The Fund was established by the Rockefeller family. What was the motivation of establishing the Fund and what is its relationship with the Rockefeller Foundation?

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund was created in 1940 by the sons of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. as a way for them to coordinate their philanthropic efforts. Today our mission is to advance social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. We are pleased that the Rockefeller family is still actively involved with the Fund, with family members making up half of our board, and David Rockefeller, Sr., one of our founders, serving as an advisory trustee.

There is no current connection between the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation, although the two organisations share a history with the Rockefeller family. The Rockefeller Foundation was created by John D. Rockefeller in 1913.

What are the main work areas of the Fund?

Our grantmaking is organised in three thematic programs—Democratic Practice, Sustainable Development, and Peacebuilding—which support our work in the United States and at the global level. We also address these themes in specific contexts in three “pivotal place” programmes: New York City, Southern China, and the Western Balkans.

How does the Fund select the geographical focus in the “pivotal places” programme?

The concept of “pivotal places” was introduced in 2003 as part of the new programme architecture to guide decisions about where and how to focus the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s grantmaking in particular places around the world. We currently work in New York City, Southern China, and the Western Balkans. These regions, known as RBF pivotal places, are significant both in their relevance to the Fund’s mission and in their importance to the future of their region, an ecosystem, or the world. Take for instance the Fund’s work in the Western Balkans. Following a decade of war in the region, we began exploratory grantmaking in the Balkans in early 2001 with a focus on what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Today our Western Balkans grantmaking focuses on strengthening democracy and sustainable development in Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia.

What challenges lie ahead for the Fund?

With difficult economic times and deeply divided politics, grantmaking that is at once responsive and strategic is increasingly challenging. We have to consider how we can best invest philanthropic resources that can actually make a difference, an especially challenging task when we’re focused on changing policy, building movements, and strengthening capacity in our fields of interest. It will take broad consensus to make meaningful progress on forging a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world — and that consensus is proving harder and harder to achieve in the current context. Since we support work that addresses some of the most urgent and complex problems of our time that require long-term engagements, we are presented with several challenges: How should we evaluate the impact of our grantmaking? How can we be sure the needle is moving in the right direction, even if slowly? We have been on a steady course to strengthen our capacity to assess the impact of our programmes. Between 2008 and 2010, we completed 14 programme review papers addressing various dimensions of our grantmaking programmes. We have learned a lot from the reviews, but also discovered that establishing milestones to assess progress along the way can be daunting. We continue to explore ways to strengthen impact assessments without becoming overly driven by metrics that can’t capture many important dimensions of the kind of social change we are supporting.

What motivated the Pears family to establish a foundation?

The Pears Family Charitable Foundation, to give it its formal name, was established to provide a structure for the family's giving. I think the underlying motivation was a sense that the family had been successful in the business field and this was one way to make a more focused contribution to social issues.

The foundation really came into its own in the early 2000s when Trevor Pears, then in his late thirties, decided to take a more active role in social and philanthropic issues. What started out for him as 10 per cent of his time soon became a more than full time passion. I joined Trevor in 2004 becoming the first employee of the Foundation and we have worked closely together ever since.

As a Foundation ourselves, we've come to recognise the value of having a foundation as a vehicle for philanthropy.

The annual Family Foundations Giving Trends study, produced by the Centre for Giving and Philanthropy and Alliance Publishing Trust, which I co-author, measures and makes recommendations for UK giving through charitable foundations. We found that family foundation giving grew by a real 27 per cent in total in the five years up to 2010, contributing a total of £6.4 billion in that period. On an annual basis, the largest 100 UK family foundations account for between 7 per cent and 10 per cent of all charitable giving.

These findings reflect a certain stability and resilience in Foundation spending and a willingness to address urgent need in society, at a time when other forms of giving are under pressure.

What are the main areas of your work?

Our work is rooted in Jewish values and is concerned with positive identity and citizenship. We seek to build respect and understanding between people of different backgrounds and faiths.

The diverse programmes we run and support include: promoting citizenship and a positive contribution to British society; encouraging a stronger culture of giving in the UK, and playing a prominent role in supporting the Jewish contribution to society. Underlying all this is a commitment to research, evaluation, and constantly asking questions, especially of ourselves, to ensure our work is relevant and impactful.

In 2011, the foundation took part in a first UK Task Force trip to look at issues facing Arab citizens of Israel. How has the trip impacted on your work?

Our work in this area reflects our passion for inter-cultural understanding and is part of the Foundation’s wider commitment to furthering the debate on Israel and its role in the world.

We believe that learning first hand through experience is key to furthering understanding, which is why we co-founded the UK Task Force. The UK Task Force is a coalition of over 25 organisations, and its even larger American counterpart, are exposing thousands of people at the heart of organisational and institutional Jewish life to issues that have previously not received the visibility they deserved. This impacts our work in making social action and social justice more central to Jewish identity as well as informing our thinking about how we can positively contribute to improving Jewish-Arab relations in Israel.

We returned with the second Task Force trip in February this year, to learn about Israel's Bedouin population. This year’s trip, which included over 50 representatives from the Jewish community in the UK, broke new ground in engaging participants with some difficult, challenging and pressing issues.

Many of the trip participants are writing about their experiences, sharing them with others in their community and finding ways to go further and deeper into the issues. All of which is helping to redress a perceived educational deficit.

As importantly, it is also helping to change the patterns of Jewish philanthropy to Israel, to take more account of Israel's Arab citizens.

The foundation is keen to inspire a new generation of philanthropists. Why is this so important?

Philanthropy - in the form of private action for public goods - is already playing an increasingly important role in society, especially at a time of reduced government spending.

However, to do this job well, with both purpose and sincerity, is no easy task and that is why it is important to equip a new generation of philanthropists and philanthro-activists about both the art and science of the endeavour. Our Foundation's commitments to philanthropy education programmes in schools – from primary schools, right through to business schools - reflects these concerns. They also inform the relationships we are building with colleagues in other countries who are facing comparable challenges.

As well as the Family Foundation Giving Trends Report mentioned above, I teach about philanthropy at City University’s Philanthropy and Grant-Making course and also advise several philanthropists and non-profit organisations.

What motivated Martin and Gerda Essl to invest their money in a foundation?

Martin and Gerda Essl have, for many years, been involved in a number of social projects – both in business and private capacities. For example, back in the early 2000s, together with Rotary Vienna Northeast, they were very involved personally in a mine clearance project in Karlovac in Croatia. And, on the business side, the bauMax Group (the Essl’s family-owned concern), continues to undertake its very effective Humanity Programme, under the aegis of which, among other things, over 250 disabled persons are employed in various stores of the group in Europe.

In 2007, Martin and Gerda, together with their children, decided to commit a substantial proportion of their assets to social activities. The establishment of a foundation, the Essl Foundation, was the obvious way not only to bundle all their social activities under the auspices of one organisation, but also to ensure the future funding of these activities.

How active is the Essl family in the foundation’s decision-making processes and in overseeing activities?

Both Martin and Gerda remain actively involved in the foundation’s activities. While necessarily involved in both a number of decision-making processes and the oversight of certain activities, responsibility for the daily social activities of the foundation falls with me as the Director along with a small team at our headquarters in Klosterneuberg, just outside Vienna.

However, the family’s involvement in the foundation’s activities is not confined just to Martin and Gerda − their eldest daughter, Natascha, continues to play a very significant role in helping oversee and develop the foundation’s new Zero Project website (www.zeroproject.org).

What are the main areas of your work?

We see the mission of the Essl Foundation as being to remove barriers, especially for disadvantaged persons, and to work for a more just and equal society. We understand the term ‘barriers’ in a very broad sense − every one of us is disabled sometime within our lifetime and can be confronted with barriers: the very young, the very old, the impoverished, minorities, women etc.

We firmly believe, however, that the goals of the foundation can only be achieved with the involvement of everybody concerned, whether they be disadvantaged persons themselves, representatives of their interests, civil society, NGOs and foundations, ministers, parliamentarians and other politicians, public servants and, last but not least, the media.

We see ourselves as not only a source of data and information for improved decision-making, but also as establishing the communications channels vital for ensuring that all this information is made as easily and readily accessible as possible.

The foundation is particularly active in the field of social innovation and entrepreneurship. Why is this a major focus of your work?

The Essl Social Prize was the first major social activity of the new-founded Essl Foundation. Established in 2008, it is awarded each year to distinguished social entrepreneurs who have proven their ability to create successful social enterprises from their visions for a better world.

The genesis of the award was the Essls’ recognition that, while there is no lack of innovation in the entrepreneurial sphere, in the non-profit sphere things have been very different. As Martin Essl would point out, no better example is needed than that of Muhammad Yunus who, even as recently as 2006, won the Nobel Peace Prize − not any social prize − for his idea of granting microcredit facilities.

Martin realised that, because social innovation is often so very difficult to achieve in the face of existing structures, the only way to effect real change is, as in the business world, through entrepreneurship.

You recently launched the Zero Project. Can you describe the impetus and ambitious goals of the project?

The Zero Project is the foundation’s second major project, with the impetus of representing a new approach to broad-based advocacy for the concerns of socially-disadvantaged persons, in this case persons with disabilities.

We are, indeed, ambitious. As Martin said in his opening speech at the Zero Project Conference at the end of January this year in Vienna, ‘Together with experts, opinion leaders and decision-makers, with the Zero Project we aim to provide lasting support for the removal of barriers for persons with disabilities.’

The central focus of the Zero Project is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. With the project we aim to help persons with disabilities achieve the basic rights defined within the Convention and to eliminate the barriers along the path in that direction – barriers that were not built by individuals, but by many people, in fact, by us all.

What was the impetus for setting up the foundation? Why did the foundation choose awards as a vehicle of support?

The main purpose underlying the creation of the foundation was to strengthen the links between the Prince of Asturias –the title borne by the heir to the throne of Spain– and the Principality of Asturias, a region located in the north of the country. The Prince of Asturias Awards were established in 1981 to make this relationship more tangible. The Awards are granted in eight categories: Arts; Social Sciences; Communication and Humanities; International Cooperation; Technical and Scientific Research; Literature; Sports; and Concord. Created with the aim of contributing to the extolling and promoting of the scientific, cultural and humanistic values that form part of mankind’s universal heritage, our Awards are presented each year in Oviedo by H.R.H. Prince Felipe de Borbón.
http://www.fpa.es/en/foundation/introduccion/
http://www.fpa.es/en/foundation/estatutos/

What role does the Prince of Asturias play in the foundation?

The Prince of Asturias maintains a very close and special relationship with the foundation, which he considers – as he has publicly stated on more than one occasion – “deeply linked to his destiny”. Prince Felipe is the keystone of this institution. He keeps constant track of our work, being involved with unconditional generosity and dedication. His identification with the foundation’s goals and the decisive support of T.M. the King and Queen have contributed in a fundamental way to the consolidation of this project. Furthermore, since 2004, we have enjoyed the valuable presence of the Princess, who is Asturian and hence highly sensitive to anything that has to do with her land, history and culture.
http://www.fpa.es/en/hrh/

In what areas is your foundation active?

The foundation’s main activity is the announcing, granting and presenting of the Prince of Asturias Awards. Our laureates include figures such as Nelson Mandela; Stephen Hawking; Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier; Arthur Miller; Woody Allen; Václav Havel; George Steiner; and Rafael Nadal, to name but a few. A new Award was created in 1990 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Prince of Asturias Foundation, called the Exemplary Town of Asturias Award, which is of a different nature and has different aims, but is considered a highly appreciated distinction within the region. The foundation also has a Music Department that develops an exhaustive programme through the activities of its three choirs and the International Music School, which, via the organising of its summer courses, concerts and master classes, has made Asturias an international location for musical instruction.
http://www.fpa.es/en/awards/
http://www.fpa.es/en/music-department/

How is the current crisis in Spain/Europe affecting your work?

According to the latest approved accounts for 2010, 77% of the institution’s funding came from private contributions and financial revenue from its assets, while the other 23% came from public contributions. We are therefore very grateful both to our trustees and patrons and to the government for their constant support in maintaining their contributions at a time of economic crisis such as we are experiencing now. We are not unaffected by the context in which we find ourselves and have redoubled our efforts to adjust our management model even more to parameters marked by austerity and a more efficient use of our resources.
http://www.fpa.es/en/foundation/financiacion/
http://www.fpa.es/en/foundation/patronato/patronato-fundacion/
http://www.fpa.es/en/foundation/patronato-sar/
http://www.fpa.es/en/foundation/patronato-miembros/

How was the foundation established?

The Levi Strauss Foundation was established in 1952 as a vehicle for Levi Strauss & Co. philanthropy, but one could say that giving back is in our genes (pun intended). In 1854, less than a year after starting his wholesale dry goods business in San Francisco, Levi Strauss made a donation to a local orphanage. As his fortunes - and the popularity of Levi’s® jeans- grew, Levi Strauss became one of San Francisco’s greatest philanthropists supporting a range of community organisations and providing scholarships to the University of California, Berkeley.

What are some of the key characteristics of your foundation?

The Levi Strauss Foundation’s strategy is based on driving long-term social change in communities where Levi Strauss & Co. employees, workers, and customers live and work. In addition to responding to immediate needs through our Disaster Relief grantmaking, we have three strategic portfolios:

HIV/AIDS
We believe that stigma and discrimination are key barriers to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic today. LSF has invested over $60 million in more than 40 countries for advocacy by community organisations to address stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS, and to bring HIV/AIDS-related services to apparel workers in our supply chain. The foundation’s work in this area is part of Levi Strauss & Co.’s ongoing commitment and pioneering track record in the HIV/AIDS response. Today, the Company provides prevention, treatment and care to all employees through its global HIV/AIDS Employee Program.

Asset Building
The foundation helped to establish the asset building field in the United States in the mid-90s, based on the belief that low-income people, when given the right incentives and support, can and do save for long-term goals. We are now seeding the field in Europe, Latin America, and Asia by supporting policy advocacy and community programs to help low-income communities save and invest their way to economic security.

Workers’ Rights
In countries where Levi Strauss & Co. makes its products, the foundation’s grantmaking advances the rights and well-being of workers in the apparel and textile industries. We partner with international and local organisations that educate workers and factory management on their rights and responsibilities, and that provide information and services to improve workers’ health. In 1999, we became one of the first corporate foundations to support these kinds of programmes.

How closely linked is the foundation to the Levi Strauss company?

The Levi Strauss Foundation is an independent, private foundation grounded in the legacy and values of LS&Co. We operate independently, but collaborate on employee volunteerism, sustainability and workers’ rights initiatives.

What challenges lie ahead for the foundation?

Beginning in 2012, Levi Strauss & Co. and the Levi Strauss Foundation will lead a multi-stakeholder initiative to establish a new apparel industry standard of social, economic, and environmental sustainability that focuses on improving workers’ lives. Twenty years ago, Levi Strauss & Co. announced a Terms of Engagement that required vendor factories in the apparel industry to follow better health, safety and environmental standards. These standards - considered pioneering at the time - rapidly became the norm for most companies with a global supply chain.

The new standard will entail partnerships with key vendors, and programming to move the Terms of Engagement beyond compliance to address the needs of workers in areas including health, education, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. This initiative is both a huge challenge and an exciting opportunity to positively impact the lives of workers.

How was the foundation established?

Oak Foundation was formally established in 1998 in Geneva, Switzerland. Since its establishment, we have given more than 2,100 grants to not-for-profit organisations to address issues as diverse as marine conservation, homelessness, women and human rights. The resources of Oak Foundation come from Alan Parker who helped establish the Duty Free Shoppers business, a successful retail chain. While Oak Foundation’s headquarters remain in Geneva, we have offices in seven other countries, including Belize, Bulgaria, Denmark, Ethiopia, the UK, the US and Zimbabwe.

What are some of the key characteristics of your foundation?

Oak Foundation is an international foundation, which has seven programme areas that are quite distinct, with their own priorities and strategic directions. Nonetheless, there are some common themes that run through our wide range of grants:

• we seek to connect innovative service delivery with advocacy and system level change, to ensure the widest possible benefit of these new approaches;
• we support the gathering of evidence on the results of new approaches, in the hope of promoting their broader application;
• we work to strengthen civil society in every geography in which we work — as service providers, advocates, change agents and promoters of human rights and social justice;
• we operate within human rights frameworks within all our programmes and encourage an explicit and transformative gender perspective within our foundation and among our partners; and
• we tend to fund clusters of grants around a common goal or objective, facilitating collaboration among partners and joint assessments and evaluations.

You recently revamped your website, is this part of a new communications strategy?

In 2009 we reorganised the style and content of our annual reports by: publishing the amounts of our grants; including stories from our partners; and writing more details about our grant-making process. This year, we hired a Communications Officer to help us write a communications strategy and redesign our www.efc.be (http://www.oakfnd.org). Our new www.efc.be is an exciting development for us. In addition to having a similar look and feel of our annual reports, we have updated our programme content, added a searchable grants database and a library of programme and foundation-wide documents. We will update our www.efc.be regularly and enhance our communications in the coming year by considering ways to engage with our audiences through social media and evaluating our communication tools and tactics.

What are the top achievements of your foundation?

Within Oak Foundation, we are passionate about our issues and the people, communities and organisations with whom we work. We believe that their success and empowerment are the best measures of our own achievement. Beyond that, we are proud that:

• our Trustees have long-standing commitments to some of the toughest issues in each of the sectors in which we work (e.g., preventing the sexual abuse of children, building women's movements in the Global South, ending impunity for gross violations of human rights, ensuring the success of all children in public schools, stopping unsustainable fishing practices, meeting the needs of the chronically homeless);
• our grant-making budget has consistently increased, despite the economic crisis of the last few years;
• we have helped create coalitions and networks of partners that are having a major impact on some of the most pressing social and environmental issues of our time (e.g. the European Climate Foundation, the International Human Rights Funders Group); and
• we are maturing to the point where we can offer best practices and lessons learned to other foundations in Europe, as well as learning from our peers.

What challenges lie ahead for Oak Foundation?

In July 2011 the Center for Effective Philanthropy conducted our first Grantee Perception Survey (GPS); the assessment provided us with comparative, candid feedback from our grantees and compared our results with foundations of similar size and scope. We analysed the results of the GPS carefully during a recent Global Staff Retreat, in which our Trustees participated. The GPS outlined grantee perceptions in areas such as the application and reporting processes, the quality of communication and our impact on their work and sustainability. During the course of the next few months, our challenge will be to find ways to streamline our processes, address issues related to sustainability and enhance our interaction with individual partners as well as coalitions and networks in our programme areas. We hope to have a range of follow up measures in place by mid-2012. For more information, please read the full results of the Grantee Perception Survey on our www.efc.be (http://www.oakfnd.org/node/4039).

How was the foundation established?

The National Foundation for Civil Society Development was established by a special Act passed by the Croatian Parliament on 16 October 2003, as a public foundation with the main purpose of promoting and developing civil society in the Republic of Croatia.

The foundation was registered on 24 November 2003 with founding assets of HRK 2 million and a constant inflow of funds from games of chance with the aim of providing expert and financial support to programmes that promote sustainability of the non-profit sector, cross-sector cooperation, civil initiatives, philanthropy and volunteer work, as well as the advancement of democratic institutions in society.

The founding assets of HRK 2 million have since increased to HRK 45 million (end of 2010).

What are some of the key characteristics of your foundation?

According to the European and global classification, the organisation is a mixed public foundation that combines grant-giving programmes and operational activities in collaboration with other organisations.

Looking back over the last decade, what would you say are the top achievements of your foundation?

Sparebankstiftelsen DnB NOR has only existed for just under 10 years - we are celebrating our tenth anniversary next year. During this time we have become an important source of funding for initiatives by civic society and volunteers in Norway, and projects benefitting the public, that otherwise wouldn’t have been accomplished.

Another, and unique, achievement is our collection of old valuable stringed instruments which we have acquired with the purpose of providing the best possible tools for musicians. Instead of putting them on display, the instruments in the Dextra Musica collection are loaned to our top performers, who in exchange, agree to hold concerts and inspire and teach young musicians. In February 2010, The Strad magazine wrote that "Dextra Musica has risen in a short time to become one of the premier European stringed instrument collections."

In the same way as we promote classical music, we are committed to bringing fine art to the general public. We have been financing a range of sculptures by well known national and international contemporary artists, displayed in public areas for the benefit of everyone. Similarly, in collaboration with Norwegian art museums we have been buying fine art displayed at the museums. An important part of the fine art projects is to educate children and young people to appreciate and create art.

Looking back over the last decade/few years, what would you say are the top achievements of your foundation?

We developed: Tocnoto (precisely that)- the first computer programme in the Republic of Croatia that allows for efficiency in the activities of associations by simplifying the process of basic activities and monitoring and documenting project dynamics pertaining to the expenses within one or several approved grants. Tocnoto in the area of financial management strengthens the capacities of associations in transparent management of public funds and donations, but also in the preparation for more demanding donors they will encounter upon accession of Croatia into the European Union.

Other achievements include:

- The development of the a Computer programme called Potpora_Plus (Support_Plus) – the first specialised Croatian programme intended for donors and grantmakers to projects of civil society organisations.

- The www.civilnodrustvo.hr (www.civilsociety.hr) www.efc.be is the central site for obtaining information on civil society in the Republic of Croatia. Its aim is to offer a variety of content and services necessary for donor organisations and the public and profit sector, in their efforts directed towards civil society development in the Republic of Croatia.

- IMPACT - The European Center for Cross-Sector Partnership is the first, and so far the only centre for cross-sector cooperation in Southeast Europe. It was established at the initiative of the foundation.

The IMPACT center was opened on 16 October 2009 at the former military barracks “Franko Lisica” in Zadar, which was awarded to the foundation by the Croatian Government’s Committee for State Property Management.

IMPACT, as a centre for excellence, develops programmes in the area of training and building cooperation and partnerships between the public, business and non-profit sectors in Croatia, but in Southeast Europe as well.

IMPACT influences the strengthening of local democratic structures and the creation of a favourable environment for developing cooperation and partnerships of local CSOs, local authorities, the business sector and the media with the aim of meeting the needs of local communities and developing cross-sector cooperation.

- During 2009, the foundation conducted a media campaign entitled “Active in the Community: All 5 Programmes for Regional Development of Civil Society in Croatia”.

Also in 2009, the Croatian Network for Cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean gathered 53 member organisations, thus becoming the fastest growing National Network of the Anna Lindh Euro- Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures.

In January 2009, the National Foundation for Civil Society Development, following a proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, was elected national coordinator of the Croatian Network for Cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean, thus becoming the official representative of the Anna Lindh Foundation in Croatia.

What are some of the challenges in your field of action?

Keep various forms of support provided by the National Foundation due deduction in the total funds among support providers for CSOs, develop programmes in order to prepare well for the new financial framework with more development possibilities provided by the use of structural and other EU funds, once the Republic of Croatia becomes its full member.

How was the foundation established?

Sparebankstiftelsen DnB NOR (The Savings Bank Foundation DnB NOR) was formed in 2002 when the former savings bank, Gjensidige NOR Sparebank, was converted into a limited liability company. The bank´s core capital was converted into shares and the authorities decided that any capital not in the possession of external owners should be owned and managed by a foundation. The foundation´s capital consists of the accumulated profits that have resulted from the savings bank´s operations ever since Christiania Sparebank was established in 1822.

What are some of the key characteristics of your foundation?

We are a savings bank foundation, and our objective is to continue the traditions pursued by Norwegian savings banks of donating parts of their profits to charitable causes in the communities in which they have operated. We contribute to a wide range of national and community projects. Apart from our philanthropic efforts, our aim is to be a long-term owner of Norway’s largest financial group, DnB NOR, of which we own 10 percent.

Looking back over the last decade, what would you say are the top achievements of your foundation?

Sparebankstiftelsen DnB NOR has only existed for just under 10 years - we are celebrating our tenth anniversary next year. During this time we have become an important source of funding for initiatives by civic society and volunteers in Norway, and projects benefitting the public, that otherwise wouldn’t have been accomplished.

Another, and unique, achievement is our collection of old valuable stringed instruments which we have acquired with the purpose of providing the best possible tools for musicians. Instead of putting them on display, the instruments in the Dextra Musica collection are loaned to our top performers, who in exchange, agree to hold concerts and inspire and teach young musicians. In February 2010, The Strad magazine wrote that "Dextra Musica has risen in a short time to become one of the premier European stringed instrument collections."

In the same way as we promote classical music, we are committed to bringing fine art to the general public. We have been financing a range of sculptures by well known national and international contemporary artists, displayed in public areas for the benefit of everyone. Similarly, in collaboration with Norwegian art museums we have been buying fine art displayed at the museums. An important part of the fine art projects is to educate children and young people to appreciate and create art.

What are some of the challenges in your field of action?

Until recently we were the first and only savings bank foundation in Norway, but due to a change in Norwegian legislation in 2009, the scenery is shifting. Although we are still the largest by far, 15 new savings bank foundations have recently been established and most likely more will follow in the years to come. These foundations will have great resources at their disposal, and be important contributors to good causes in their local communities.

In a multitude of seemingly equal savings bank foundations emerging, our challenge is to develop our own distinctive character, and to make sure we keep funding projects that have a great beneficial impact on our society.

As the first savings bank foundation to be established, our responsibility and challenge has also been to lay the grounds for others to come in terms of proficient governance to assure society, the authorities and the foundation’s bodies that we are achieving our objectives and properly managing our assets.

Last but not least, the current market situation is naturally a challenge in terms of ensuring a good return on our investments, which we are dependent on to continue funding projects.

What do the next few years hold for Sparebankstiftelsen DnB NOR?

We will continue developing our strategies, and pursuing our efforts to advance our philanthropic activities both in value and in scale.

One specific project that we are especially excited about is the planning of a new culture house geared towards volunteers and young people. A couple of years ago we bought a grand building formerly constructed as the headquarters of Norway’s first savings bank in the center of Oslo. We are currently in the process of researching how the house will best benefit the intended public, and we are planning to open in 2014/2015.

What would you say are the defining characteristics of ZEIT-Stiftung?

The ZEIT-Stiftung is not only an operational and a grantgiving foundation – it has also established two institutions which operate as independent bodies: the Bucerius Law School and the Bucerius Kunst Forum (Bucerius Art Forum). The ZEIT-Stiftung has set up these two institutions because it wanted to have a substantial and sustainable impact on the education of lawyers and on the promotion of art. Foundations in general do many wonderful things but are very often institutions without a clear profile easily to be grasped by the general public. The Bucerius Law School and the Bucerius Kunst Forum give the ZEIT-Stiftung a clear profile which can be easily communicated and which shows the potential of privately established foundations.

Can you tell us more about the Bucerius Law School and how it has developed over the last eleven years?

Since we started the Bucerius Law School in the year 2000, it has attracted a large number of young people just having graduated from high school. But we only take on 110 new students every year for our three-year Bachelor of Law programme and the four-year programme leading to the German State Exam in Law. Bucerius, one of only two private law schools in Germany, is highly competitive. We collect the most talented 18-year-olds who are selected by the following criteria: competence, sense of responsibility, initiative, and leadership potential. All our students leave Bucerius at the beginning of their third year for a term abroad. For six years, we have also been offering our one-year Master of Law and Business Programme which is international and takes on 50 graduates every year. It has become one of the most attractive Law and Business programmes worldwide.

Looking back over the last decade, what other ZEIT-Stiftung programmes or projects really stand out to you as successful?

In addition to our very advanced art programme (theatre, music, and art exhibitions), we have put a special emphasis on education programmes focusing on young students from immigrant families. We also started an international grant programme “Settling into Motion” for Ph.D. students working on migration issues. Right now, the programme has 35 fellows from all over the world. Their workshops and field trips are most fascinating as they cover all aspects of global migration.

What do the next five years hold for your organisation?

We are very eager to further expand the Bucerius Law School on an international scale. Law has become a much more global tool, and the global lawyer of tomorrow needs an international education encompassing knowledge of the business world and economics. Our newly established Center on the Legal Profession (CLP) covers the needs of big and medium-sized law firms to deal with all challenges of their profession. It will also grow quickly during the next five years. This fall, we will start a joint venture with the Indian Observer Research Foundation for an “Asian Forum on Global Governance” open to high potentials between 28 and 35 years of age. It will significantly add to the existing and highly successful “Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance”. We will also work on expanding our migration programme by cooperating with partner foundations abroad.

We hope that the financial markets will allow us to further grow steadily and to fulfil a great number of ambitious goals in research, education, fine arts, and culture.