Living your legacy

Being involved in various entrepreneurial endeavors myself, mainly in small- and mid-sized companies, I have developed a strong interest in venture philanthropy. I want to support the growth of entrepreneurs, organizations and companies that have a promising business idea, but don’t have the necessary grounds to access common forms of financing (yet). So, I want to provide them with tailored financial and non-financial capital so that they can scale their positive impact on our society and the environment. It is my conviction that small- and mid-sized companies, if run to certain basic standards, are a catalyst to relative welfare for many.

I have been a Board Member of two foundations for some years, but I still consider myself fairly new to the philanthropy world. All I knew was that I wanted to approach my philanthropy closer to the way I approach the rest of my businesses – strategic, with clear goals, and KPIs focused on outcomes – while allowing for the imminent differences (and the different metrics where adequate) between philanthropy and business. Reconciling these two mindsets, which is an ongoing process, should help me get this to the next level.

To get started, I first needed a clear understanding of the capital I wanted to deploy to philanthropic causes (especially long-term), the vision I had for my philanthropy, and what I wanted to get out of it – for the benefit of others, but also to the satisfaction of my philanthropic vision.

Envisioning what exactly the needs are, realizing that resources are limited and that I need to be laser focused with my philanthropy was an important first step. It’s almost like in business: before you get started you should have a good idea of what niche you're going to get into and how you are going to approach this in order to maximize the odds of success. I see the vision and this exercise as my ethos, and a strategic tool that will be guiding my decisions going forward.

Putting a clear and compelling language around that belief is very critical. Just spelling it out on paper in a focused way was more difficult than I thought and a real eye-opener. Knowing that our philanthropy works like a catalyst, which enables business ideas to come to fruition and accelerates their success, gives me and my family the necessary certainty that we’re ‘driving with the same destination in mind’.

So, the vision workshop we did with UBS last year has really helped to ‘bring the house in order’, so that this year we can start deploying money to between three and five selected organizations.

I always say that if you want to be successful with your enterprise you need three main things:

1. a compelling business idea, 
2. tenacity (which includes having the right people onboard), and
3. luck and good timing. 

The latter is obviously out of your hands for the most part. I consider myself very lucky on many levels in my private and professional life, and I would like to give something back and help enable other worthy prospects. But as a businessman and a steward of our family’s assets I strive to grant the money responsibly. That’s why any grant must, to my best judgment, be sustainable, not just a one-off – and make sense in light of my strategy and vision.

That’s why I believe in integrating my philanthropic efforts in our global economy and society. And developing and testing innovative and entrepreneurial solutions that best match my own goals and convictions.

Being an entrepreneur myself, it comes closest to what I do and know.
I consider myself a ‘calculated risk-taker’, which is why I purposely decided to take one step further from what we know as traditional philanthropy and tap into more innovative ways of giving back, which will hopefully, bear fruit.

I trust that working to foster the mobilization of capital in the social impact ecosystem will nurture future leaders and spur economic development. My aim therefore, is to support entrepreneurs and companies that are critical for long-term sustainable development efforts in low- and middle-income communities.

And lastly, innovative solutions will require the collective championing of many, including the philanthropic community. So, my motivation to pursue venture philanthropy comes from my motivation to proactively enhance collaboration with others, so that together, we can ignite large-scale efforts to aggregate philanthropic capital, and ultimately reach many more people. For sure, this will be an interesting journey.

Obviously, I feel like I’m in my comfort zone when it comes to my businesses. Not (yet) so much when it comes to my philanthropy. One of the reasons is that my giving happens in a surrounding I am not familiar with. Going on a trip to South Africa, seeing philanthropy in action, and sharing ideas and experiences with my wife, experts and peers helped me make sense of these foreign surroundings and how to handle them, as well as realizing some of the potential philanthropic pitfalls.

And being part of the UBS Accelerate Collective brings me up to date with all things philanthropy and social finance as I get to foster the basics as well as learn the latest about trends and innovations. I see it as complementary to the knowledge I already bring to the table, making me feel more comfortable going forward by having the right tools, metrics, and mindset as well as access to experts where necessary.

And then of course going on this learning journey together with peers is invaluable. I firmly believe that we need to exchange knowledge, learn from each other, and pool funds if we want to create any truly impactful long-lasting good.

Charity and, to a lesser extent, philanthropy have been part of our family values and traditions for generations. But we have been anything but systematic and goal-oriented. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but for the reasons laid out above, I have decided to go for a more systematic and focused set-up. So I’d say I am the one spearheading this new approach together with my wife. But I also want my children to be part of this conversation, once they are old enough. I believe that engaging my children will teach them to be more responsible people by critically participating and thinking about root causes of political, economic, social and environmental injustices. And, hopefully, it will motivate them to help those in need and, possibly, in a more elaborate way.

1. Think long and hard about what you can achieve alone, and then what you can achieve if you join forces with other philanthropists,
2. find your niche – where you can add the greatest value with your skills, knowledge and means
3. realize that you can’t do it all with your heart – you need your mind too, and
4. develop a clean-cut strategy for your philanthropy so you can maximize the effects of your giving.