Our 25th Anniversary

Sir Crispin Davis

Chair, Crispin Davis Family Trust

The UBS Optimus Foundation is very good at finding charities that have strong leadership and a clear sense of purpose, and they monitor those charities regularly. I like to get involved, so I know the CEOs of most of the charities that we support through the UBS Optimus Foundation.

After a successful career in a variety of business executive roles, Crispin set up the Crispin Davis Family Trust to help disadvantaged children around the world, particularly by giving money to smaller charities with very specific, measurable aims. Early on, there were challenges in finding really good charities that met the strategic goals of his foundation. Crispin had worked with UBS on the banking side, so turned to the UBS Optimus Foundation for insights. The partnership has grown ever since. Nominated for his commitment to ensuring we deliver on our impact transparency vision and together finding the right partners to work with, the partnership has grown ever since. Crispin and the UBS Optimus Foundation review strategic goals together every year, looking at programs currently supported and exploring new ones.

Q: Can you share a particularly memorable impact success story?

A: One of the principles I believe in strongly is continuity of support. I think nearly all the charities we've supported now for 5, 6 or 7 years. One of the first was Last Mile Health in Liberia, a brilliant charity training high caliber women to look after villagers and provide medical support, advice, pastoral care and so on. We supported the very first pilot in one small area that was very successful. We then expanded that to one district, which was also very successful. The Liberian government started to get interested and worked with Last Mile Health to expand it to a province. Today, the Liberian government has taken over financial responsibility for the program and it's gone national, working superbly well to bring health care to every Liberian. This kind of situation where you’re able to help turn acorns into oak trees – it's a really rewarding experience.

Q: If you were speaking with a philanthropist just starting out, what advice would you have?

Be very clear on what your objectives are. Together with my trustees, we spent nine months really debating what we were after. We determined that we wanted smaller charities – not bigger. We wanted programs that were focused on disadvantaged children with very specific end results that were measurable. And we wanted to really like the management team. I think it's very important to pick the charities you support carefully. The aim should be to support them for 5 to 10 years, all the way through. It's therefore important to me that I meet the chairman, the CEO and the team members so that I can really be confident.

Pete Wilson

Client and UBS Accelerate Collective member

If you are working with people who share the same passion that you do and working on the ground with experts that have experienced track records in what they can do to deliver great outcomes, then we can use those two features combined to drive better outcomes, better stories, better ways of engaging other people – whether it's philanthropists, the financial community through lending, or other sources like partner organizations that provide other kinds of catalytic capital on the ground to widen our reach.

Pete has been a UBS client for many years. He was looking to bring some structure to deployment of his philanthropic resources when his client advisor told him about the three UBS Collectives. The UBS Collectives pool funds and expertise with fellow philanthropists to achieve exponentially more impact on a particular issue such as climate, child protection, healthcare and education. He immediately was drawn to the mission of the UBS Accelerate Collective, which harnesses social finance to bring much needed funding to improve health and education outcomes for children living in vulnerable communities in the world, while creating additional funds for new programs. He’s now been active in the UBS Accelerate Collective for two years. Pete was nominated because of what we have been able to learn from him about how we can best support the next generation of philanthropists and how he is willing to innovate alongside us.

Q: What has your experience been with the UBS Accelerate Collective?

A: I've found the whole journey to be incredibly rewarding and interesting on a bunch of different levels. We started with getting quite a good grounding around what I came to understand to be called catalytic philanthropy – where you take money from a collective of philanthropists that can hopefully unleash, or bring other capital together with it, to support different projects. We learned about outcomes-based funding. And for someone who's been involved in financial services, the idea of tying measurement and reward to the actual outcomes that are generated by the project was very, very compelling.

What really was exciting for me is we had an opportunity to go into the field. We went to Ghana and we were able to see a number of the projects linked to the Ghanaian Education Outcomes Fund that our Collective supports. When you're there live with these other people that I've only met on Zoom before and we were able to be on the ground seeing the projects come to life, that was incredibly interesting, very eye opening and really gratifying to see on the ground, in real life what the capital that we had helped to generate was actually doing.

Alan McCormick

Partner, Legatum

I think it’s fair to say that Legatum couldn’t have achieved what it has without our strong partnership with the UBS Optimus Foundation. My biggest learning is that the most effective and productive relationships need to be built through shared values and over the long term. I’m so proud of what we have achieved together, but I’m equally excited about what we can do in the future.

Legatum and the UBS Optimus Foundation have a longstanding partnership, collaborating since 2013. The Foundation joined as an investor in all three of Legatum’s flagship collaborative philanthropic funds: the END Fund, the Freedom Fund and the Luminos Fund. And then Legatum was a launch investor in the UBS SDG Outcomes Fund at its launch in 2023. Nominated for their commitment to a collaborative vision for innovation, the valuable partnership continues to expand into exciting new areas.

How are your organization’s goals aligned with the UBS Optimus Foundation's mission?

For the past two decades, my fellow Legatum partners and I have been focused on furthering Legatum’s prosperity mission, which is really all about believing the best in people – that they are more than competent to change their circumstances and lives. We see roles as serving alongside to help people to thrive, overcome obstacles and live their best lives. Specific examples of how we deliver that mission are the collaborative endeavors we founded – the most well-known example being the END Fund, which set out with the bold ambition of eliminating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in countries worst affected by these debilitating but treatable diseases. From small beginnings, with a pilot program in Burundi, the END Fund is now one of the world’s largest privately funded interventions in public health.

We have seen philanthropy evolve through various phases – emotional, where we are stirred to make a difference; rational, where there’s a greater focus on monitoring, evaluation and impact; and more laterally, relational philanthropy, where philanthropists collect around shared objectives, bound by a set of values and a desire to create impact. Optimus has been at the center of this change. And like all the best collaborations, Legatum’s and the UBS Optimus Foundation’s values and strategic goals are very well aligned and that has manifested in us supporting each other’s innovations. Our commitment of funds to the UBS SDG Outcomes Fund is a great example of this mutually supportive relationship.

Trish Turner and Ewan Kirk

Founders, Turner-Kirk Trust

Our approach to philanthropy involves taking on high-risk projects – a core feature is the concept we term ‘permission to fail’.

Trish and Ewan’s Turner-Kirk Trust was a launch funder of the Power of Nutrition, a unique ongoing global initiative addressing the issue of childhood malnutrition. Trish and Ewan were seed funders of One to One and Hope and Homes in South Africa, both successful UBS Optimus Foundation partners for the deinstitutionalization of children. Ewan was an instrumental advisor on, and investor in, the UBS Optimus Foundation's development impact bonds in India and the more recent SDG outcomes initiative. Trish was the first philanthropist in residence at the UBS Optimus Foundation, developing the very successful UBS Philanthropy Insights Trips and undertaking the very first 'test' trip. She was also a founding member of the 2021 Transform Collective, a new collaborative approach to the protection of children. The Kirks were nominated for their exemplary investment of time, expertise and feedback in ensuring our Foundation keeps innovating with and for the philanthropists and partners we work with.

Q: What inspired you to get involved with the UBS Optimus Foundation?

A: Our approach of leveraging philanthropy as a catalyst for sustainable change, innovation and collaboration fits with the UBS Optimus Foundation’s mission of using evidence-based philanthropy to deliver breakthrough solutions to pressing social and environmental issues. In our view, a defining feature of the UBS Optimus Foundation is bringing together philanthropists, partner organizations, projects and communities to work together in solving problems. Philanthropy takes time and effort to be effective – by partnering with UBS, we benefit from the experience, knowledge and networks that helps us to make the most impact.

Batya Blankers

CEO and co-founder, Chancen International

I am inspired by how the UBS Optimus Foundation is redefining philanthropy–combining financial innovation with a clear social mission. My hope is to see the UBS Optimus Foundation continue to lead in catalyzing solutions that can be scaled globally. I envision it championing new asset classes like ISAs, making education financing a mainstream tool for development.

The UBS Optimus Foundation made its first significant commitment to student financing for post-secondary education with Chancen International. Chancen uses Income Share Agreements (ISAs) to help students access high-quality education without upfront costs. Its mission is to ensure that marginalized youth have the opportunity to learn skills that lead to meaningful employment, breaking cycles of poverty and enabling intergenerational mobility. The partnership over the past five years has significantly shaped understanding of what ethical, fair and affordable financing for students looks like, helping the UBS Optimus Foundation to further expand in this space across multiple organizations that do student financing through loans and income share agreements in multiple geographies (across Africa, Asia and Latin America).

Q: How has the UBS Optimus Foundation helped you advance your goals?

A: The UBS Optimus Foundation has been a cornerstone in our journey. As one of our first supporters, they provided catalytic funding that helped us establish the Future of Work Fund. This has been instrumental in scaling our impact, allowing us to finance thousands of students while attracting additional investors who share our vision for equitable education access. The UBS Optimus Foundation taught us the importance of aligning impact with financial returns to attract diverse stakeholders and ensure outcomes-based financing. Their rigorous due diligence process also reinforced the value of transparency, measurement and adaptability in proving our model. The UBS Optimus Foundation’s trust in our model has validated our approach and encouraged others to see the potential in investing in young people.

Q: Why are you optimistic about solving the issues you’re working on?

A: The sheer resilience and ambition of Africa’s youth fuel my optimism. Despite systemic barriers, they demonstrate incredible determination to learn and grow. Additionally, we’re seeing growing global recognition that investing in young people drives economic growth, social stability and innovation. Our model has shown tangible results: students graduating, finding employment and giving back. This progress proves that the challenges we face are surmountable.

To that end, we are scaling strategically by expanding to more countries and diversifying the education programs we fund—from traditional degrees to short-term technical training aligned with high-demand sectors. Our partnerships with proven education providers ensure that students graduate with market-relevant skills.

Jamie Fyleman

Managing Director, Justice and Care

We are seeking to demonstrate how human trafficking can be effectively combatted, reversing the worldwide trend. In doing so, we aim to help create blueprints for others to follow.

Established in 2009, Justice and Care pioneered their approach to fighting slavery and trafficking in India. The UBS Optimus Foundation has been a partner since 2017 and Justice and Care now works across three strategic locations – Bangladesh since 2017, UK since 2018 and Romania since 2020. Justice and Care’s model of reducing modern slavery is anchored in improving survivor care, closing the impunity gap for exploiters by strengthening the justice system and protecting vulnerable communities through lasting change. The UBS Optimus Foundation admires their victim-centered approach, always elevating the voices of survivors in their work through their podcast and champion survivor programs, recognizing that those with lived experience know best what needs to change.

Q: How has the UBS Optimus Foundation helped you advance your goals?

A: The UBS Optimus Foundation has helped us in so many ways – we simply would not be the organization we are today without its support. Our work in Bangladesh is a concrete example of this. Eight years ago, our staff team there numbered three – in effect, supporting survivors of human trafficking to return home from India. Today, the work is multifaceted and has grown exponentially. We have a staff team of more than 60, 19 of whom are Champion Survivors who are now helping others at the start of their journey of recovery. We work across protection, survivor care, prosecution and work closely with Government to help shape their response to the issue - for example, creating the country's national guidelines on victim identification.

The UBS Optimus Foundation were the first investors in our work in Bangladesh. Today, our work continues to be supported by the UBS Optimus Foundation, but also the UK and US Governments. The work has won major accolades and our country director there was named by the US State Department as one of the 2022 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report Heroes - only a handful of people every year are honored in this way. From seed funding to brilliant introductions and wise counsel, the UBS Optimus Foundation has been integral to the story of Justice and Care in Bangladesh. The ripples of that impact will continue to grow.

Phyllis Kurlander Costanza

Former CEO, UBS Optimus Foundation (2011-2022)

Partners choose to work with the UBS Optimus Foundation because of its reputation for rigor, honesty and a commitment to evidence-based philanthropy.

Phyllis was immediately drawn to the UBS Optimus Foundation’s unique position in the philanthropic landscape. Having previously worked at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, she saw the potential for applying rigorous financial methodologies to philanthropic endeavors to create a paradigm shift in how high net worth individuals approach giving, ultimately leading to more effective and sustainable solutions to critical global challenges. During her tenure, the UBS Optimus Foundation grew from a primarily Swiss-focused entity to one with a global presence, with an increase in annual client donations from approximately USD 10 million to over USD 200 million. Phyllis helped position the UBS Optimus Foundation as a leader in strategic, client-driven philanthropy within the financial sector, ultimately amplifying its ability to improve the lives of vulnerable children globally.

Q: What key learning impacted the way the UBS Optimus Foundation operated during your tenure?

A: The biggest learning from my experience with the UBS Optimus Foundation was recognizing the critical importance of trusting and empowering our implementing partners on the ground. They’re doing challenging work in incredibly difficult circumstances – we should support and enable them rather than add to their burdens. This realization led to a significant shift in our approach. We began focusing on ways to alleviate stress for our partners by streamlining reporting requirements, offering more flexible funding and providing capacity-building support where needed. This approach not only improved our partner relationships but also enhanced program effectiveness. By believing in our partners' ability to deliver and by removing obstacles from their path, we could achieve far greater impact.