that are also suddenly facing major challenges due to unforeseen events?

It is not really possible to prepare for such situations. But digitalization certainly helped us. Thanks to the automated processes it enables, we were able to collect and handle the emergency aid for Ukraine quickly.

Furthermore, as a foundation, you must always have a certain amount of agility and flexibility. You should be able to make decisions quickly, have straightforward, efficient processes, and clearly define the responsibilities and competencies. When I see how quickly we were able to initiate and implement the Swiss project with the "tipiti" association – it is amazing. I think one should also keep an open mind when such opportunities arise.

A non-profit foundation is largely dependent on the goodwill of society. How do you bridge the gaps when it is difficult to obtain financial resources?

Many people donated to emergency aid in Ukraine. For us as an organization, we must wait and see whether the Swiss population has exhausted its donation budget and how much is left for other projects. In other countries, the challenges are similar to those in Ukraine: For example, because of inflation, the population in Ethiopia can no longer afford basic food; there is also drought and civil war, which exacerbates the situation. The lack of donations for these countries is therefore a major obstacle.

I therefore believe that, as an organization, we must continue to grow. It will be important to generate new products and platforms with innovative approaches in order to reach new donor target groups.

What strategy are you taking to secure the foundation's assets for the long term?

We have drawn up investment guidelines and have defined a clear portfolio. As a non-profit organization, of course, we cannot take on too much risk. This means we deliberately avoid investments that may have higher returns. After all, we are using the assets of our donors and must be very careful with them.

How can the Competence Center for Charitable Foundations of Credit Suisse help you in this regard?

The Competence Center helps us a great deal with the subject of sustainable investments, for instance. They also assist us in optimizing our investment strategy. We work together to meet the criteria we have defined in order to have the right portfolio for the future.

Where do you think your foundation is particularly innovative?

Two years ago, we created our own business development vehicle to generate new ideas on a regular basis. We then test them on the market or directly with our donors. If a test is successful, we adopt the idea within the organization. We have already been able to accomplish a lot with this approach. For example, we set up a virtual flea market where people can sell items and donate the proceeds directly.

In addition, we are trying to find innovative ways to raise funds. For example, we were one of the first organizations in Switzerland to accept cryptocurrency.

Last but not least, we continue to make progress in program work. We have had a lot of success with our classic SOS Children's Villages up until now. At the moment, however, we are focusing on our family outreach programs and helping others to help themselves.

What do you think other Swiss foundations can learn from you in terms of innovation?

We have had very good experiences with our business development approach. It should be part of an organization's mindset. What's more, employees need time and space to be able to devote themselves to new developments and innovations. It is important to involve everyone. This is exactly what we are doing at SOS Children's Villages Switzerland, because all employees have great ideas, whether they are an intern, someone from the finance department, or a member of management.

What other goals does SOS Children's Villages have for the next few years?

We have three strategic business areas. One is the expansion of our family outreach programs. The second strategic area is actually the transformation of our existing SOS Children's Villages. We realize that we need to think about repurposing. But we also know that many people donate mainly to the classic SOS Children's Villages. Accordingly, it is also a matter of developing new products. And the third area is the development of a separate Swiss program for local children and young people. But that is somewhere down the road for us.