Governing bodies
Quality and transparency: these are two values that we rank highly. They are closely monitored by our foundation bodies.
When you make a donation, you trust us to spend your money wisely.
We have several foundation bodies ensuring that this is the case. They oversee the different aspects of our organisation, making sure that your donation is put to best possible effect for those in need.
The Foundation Council is our highest body. It ensures that we carry out our work carefully and responsibly. The Foundation Council is also responsible for setting our strategy, ensuring that we are constantly developing, so that your donations continue to be used effectively into the future.
The Foundation Council comprises a maximum of 14 members, half of whom are members of SRG SSR, from which we were formed, and half of whom are members of our partner NGOs or other humanitarian aid organisations.
The Foundation Council’s Executive Committee, on which five people sit, supervises and monitors our top management, supporting them in their activities. Our director, the respective president of the project committee international as well as Switzerland and the president of Swiss Solidarity’s Finance and Investment Comittee sit on the Foundation Council and on the Executive Committee in an advisory capacity.
The International Project Committee ensures that we use your donations to fund projects that bring the most help to those in need in the current situation.
The committee members are independent experts on humanitarian aid, representatives of our and our senior management. Since all the relevant areas such as health, construction, water and hygiene, child protection and business are represented, the committee members can examine all of the projects submitted down to the last detail.
The project committee is chaired by an independent person and convenes several times a year. The constellation is different each time, depending on the expertise required for the projects under discussion. Projects are first analysed carefully and then discussed in depth at a committee meeting. The decision-making sub-committee within the project committee then makes a funding decision.
Helping people in need in Switzerland is a core part of our history. To help even more people in Switzerland, we began funding projects run by private social institutions in 2016. And up until 2017, we provided social assistance to individuals.
Just as we do for projects run abroad, we attach great importance to funding effective and efficient projects in Switzerland to ensure that your donations are used in the best possible way and that they reach the people who need them most. That’s why we also work with a project committee on funding for projects in Switzerland. Made up of experts in relevant fields, the project committee monitors the correct use of donations.
When extreme weather events or natural disasters occur in Switzerland, the committee ensures that donations are used to help people, organisations, small businesses and communities with few financial resources, specifically those with the most urgent needs.
Swiss Solidarity also supports social projects in Switzerland by means of various funds. The independent experts of the Swiss Project Committee also provide Swiss Solidarity’s management team with assistance in this area. In this way, Swiss Solidarity receives not only help to define the scope of activities and evaluate funding applications, but also recommendations to assist it in making decisions regarding project proposals.
We don’t spend all the money we raise immediately. When there is a major disaster and we launch an appeal, it makes sense to support some projects long-term, especially reconstruction. Meanwhile, we invest your donations carefully. Our Finance and Investment Committee is responsible for our finance and investment strategy. It ensures that we observe our financial guidelines; for example, that we don’t invest in financial products containing businesses that produce arms, alcohol, nicotine etc.
In the future, the strategy will not just exclude certain products, it will be based on clear, sustainable and socially responsible principles. The president of the Finance and Investment Committee is appointed by the Foundation Council. Three experts, also appointed by the Foundation Council, also sit on the committee, and our director and head of finance always take part in committee meetings.
Swiss Solidarity, 1211 Geneva 8
Your donation is tax deductible in Switzerland.
