Z Zurich Foundation

The Z Zurich Foundation (formerly the Jubilee Foundation) was renamed in 2008 as part of a major transformation to align the Foundation with best practice governance and community investment standards. The reforms enable us to make a greater positive impact on society and ensure that our community investments are supportive of our overall corporate responsibility strategy.

The Foundation is building long-term partnerships with select non-profit organizations to bring about innovative and sustainable solutions to pressing social and environmental challenges. This means going beyond writing a check to working with partners in areas of common interest, bringing Zurich’s insurance and risk management expertise to bear.

Partnerships have been established with the globally active non-profit organizations Practical Action, the Rainforest Alliance, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Microinsurance Innovation Facility, and the ETH Zurich around the issues of climate change, water scarcity, food security and economic development.

The Foundation’s work complements existing community investment programs across the Group. Zurich also continues to support select organizations active in Switzerland through the Foundation.

The Foundation is a private foundation under Swiss law funded by Zurich Insurance Company Ltd and Zurich Life Insurance Company Ltd.

• Mission
• Contribution areas
• Contribution guidelines
• Requests for funding
• Governance
• Board of Trustees

Mission

The Z Zurich Foundation’s mission is to equip people with the knowledge and resources to better manage change and risk in their lives and in the world around them. By taking a long-term partnership approach to tackling global challenges, the Foundation makes a valuable contribution to sustainable social and economic development, combining Zurich’s global experience and risk management capabilities with the non-profit organizations’ local knowledge and development expertise.

Contribution areas

To realize the Foundation’s mission, we focus contributions on the following areas:

Insurance-relevant research and education

• Promotion of insurance literacy, risk awareness, risk reduction and management

Emerging social and environmental risk reduction

• Awareness and understanding of emerging social and environmental challenges, the risks they pose to society, and research and education on the means to reduce them

Alleviation of poverty and the consequences of catastrophes

• Access to insurance for marginalized and vulnerable segments of the population both in developed and developing countries
• Immediate relief and long-term efforts to rebuild lives and communities devastated by natural catastrophes, pandemics or war
• Economic and social development and governance improvements in developing countries

Contribution guidelines

The Foundation makes monetary and in-kind contributions to non-profit organizations with well-defined projects aligned to one or more of our contribution areas.
To invest our resources most responsibly, we select organizations that demonstrate good governance, fiscal and administrative stability and produce measurable results.
Programs and projects are chosen based on their potential to create sustainable value to society. Preference is given to long-term projects and partnerships, particularly those where the Foundation is also able to use the financial, managerial, and technical expertise of Zurich Insurance Group and its employees for in-kind contributions, thereby achieving a greater positive impact for society.

To ensure continuous improvement, impact objectives and measures are agreed at the outset of any program or project and jointly evaluated on a regular basis. Progress against agreed key measures is an expected condition of continued funding.

Requests for funding

We actively select our partners and therefore do not accept unsolicited requests for funding.

What we do not support

• Projects which are not aligned with our guidelines
• Short-term projects or one-off grants
• Events
• Non-registered organizations
• General public sector services
• Political parties, candidates or partisan political organizations
• Programs for religious purposes or religious activities
• Advertising, or publications outside the scope of our partnerships

Governance

The Foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees. We are committed to transparency and continuous improvement in the effective use of Foundation funds. The Foundation is a member of SwissFoundations, the Association for grant-making foundations in Switzerland and the first organization in Europe to publish generally applicable governance guidelines on modern and professional foundation management, promoting transparency, professionalism, and the effective use of foundation means.

Board of Trustees