Mapping the Swiss philanthropic landscape through big-data Philanthropy Lunch

Switzerland is home to an incredible number of philanthropic actors engaged with the SDGs, according to some estimates the country houses the largest per-capita number of such organizations in the World. The behavioral philanthropy research team proposes to create a detailed map of which organizations are working on which of the SDGs and what are their main motivations. To this end, a natural-language machine learning algorithm has been developed to analyze communication materials from Philanthropic organizations (e.g. mission statements, yearly reports, etc.). With this tool, the research team then created a map of (i) the areas of activity of all these organizations; (ii) what are the main motivations for engaging in each of these activities and (iii) compare the overlap between the activities and motives of Philanthropic Organizations and other non-for-profit organizations (e.g. Sustainable Financial investors).

The scientific evidence resulting from our project has important implications for all the actors engaging with the SDGs, as it can (i) stimulate initiatives promoting synergies between players engaged on the same SDGs and/or driven by shared values; (ii) contribute to the efficient creation of novel financial instruments combining Philanthropic and Sustainable Financial approaches such as blended-finance and (iii) enable advisors and politicians to design data-driven strategies and policies to promote activities addressing the least supported SDGs.

- Prof. Giuseppe Ugazio, holder of the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations Chair in behavioural Philanthropy. Presentation of the mapping research on Philanthropic foundations
- Karin Jestin, Strategic Philanthropy Advisor and Founder, Philanthropic & Humanitarian Initiatives (PHI)
- Marc Pfitzer, Managing Director, FSG
- Prof. Henry Peter, Head, Geneva Centre for Philanthropy
- Laetitia Gill, Executive Director, Geneva Centre for Philanthropy