Sophie and Karl Binding Foundation
The Sophie and Karl Binding Foundation , based in Basel, is a non-profit foundation that supports projects in the fields of the environment, social issues, education and culture throughout Switzerland .
history
The foundation was established in 1963 by the couple Sophie Binding-Hübscher (1902–1989) and Karl Binding (1911–1994). Sophie von Opel-Hübscher, originally from Frankfurt am Main , was married to Hans von Opel , a grandson of the founder of the Opel works , for the first time. After selling the car factory to General Motors in 1929, Hans von Opel settled in Liestal , Switzerland . In Basel he had founded a finance company for automobile trading companies, Hansa Aktiengesellschaft, which developed into a major investment and finance company.
Hans von Opel died in 1948. Widowed at a young age, Sophie von Opel-Hübscher married Karl Binding in 1951 and brought the fortune of her first husband into the marriage. Karl Binding was also born in Frankfurt am Main and came from the Binding brewery family of the same name . Since the family had had Swiss citizenship since 1876 , he moved to Switzerland during the Second World War to do military service there.
The couple led a rather withdrawn life, loved the mountains and hunting. Having remained childless, with the Sophie and Karl Binding Foundation it wanted to make a contribution to social, cultural and other charitable projects and thus give back something of what it owed Switzerland. In 1955 it moved to Schaan in the Principality of Liechtenstein , where it set up another foundation in 1986, the Binding Foundation based in Schaan.
organization
The foundation is a non-profit support foundation . The four-member Board of Trustees consists of Ulrich Vischer (President), Carl Binding (Vice President), Françoise Marcuard-Hammer and Tibère Adler. Former presidents of the Sophie and Karl Binding Foundation were Paul Kopp, former Mayor of Lucerne , Hans Meier, former director of the Christoph Merian Foundation Basel, David Linder, former National Councilor and Bernhard Christ, former President of the Grand Council of Basel-Stadt. The office consists of Monika Wirth, Jan Schudel and Theres Käser. The Sophie and Karl Binding Foundation is a founding member of SwissFoundations , the association of Swiss support foundations.
Purpose of the foundation and funding activities
According to its deed of foundation , the foundation supports projects in the four areas of environment, social affairs, education and culture throughout Switzerland. Today, she has several million francs at her disposal every year, making the foundation one of the largest foundations in Switzerland. Around half of the funds flow into their own priority projects, which are financially supported over several years. With the rest, projects are supported on request. The main projects are the youth work integration project LIFT , the Romandie regional office of idée: sport , the Center for Philanthropy Studies at the University of Basel , the art project Binding Sélection d'Artistes , the youth choir exchange program EchangeChœurs , the Swiss advice center for artists' estates and the educational project Univers Suisse .
Previous focus projects were the Binding Forest Prize , the holiday apartments for the disabled in Vazerol (Canton of Graubünden), the master's program in cultural management , the Académie Fragile Suisse course center for brain injured people , the La Cetra baroque orchestra and the TransHelvetia theater exchange project .
Additional funds will be awarded within the framework of a program topic for each funding area. The program topics are currently: landscape protection, child and youth integration, cohesion and cultural heritage. Applicants can find detailed information on the Foundation's website about which projects are eligible for funding and which are not.