Change — A Matter Of Reliability And Continuity

Ever since the Jacobs Foundation was founded 30 years ago, we have embraced change as we have sought to fulfil our mission of promoting the healthy development of children and youth. Yet reliability and continuity, too, are essential if we are to achieve our main goal: empowering young people as they strive for a better future.

The year 2019 was one of change in the Foundation. In July, Managing Director Sandro Giuliani passed the baton of leadership to Fabio Segura and Simon Sommer. As new Co-CEOs, we are proud to have been chosen by the Board of Trustees from the organization’s own ranks to jointly lead the Jacobs Foundation into its next phase of strategic development. Developing the Foundation’s new strategy and preparing the organization for the upcoming decade 2021–2030 were our key priorities during the second half of the year.

Despite the change in leadership, 2019 has also been a year of continuity as we have implemented the strategy set out in our 2016–2020 Medium Term Plan, with its strategic goals:

Research funding in the Science of Learning (Goal 1) continues to be a fundamental component of the Jacobs Foundation’s strategy.

In Switzerland, the Jacobs Foundation is promoting an Early Childhood agenda (Goal 2). Important steps were taken with the help of political initiatives and the collaboration of institutions and ambassadors.

Our TRECC program focusing on improving Rural Livelihoods (Goal 3) in cocoa growing communities in Ivory Coast has evaluated pilot projects. Based on that, 6 of 13 projects were selected for expansion in 2020.

Knowledge management is an important part of our strategy. We are a learning organization and in 2019  we successfully implemented our three learning formats (Goal 4).

To raise awareness and promote dialogue, topics related to learning and development are being put forward for a discussion through our content management strategy (Goal 5). Our Blog on Learning and Development (BOLD) has to date published over 500 posts by more than 200 authors.

During the past four years of our MTP, we were able to attract co-funding and leverage a total of CHF 151.2 million for our projects (Goal 6).

We Develop Talent (Goal 7), now we have a critical mass of over 200 engaged individuals in such diverse fields as research, social entrepreneurship, and journalism.

The year 2019 was challenging, exciting and very meaningful—a time of change, for the future, for children and youth.

Expressed in terms of 2019 figures, our creation means:

Detailed information about our values, projects and programs can be found in our Annual Report 2019.