Foreword

In the world of citizen initiatives and the charities meant to fund them, two things are truly surprising:

1. The scarcity and weakness of the funding actually implemented.
2. The very large amounts that are available and therefore underutilized.

It is not the will to bring these two worlds together that is lacking, but it must be acknowledged that they are indeed two worlds with such different rules and rituals that meeting and even only understanding is difficult: interactions and communication become so laborious that they turn into a dialogue of the deaf. On the side of the funders, many of the collaborators, often coming from the banking world, do not necessarily understand the concerns and the needs of citizen initiatives, and the latter do not necessarily find all the required presentation forms, which resemble a business plan, to be relevant in their domain of activity.

To set the framework, let us recall that the sums available to fund charities and projects are extremely significant, and so are the needs claimed by project leaders. It is not surprising then that disappointment, at the time of the annual review, is painful on both sides: for those who want to give and claim they cannot find "quality projects" to donate to, and for those convinced of the validity of their initiative, disappointed "not to have been understood" and, as a result, not having been helped.

This is why our working group has taken charge of this situation to bring about change. We have chosen a bridge as our symbol. Indeed, the goal is to build a bridge between two shores: that of interesting projects and that of potential funders willing to support initiatives that align with their desired philosophy of action.

And the traffic on this bridge is not only the "requests from project leaders" and their "reporting" at the conclusion of the exercise. It also involves promoting mutual understanding, spreading information about projects and their funders to a broader audience.

Other users of this bridge are those who provide assistance and project evaluation services, information elements, or even training on the two shores that this bridge connects. The goal is to smooth the interaction between potential funders and project leaders. The operational objective is to help and "make things possible" in a simple, effective, and user-friendly way.

The Geneva Foundation for the Future aims to develop the working tools, the training about how to use them and operate as a facilitator to streamline interactions, help smooth out difficulties, while ensuring the regularity and seriousness of deliverables.