Our endowment
We aspire to align our endowment investments with our philanthropic mission.
We invest in a well-diversified portfolio that includes public market equity, debt, and a significant allocation to private equity. Our investment decisions are guided by Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria, ensuring that we contribute to a sustainable and responsible future.
Origins of our endowment
When the Foundation was created, our philanthropic activities were supported by the dividends of the Royal Packaging Industries Van Leer. In 1996, a significant milestone was reached when the company went public through an IPO. The resulting proceeds created an endowment that continues to fund our philanthropic work.
We actively look for and invest in impact funds that also have the potential to generate returns that align with our mission. Since 2020, we have committed around EUR 21 million into five funds. To date our initiatives have focused primarily on education and workforce technology funds as well as social and affordable housing funds with a focus on families. We are also exploring other areas such as climate and the care economy.
We are actively exploring learning opportunities in this area. Based on our insights and the performance of these investments, we may consider increasing our mission-related investment portfolio in the future.
Our philanthropy
Each year we spend a percentage of the endowment on our philanthropic activities. Our annual budget is around EUR 25 million which covers our commitments to our philanthropic work on early childhood, annual grants to the Van Leer Institutions and operating expenditures. The Foundation is entirely committed to the public benefit and as such is recognised as a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) by the Dutch tax authority. We invest strategically in our portfolio countries in initiatives that support our mission at scale. We do not accept unsolicited funding applications.
