Governing bodies

Quality and transparency: these are two values that we rank highly. They are closely monitored by our foundation bodies.

Quality and transparency

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 organization, making sure that your donation is put to best possible effect for those in need.

Foundation Council and Executive Committee

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 organizations.

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.

 

Delegation of SRG SSR
  • Pascal Crittin, President, RTS
  • François Besençon, Vice President

 

  • Barbara Hintermann, Fondation Terre des Hommes
  • Grégoire Castella
  • Felix Gnehm, Solidar Suisse
  • Alex Ziegler, SRG SSR
  • Melchior Lengsfeld, Helvetas
  • Markus Mader, Swiss Red Cross
  • Martina Vieli, SRG SSR
  • Sabine Maier, Vivamos Mejor
  • Corina Albertini
  • Robert Ruckstuhl, SRF
  • Silvia Schaller
  • Stefania Verzasconi, RSI
Observer
  • Silvio Flückiger, SDC
Delegation of Swiss Solidarity
  • Miren Bengoa, Deputy Managing Director of Swiss Solidarity (advisory function)
  • Pascal Crittin, President, RTS
  • François Besençon, Vice President
  • Grégoire Castella
  • Felix Gnehm, Solidar Suisse
  • Melchior Lengsfeld, Helvetas

 

 

  • Miren Bengoa, Director (advisory function)
  • Alex Ziegler, President of Swiss Solidarity’s Finance and Investment Comittee (advisory function)
  • Pauline de Vos Bolay, President COPRO Switzerland (advisory function)
  • Koenraad van Brabant, President COPRO International (advisory function)

International Project Committee

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.

 

Chair:
  • Koenraad van Brabant, President
Experts:
  • Nadia Carlevaro, Construction expert
  • Fabienne Lagier, Training and Education expert
  • Pablo Lo Moro, Livelihood expert
  • Kim Müller, WASH expert
  • Giuseppe Rullanti, Cash & Voucher Assistance expert
  • Martin Schneider, Health expert
  • Mirela Shuteriqi, Child expert
NGO representatives:
  • Alex Brans, Save the Children
  • Lukas Frohofer, Solidar Suisse
  • Laurence Gaubert, Terre des hommes Foundation
  • Christian Gemperli, Helvetas
  • Nathalie Praz, HEKS
  • Eva Studer, CBM
  • Johan Ten Hoeve, Medair
  • Beatrice Weber, Swiss Red Cross
  • Petra Winiger, Caritas Switzerland
Independent observer:
  • Elias Wieland, observer/SDC
Swiss Solidarity representatives:
  • Miren Bengoa, Director
  • Ernst Lüber, Director of Programmes
  • Koenraad van Brabant, President
  • Miren Bengoa, Director
  • Experts (on rotating basis)
Advisory function:
  • Ernst Lüber, Swiss Solidarity Director of Programmes

Swiss Project Committee

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.

Help in the wake of natural disasters

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.

Social projects

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.

  • Pauline de Vos Bolay, President
  • Matthias Drilling, Professor, FHNW School of Social Work
  • Patricia Ganter, Delegate for cantonal integration, Graubünden
  • Jean-Pierre Tabin, Professor, HETS Lausanne
  • Laurent Wicht, Professor, HES Geneva
  • Manolo Caviezel, Head of Department, Youth Protection Service Geneva
  • Claudia Paiano, Managing Director Prozessbüro
  • Paola Solcà, Senior research lecturer, head of the SUPSI Bachelor in Social Work
  • Miren Bengoa, Director, Swiss Solidarity
  • Ernst Lüber, Director of Programmes, Swiss Solidarity

Finance and Investment Committee

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.

  • Alex Ziegler, President
  • Sophie Cathala
  • Othmar Ulrich
  • Miren Bengoa, Swiss Solidarity Director
  • Pascal Crittin, Swiss Solidarity President (advisory function)
  • Pascal Frei (PPCmetrics, advisory function)

If you have any questions or would like to know more about our Foundation, please contact us. We will be happy to answer you.