Last week, the 16th workshop for umbrella foundations took place at the Université Fribourg-Pérolles (UFP). A big thank you to the institute VMI, which provided the premises. More than 20 umbrella foundations met on this occasion to discuss the topic “Umbrella foundations – Participation of the Donors”. As every year, the workshop was organised by the Limmat Foundation in collaboration with proFonds.

At the beginning, François Geinoz, Executive Director of the Limmat Foundation, presented the master thesis by Alexander Berchtold from UFP about “Fondation abritée ou Fondation d’utilité publique indépendante? – Une Analyse Comparative des Coûts”. Afterwards, Isabel Probst, Director of Partnerships of the Limmat Foundation, gave an insight on her experience concerning the participation of donors, followed by the legal perspective, presented by Christoph Degen, Executive Director of proFonds.

After a joint lunch, Elisabeth Hasse from the Center for Philanthropy Studies (Ceps) presented the statistics on the survey results of the Swiss umbrella foundations. The program also included a presentation by Natalie Joho, Deputy Executive Director of the ZKB Philanthropie Stiftung, who provided useful insights on the integration of charitable foundations into an umbrella foundation.

The Limmat Foundation would like to thank all participants for their valuable contribution and is already looking forward to the next umbrella foundation workshop in 2026.