Financial support

On this page, you can review in detail our essential inclusion and exclusion criteria.

With the pre-check below, you can also quickly verify if your project fulfills our main conditions.

Support criteria

The following criteria are imperative requirements for consideration of an application:

  • All projects must be sustainable in that they combine and promote ecological, social, and economic aspects:
    • Long-term environmental: materials are used in closed cycles. Soil and water quality and availability are improved. Native biotopes increase, and biodiversity is promoted.
    • Socially just: The target population is actively involved in the project. The goals are personal independence, self-determination, and individual responsibility. Human and civil rights are respected, and conflicts are resolved without violence.
    • Economic independence: Economic conditions are improved by creating new or additional environmentally sustainable jobs and businesses. This requires local education, for example «training of trainers» or «from poacher to game preserver», so that new cells using these models can be formed. The population becomes economically independent and has access to markets.
  • Sustainability is implemented practically and tangibly and is measureable.
  • Awareness of the connection between individual behavior and the environment is promoted.
  • The project not only solves acute problems but also investigates their causes and develops preventive measures.
  • The local situation improves.
  • We know the project partners, and their competence is proven.
  • In every part of the project, sustained dialogue is nurtured. Open cooperation promotes uncomplicated personal contact, which leads to relationships based on mutual trust.
  • In order to assure reliable project oversight and adequate support, we must be able to maintain a constructive relationship with the project managers and their organization. Thus we work exclusively with organizations based in Switzerland, in neighboring European countries or in the UK.
  • Financial support for projects must be widely-based and secured for the project’s duration. At least half of the project’s budget must be contributed by third parties. These «matching funds» have to be contributions from privately funded third-party organizations (foundations, associations, private donors, etc.) granted specifically for the project.

If your project includes agro-ecological activities, they have to meet the following criteria:

Please provide a brief, separate description (up-load at the end of the form, «enclosures») of how and to what extent the following points will be achieved and measured in the project:

  • Improve soil fertility
  • Promote (Bio-) diversity
  • Reduce / eliminate use of chemicals
  • Reduce water consumption and improve water quality
  • Strengthen climate resilience
  • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and bind carbon emissions.

Projects which fulfill the following criteria comprehensively in addition to the mandatory criteria will be given preference::

  • Other interested parties are shown the advantages of a sustainable lifestyle and are given examples for implementation (multiplication).
  • The project raises public awareness and thus improves the climate for producing systems change via policy-making or lawgiving.
  • Project participants contribute however they can to the project. They do this financially, materially, through infrastructure or whatever other means they have available.

The foundation does not support:

  • Projects that are the responsibility of government or the public sector
  • Scholarships and grants
  • Meetings, workshops, conferences, events and travel costs
  • Theatrical productions, musicals, art
  • Publication costs
  • Projects that require indefinite commitment
  • Infrastructure projects
  • Operating costs per se
  • Research projects per se
  • Educational materials
  • Purely commercial projects

Pre-check

This quick test will show you if your project meets the foundation’s key requirements.