Cartier’s Philanthropic Pursuits

News • 18 Aug 2020

Cartier’s Philanthropic Pursuits

by Gemma Kaczerepa


For many years, Cartier has been making great strides across a number of causes. In fact, the maison has truly raised the philanthropic bar, namely through Cartier Philanthropy – an independent charitable arm of the maison established in 2012. Since its launch, Cartier Philanthropy has had a monumental impact, helping to improve the lives of millions of the world’s most vulnerable inhabitants and creating genuine and sustainable change.

Download the original PDF from Cartier here.

Sustainable & Meaningful Impact

At the time of its conception, Cartier Philanthropy marked a significant turning point for the maison. After years of supporting several charitable initiatives, Cartier’s aim was to direct these efforts into a more concentrated and established enterprise. The Philanthropy arm was launched in Geneva, Switzerland, but its intended reach was global; the purpose was – and remains to this day – to help vulnerable people in the world’s least-developed countries, particularly women and children. The foundation has four primary focus areas that drive its overall mission: emergency response, access to basic services (food, water, sanitation, employment, healthcare and education), women’s social and economic development, and sustainable livelihoods and ecosystems. That is, providing people with the right life skills and knowledge so they can pursue sustainable and meaningful work.

One Acre Fund serves smallholder farmers in Eastern Africa.

Cartier Philanthropy fulfils these objectives by partnering with and supporting some of the biggest international organisations. These include NGOs such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MCF), and various United Nations agencies. The foundation also backs a variety of smaller operations with a more local focus, providing them with grants to help fund their goals.

37 Partners

Across its 37 partners, Cartier Philanthropy’s reach is incredibly diverse. The foundation has worked on several critical issues, including fighting Ebola in African nations with MCF, installing sanitation facilities in Haiti with SOIL, providing climate change education and long-term preparedness strategies to schools in Madagascar with UNICEF, delivering eyeglasses in Bangladesh in conjunction with VisionSpring, and improving work-readiness among young Moroccans with Education for Employment.

Cartier supports Buildher’s pilot programme to train 400 disadvantaged young women living in Nairobi.

And the foundation doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Cartier Philanthropy has recently embarked on a five-year field trial in partnership with the International Center for Research on Women. The aim of the trial is to implement effective strategies to engage men and boys in Rwanda and Tanzania on the topic of gender equality. In 2018 and 2019, several new ongoing projects were added to Cartier Philanthropy’s agenda, including a school meal scheme for Syrian refugee children in Jordan, conducted in partnership with the World Food Programme.

The Result

Cartier Philanthropy’s impact is nothing short of impressive. To date, the foundation has invested 54 million Swiss Francs (over US$55 million) across 23 low-income countries, predominantly in Africa and Asia. But, the full force of the foundation’s work is best summarised by its Executive Director, Pascale de la Frégonnière, referring to the men and women she met on a field visit in Uganda: “When asked ‘What’s been the most important change in your lives?’ they told us: ‘Two meals a day.’ That’s a powerful answer … to confirm we are delivering on our mission.”

For more information: https://www.cartierphilanthropy.org/en

Randomized Controlled Trials conducted by Village Enterprise
Tags: cartier


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