by Stelios Vasilakis & Lenia Vlavianou, Co-Chief Public Affairs Officers, Stavros Niarchos Foundation
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (www.SNF.org), one of the world’s leading philanthropic organizations, has a firm commitment to Greece. In accordance with its founder’s wishes, the Foundation, on a regular basis, contributes at least half of its funding to charitable projects in Greece and half to projects in other countries around the world. However, in response to the ongoing critical socioeconomic situation in Greece, the Foundation has increased significantly over the last few years its support of projects in Greece, which now represents approximately 80% percent of SNF’s total funding. In focusing its grant-making, the Foundation has defined precisely its philanthropic role in relation to the State: the Foundation does not replace the role of government, even in times of economic crisis, but rather complements the government in addressing a wide variety of needs.
In that regard, the Foundation has recently completed the first year of a three-year grant initiative providing additional €100 million ($130 million) to help ease the adverse effects of the economic crisis in Greece. These grants address in particular the needs of vulnerable people through dozens of nonprofit organizations offering a wide array of supportive services. Crucial issues being addressed with this funding include food aid and support for families in danger of becoming homeless. To date, the Foundation has approved 185 grants totaling €72 million ($93 million) stemming from this commitment.
As a compelling sign of hope for the future and a vital source of immediate job creation and economic activity, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation broke ground during the past year on its largest single initiative to date (€566 million/$796 million): construction of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), overlooking the Athens waterfront. Designed by world-renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, this state-of-the-art educational and recreational public complex will include the 42-acre Stavros Niarchos Park, modern facilities for the National Library of Greece, and for the first time, a high-tech opera house for the Greek National Opera. The Foundation is providing full funding to build and equip the SNFCC, which, once completed in early 2016, will be donated to the Greek State.
Earlier this year, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation announced the results of a national architecture competition to design a temporary Visitors Center at the SNFCC construction site. The winning design, selected by Renzo Piano, was created by Greek architectural students Agis-Panayotis Mourelatos and Spyridon Yotakis. The SNFCC Visitors Center will open this fall and will be a place for visitors to learn more about the SNFCC’s mission and future role and to monitor the construction progress at the site. Furthermore, the SNFCC Visitors Center will build anticipation for the Cultural Center’s opening in 2016 by providing a setting for school group visits, public events, and exhibits related to the SNFCC.
In total, from 1996 until today, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation has approved grant commitments of €1.06 billion ($1.39 billion), through 2,503 grants to nonprofit organizations in 109 nations around the world. Those grants have been awarded in four major substantive areas: arts and culture, education, health and medicine, and social welfare.
In its most recent Spring and Summer grant cycles, the Foundation awarded numerous new grants, showcasing its continued support of organizations that deliver educational resources to remote and underserved populations, enable accessibility to the arts, support and improve the lives of women and children, and are committed to improving health around the world.
Earlier this summer the Stavros Niarchos Foundation convened in Athens its Second Annual International Conference on Philanthropy. Held in collaboration with the European Foundation Centre, it brought together renowned leaders in philanthropy and the private sector – both for-profit and nonprofit – including such household names as George Soros, Founder and Chairman of the Open Society Foundations, Garry Kasparov, Chairman of the Kasparov Chess Foundation, and Rosanne Haggerty, President of Community Solutions.
The Conference focused on the role of philanthropy in achieving what Swedish economist Anders Aslund, a keynote speaker at the event, has termed a “social welfare society”, in which all principals – the state, the market, and philanthropy – collaborate to pursue and offer pragmatic and effective public services. Participating in the discussion were, among many others, George Kaminis, Mayor of Athens; Yannis Boutaris, Mayor of Thessaloniki; Gerry Salole, Chief Executive of the European Foundation Centre; Martyn Evans, Chief Executive of the Carnegie UK Trust, and Rosien Herweijer, Brussels-based Director of GrantCraft.
Philanthropy has a key role to play in the future prosperity of Europe, and it must operate in close collaboration with government and the private sector. Communication between each of those sectors is the key to ensuring a seamless collaboration, and meetings like the Annual Stavros Niarchos Foundation International Conference on Philanthropy play a vital role in the exchange of ideas and cultivation of relationships which are crucial in advancing these goals. The Foundation further announced that next year’s Conference will be held in Athens on June 26 and 27, 2014; and it will focus on (a) Philanthropy and Ethics, and (b) Arts and Culture as engines of social and economic development.
With effective collaboration, the future of Europe can be a bright one, even in countries that are especially challenged economically at the moment. Together we can maximize the potential of the future and work toward a day when economic opportunity and prosperity are available for all.
By: N. Peter Kramer
