Animato Stiftung, Switzerland

Animato Stiftung is a small operating foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland. Every second year, it organizes a sponsoring cycle for young musicians, comprising an international soloist competition and a music academy for 80-plus students where the Philharmonic Orchestra of Animato Foundation is formed, followed by a concert tour of this orchestra to several European music capitals. Most of the young musicians come from central Europe, particularly from the Baltic countries. In 2008, the foundation’s assets increased in value by 2 per cent.

Peter Spinnler, CEO and founder

The negative impact for foundations of the financial crisis was really brought home to me by a widely read article on the dilemma of Swiss grantmaking foundations in face of the potential financial losses written by Benno Schubiger in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 12 December 2008. This was reinforced by the news on 25 December that the Elie Wiesel Foundation had lost practically all its assets, which were invested in Madoff vehicles. This also triggered a growing collective awareness among Swiss philanthropic foundations, as a result of which there began an internal discussion within Swiss Foundations, the association of Swiss grantmaking foundations. This led in turn to the decision to discuss this topic at the annual membership meeting of Swiss Foundations in April 2009.

We have been engaged in a wider debate ever since. Legal and practical constraints notwithstanding, there is a general desire to be ‘contrarian’, that is, to spend more than in the past in order to compensate for reduced contributions from government and companies. Most Swiss trustee boards feel a particular obligation towards their beneficiaries in respect to ongoing projects and committed financial support. Many well-known Swiss foundations have announced the unlimited continuation of their philanthropic activity, showing their determination not to disappoint beneficiaries or tarnish their good reputation as a reliable partner.

Animato itself has been relatively immune to the effects of the crisis, largely because of our relatively conservative investment policy. In a sense, this gives us a greater responsibility. Here in Switzerland, the present economic recession has had a significant negative impact on the arts and culture scene in terms of reduced funding available from companies and government. For companies in particular, cutting down their sponsorship budgets – from which most arts events are subsidized – within a reduced marketing budget is an obvious measure.

Not facing a reduced capital base and having successfully completed the second sponsoring cycle for young musicians in November 2008, I felt we should reinforce our commitment. It simply isn’t possible to accelerate our sponsoring events as we need a planning period of roughly two years, which brings us automatically to 2010, but our stronger commitment may be seen in a change of priority. While in the past the available funds have defined the range and size of events to be organized, this time we have made the decision to go for a fully-fledged third sponsoring cycle for young musicians next year, potentially with more participants than last time, and we will seek the financing as a second step. We are therefore fully occupied with organizing this, starting with the international soloist competition for violin and piano in January 2010.

If I have given the impression that we at Animato are basically without financial problems, that is misleading. My concerns are focused on two issues: the ever-increasing cost of the sponsoring cycles for young musicians and the current low level of interest rates, which makes it hard to reach a capital return of 4 per cent without lowering the quality of investments.

My thoughts for the medium- and long-term focus are on how to broaden our financial base by looking for new sources of revenue without in any way decreasing the financial sustainability of an approach that has responded positively to the test of the crisis. We could, for example, approach new sponsors and donors, including other philanthropic foundations, or seek limited financial returns from the concerts given (for ‘lack of brand’ reasons, the concerts of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Animato Foundation are commercially not sellable). We could also run joint music events with other organizations, which would result in a financial burden sharing. As a representative of a small foundation in a little country I am, however, wary of the big brother syndrome, and from experience in Switzerland we have learned that arranging a successful cooperation among foundations is a challenging task.

Another possible long-term option would be to change the legal status of Animato to make it a foundation with a limited life. That would mean getting authorization to invest the foundation capital in, or merge with, a bigger foundation with similar foundation objectives.

For more information
www.animatostiftung.ch
p.spinnler@animatostiftung.ch