Dear Readers,

The Foundation’s 2016 Annual Report has just been published on our website. This is a good opportunity for us to recall our fundamental principles, such as the crucial concept that underpins all the Foundation’s initiatives – connection. The connection between all the components of the chain of life, not only human beings but also animals and plants. We are all connected to one another.

It is also an occasion for us, as a State-approved Foundation, to account for ourselves. For more than 13 years, the Foundation has been funding initiatives that link human development with conservation of the environment. Over 23 million euros has been invested in supporting 264 projects with over 5 million beneficiaries. A total of 2.5 million hectares of land has been protected and 2 million trees planted. At our level, these results are significant. And I would like to thank all those involved in achieving them. Yet, as we know, philanthropy is just one the levers enabling to address the social and environmental challenges of our planet.

We need to find more ways to mobilize additional resources so that our impact on the ground is even greater. Impact Investing is a way for investors and entrepreneurs to embark on this road, with the support of social and environmental indicators. For Gaspard Verdier, Founder and Director of Simandef, this type of investment can be a powerful lever for change on the ground.

In 2015, the Foundation made a commitment by joining the Divest/Invest ethical movement, and we recently decided to invest in two initiatives with social and environmental impact that will contribute to developing sustainable agricultural in South America and biogas production in Asia.

Needless to say, we will remain vigilant as to the results achieved and will regularly share new testimony from beneficiaries. For, over and above the figures, it is on the ground that we are needed most of all. And it is there that our mission truly counts.

Enjoy our Newsletter!

The Foundation’s latest Annual Report has just come out

What is a ‘philozoist’?  Discover the meaning of this new term and find out why Jacqueline Délia Brémond prefers it to ‘philanthropist’ when it comes to describing her engagement. The Report also contains an overview of the projects supported by the Foundation in 2016 as well as the key figures for the year.

Access the 2016 Annual Report

Fondation Ensemble is investing in the Impact Finance Fund

After joining the Divest/Invest movement, an initiative set up to encourage investors to withdraw their holdings from companies that derive their revenue from fossil energies and shift them towards a carbon-free economy, the Foundation has chosen to invest in the Impact Finance Fund, an investment fund for social and environmental impact.

Faced with growing worldwide demand for sustainable and ethical agricultural products (coffee, cocoa, nuts, seeds, etc.), producers in the south are in need of financing. By investing in this Fund (former Fairtrade fund), our Foundation aims to respond to this demand and to contribute to the scaling-up of agriculture practices that are both people-friendly and environment-friendly...

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‘For foundations, impact investing can be catalytic for change on the ground’

Now that the Foundation has joined the Divest/Invest movement and is about to finalize its first social impact investments, we wanted to hear the views of Gaspard Verdier, Founder and Director of Simandef, a pioneering consulting firm in the field of 'impact investing' in France. Focus on a new practice that raises questions on the very essence of philanthropic engagement!

Fondation Ensemble has just invested in the Impact Finance Fund and is about to do so in ATEC. Don’t you see this as mixing up the issues?

The Foundation is joining many international and French foundations aiming to identify, support and develop innovative solutions that ensure sustainable impact in the long term...

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Two project actors are part of the mobilization against the effects of climate change

Consuela Pastor lives at high altitude in the north of Peru at the heart of a rare and highly fragile ecosystem (páramos). A former town dweller, she is now a member of the ‘Buen Vivir’ (Living Well) association, helping to train younger generations.

Von Phan lives in Cambodia in the Tonlé Sap floodplains. He is one of the WCS project beneficiaries who have made a commitment to growing rice with local biodiversity-friendly techniques.

They both may be thousands of kilometers apart but they share the same concerns about the consequences of climate change. With teams from Care and WCS, they are gradually finding the means to combat its impact...

Read their testimony in full:

Conservation Agreements: protecting the environment becomes a new source of income for very poor communities

Conservation Agreements give local communities the means to take direct action to safeguard their environment, thanks to the introduction of new income-generating activities. Environmental protection and local development are closely linked, to the benefit of the most disadvantaged. Conservation International shows us how to establish Conservation Agreements and discusses the results achieved...

Access the factsheet

Editor-in-chief: O. Braunsteffer
Graphic design and text: B. Galliot, B. Gicquaud
The Foundation wishes to thank its partners for the photographic material included in this issue.
Fondation Ensemble - 1 rue de Fleurus - 75006 PARIS.