Social Impact

We’re connecting people for a better, fairer, more prosperous world and we’re sharpening the focus of our philanthropy and community activities on health and education.

Strategic vision

Influence the
impact economy

Deliver large scale social, environmental and
commercial impact

Drive a purpose-led
culture

We’ve set some ambitious goals to reach by 2025, to mobilize USD 1 billion through our philanthropy platforms into high impact initiatives globally and to reach 26.5 million people through our social impact activities.


Our focus areas

Philanthropy Services

One billion people globally have no access to healthcare. More than 648 million live below the international poverty line, and more than 600 million young people lack basic mathematics and literacy skills.To add to these challenges, climate change and the degradation of nature furthers inequalities as global emissions of CO~2~ continue to rise.i

We believe that by working collectively, philanthropists and public and private organizations have the potential to create lasting change and maximize a positive impact for people and planet. UBS Philanthropy Services provides comprehensive advice, insight and execution services to work with our clients and find innovative ways to tackle some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems.

Global Visionaries

We believe the private sector has a crucial role to play in connecting people, to bridge the gap between incubation, acceleration and impact investments, supported by a strong ecosystem and partnership approach.

UBS Global Visionaries are outstanding impact entrepreneurs, addressing the world's most pressing challenges related to education, health, inequalities, and climate change, by implementing innovative solutions. Our program helps enterprises scale their positive change by connecting them with our network of employees, partners and clients.

Community Impact

For nearly 70 years, UBS Community Impact has been committed to maximizing impact in the communities where we live and work.

We have a strategic focus on education and the development of skills as we believe these are topics where our resources can make the most impact. We believe our long-term investment in these areas are central to furthering the economic and social inclusion of those we support through our activities.

With our Community Impact program, we focus on supporting young people and adults to learn and develop skills that will further their economic and social inclusion through strategic financial support and employee volunteering.

Our impact

In 2022, we reached 370,916 young people and adults in line with our strategy, with the aim of supporting 1.5 million young people and adults by the end of 2025. We also successfully engaged 34% of our global workforce in volunteering, and 45% of the 177,000 volunteer hours were skills based.

Direct cash contributions from the firm, including support through our community impact program, UBS’s affiliated foundations in Switzerland and the UBS Foundation of Economics in Society at the University of Zurich, as well as contributions to UBS Optimus Foundation network, amounted to USD 76.15 million in 2022.

 


Together with you we aim to shift to an impact economy which accurately values social and environmental impact, and puts the future and wellbeing of children, societies and the planet we live on at the heart of investment decisions and business growth.​

Tom Hall, Head of Social Impact and Philanthropy at UBS