Roger Federer Foundation

Vision and Slogan

“I AM TOMORROW’S FUTURE” 

This most confident statement by Nolonwabo Batini, a girl aged fifteen attending the Ndzondelelo High School in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, is the slogan of the Roger Federer Foundation (RFF). The RFF supports education, sports and leisure activities in places with little or no funding at all. The idea is to permit a maximum of children to make the slogan become reality in their lives and help them actively shape their future.

Mission Statement

In sports we learn how to fight: for victory, for the entire team, in order to reach a goal. In many countries of the world a majority of people, despite their efforts, does not have access to education or sports. This is precisely the point where the Roger Federer Foundation (RFF) wants to intervene; the Foundation is aimed at developing individual skills, searching for innovative methods of resolution and acting goal-oriented in order to improve the children’s situation sustainably.

The RFF is a charitable grant-making foundation. It supports innovative projects operated by local relief organisations in selected countries of the world – projects that would otherwise lack sufficient funding. 

The RFF focuses on sharing the responsibility of problem-solving with the local community (in terms of content, organisation and finance). The children, their families and the entire community must learn to participate in the analysis of needs, the development of innovative solutions as well as the proposal and implementation of measures in order to take over and maintain individual responsibility.

In Switzerland, the RFF supports talented children who meet the requirements of the official sports federations but lack the necessary means.

On top of the proceeds of the endowment, the RFF’s subsidies are to be increased by means of donations and proceeds from various sources. The total Foundation capital is CHF 4 mio.

The RFF only supports project partners disposing of a minimum of management tools (vision, mission statement, goals, strategy, milestones, budget, organisation chart, etc.).

Strategy

Strategic focus
In accordance with its commitment, the RFF focuses on two points:

Financing selected projects in the field of schooling and education for impecunious children

Promoting sports for the youth in Switzerland by means of suitable measures

Geographic distribution of projects
The RFF supports projects solely from countries meeting the following criteria:

• situated in Africa,
• ranking among the 50 poorest countries in the world *,
• with a mortality rate of children under the age of 5 years of over 15% **,
• where the rate of girls attending 5th grade lies under 50% **,
• The RFF invests a maximum of 10% of its budget into projects in Switzerland. 

Guidelines for the distribution of funds
The RFF’s strategic directives for the distribution of funds are as follows:

• Goal-oriented support with the maximum possible effect
• Support of projects over 5-8 years
• No single initiative, no catastrophe aid
• Annual financial support of CHF 10'000 – 150'000 per year
• The Foundation board decides on the funding of projects

* see WORLD BANK-Atlas, 2004 ** see UNICEF-yearbook, 2006