A Philanthropic Umbrella

Conversation with Tonika Hirdman, Director of the Fondation de Luxembourg

Photo Credit Mark Zenari

‘The Fondation de Luxembourg was created in December 2008 by the Luxembourg State and the Oeuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte. Its mission is to promote private philanthropic commitment. ‘

In order to understand better the mission and work of this ‘foundation of foundations’, BBeyond had a conversation with its director, Tonika Hirdman.

BB: Tell us about the history of the foundation and its raison d’être.

TH: Fondation de Luxembourg is a public utility foundation, created to facilitate and simplify the setting up of private and corporate philanthropic foundations in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Although Luxembourg has long been a leading financial centre, with an important wealth management sector, there was no dedicated infrastructure, for facilitating the creation of philanthropic foundations until 2008.

Yet, there was a clear opportunity to leverage Luxembourg’s status as a financial centre and diversify it to encompass an advisory service, as well as provide guidance over infrastructure and long-term philanthropic goals.

Prior to the creating of the Foundation, private bankers didn’t feel comfortable offering advice to interested clients about their philanthropic aspirations.

The Fondation of Luxembourg was created to meet these needs and others; to create awareness and raise knowledge through round table talks and seminars, and inspire wealth management advisors to assist their clients in advising them in their philanthropic endeavours.

While many private banks didn’t quite understand the concept at the beginning, it has proved to be so successful that they are now coming to us: they have appreciated the need to be pro-active on this front, which allows them to deepen their relationship with their clients.

BB: Do you advise foundations with similar or closely related goals on ways of leveraging their respective resources towards achieving common objectives?

TH: We host over 100 active foundations under our umbrella. We regularly organise events to which we invite the founders of these foundations who have a common denominator, whether that is culture and art, scientific research or family philanthropy. Through these events we facilitate direct exchange of ideas and brainstorming of strategies, inviting them to share stories of their successes, as well as their failures.

Understandably, founders take great pride in their philanthropic achievements and many a collaboration has been born in this way.

Founders Roundtable Event

BB: Can you give us examples?

TH: Certainly.

One example is the The Maor Ben Zion Foundation, an educational foundation, which is supporting a project based on research by Israeli psychologist Professor Rami Katz who developed a methodology to ease tension in children with ADHD. Although the project started in Tel Aviv, it spread to other countries.

Maor Ben Zion Foundation children’s outdoor activities

The VERSO Foundation was already engaged in educational youth support in Italy and decided to finance the spreading of the methodology by Rami Katz to the region of Toscana in Italy.

There was thus a clear case for collaborating and contributing resources/research between the two foundations.

Foundations with similar objectives are not necessarily aware of each other. It is an advantage we have as an umbrella foundation, the oversight which allows us to identify a match.

Having a foundation with us, means in essence, that you are part of an exclusive club of philanthropic foundations.

BB: Do you find that individual philanthropists are sometimes possessive of their foundations and not keen on sharing the limelight and credit?

TH: It can happen. However, private  individuals are generally proud and happy to talk about philanthropy, inspiring others.

<<Philanthropy per se is about dialogue and encounters; it is about being open to the world, open to learn from other people. It is collaborative in essence>>

BB: Are all the foundations under your umbrella Luxembourg-based ?

TH: We have a global outreach, however, the foundations that we are hosting are all Luxembourg entities.

BB: Do you invite non-Luxembourg based foundations to your events?

TH: Yes, occasionally we do, although our main mission is to offer advice to the foundations active under our umbrella.

BB:  Do you organize events with the financial sector?

TH: The financial sector is not invited to philanthropist-only events, in order to avoid any commercial aspect.

However, we host separate events specifically for the financial sector, offering advice on the tools available to their clients and invite keynote speakers to inspire wealth managers to discuss philanthropy with their clients.

BB: Can you give me some examples of the Fondation de Luxembourg’s success stories?

TH: One example of a success story is one of our foundations which launched a local project to provide study support for children suffering from dyslexia, a condition that was not, at the time, covered by social security in Luxembourg.

The foundation focused on two areas: on the one hand, raising awareness and increasing visibility, and on the other hand, supporting the children with their studies. The Grand Duchess, whose son is dyslexic, participated in one of the panels organized, raising further awareness about the issue,  and finally, the state stepped in, adding dyslexia to the list of conditions covered by social security and the foundation could move out to support other neglected areas.

<<Philanthropy at its best identifies hidden issues and finds solutions that public bodies can then scale up>>

Another example is during the pandemic in 2020, when we were approached by many companies who wanted to help out.  They asked if they could provide support through us.

This was not really part of our mission, but in order to respond to this positive movement, we launched ourselves a foundation for Covid 19, so that companies could contribute to projects pre-selected by our experts and covering, research, health and social sectors. This was a resounding success story:  in one and a half year, 2m euro was distributed to local Covid-related projects.

This year we wanted to do something similar for climate change.

Although climate change is not regarded with the same sense of urgency, it is of even greater existential importance, yet at a global level, there is only 2% flow of philanthropy funding geared to it.

Following two years of preparations, we set up a foundation, allowing companies to contribute to pre-selected scientifically viable projects focusing on climate change and biodiversity in Luxembourg and the Greater Region. Typically, donors perceive climate change as rather abstract and find it difficult to identify how to contribute. Through our climate foundation we address these concerns.

Nevertheless, some of our foundations are already focused on mitigating the effects of climate change. One example is Fondation Chance MBD,  established by a recently retired couple. One of their foundation’s initiatives was the launch of a holistic project in Cameroon, training the local population in sustainable agriculture methodology and recycling.