The Giving Back Initiative – for everyone in the Swiss startup scene

We have recently launched a fundraising initiative called “Giving Back”. Why should you care? Because the initiative will undoubtedly bring benefits to the entire Swiss startup scene, whether you are an already established startup or thinking of starting one, and it has already received support from some of the big players in the startup world and beyond. Let us tell you all about it!

As you may know, we are a non-profit umbrella organisation catering for the needs of all Swiss startups. Our association is here to ensure that there will always be a new generation of successful startups in Switzerland – whether it’s today, tomorrow or ten years from now. We support the founders of startups and entrepreneurs in many ways, from daily business to political representation. There are various benefits available to the association’s members, but even if you’re not one yet, you will feel the ripples of our endeavours and will benefit from our accomplishments anyway, as we aim to better the entire Swiss startup ecosystem. 

A voice for the entire ecosystem

At the moment, the efforts of the Swiss Startup Association can be summarised as focused on four goals: one – bringing about a startup visa that will allow to attract the best talents that Switzerland deserves, two – working on implementing a nation-wide investor factsheet that will standardise and simplify the application process for funding, three – improving and unifying the taxation of employee shares, and four – educating the youth of today about entrepreneurship as a possible career path for them. Needless to say, all of this is not achievable without financial stability and support. We can focus on improving the conditions for the Swiss startup ecosystem only if the financing of its projects is assured.

This is where the “Giving Back” fundraising initiative comes in. The aim of the initiative is to raise CHF 200 000 so that the funding for the association is ensured for the next two years. As previously mentioned, we are a non-profit organisation and the entire board, the advisory board, as well as the volunteers work without a salary. The fundraising initiative would be a big help in the beginning stages and after building a solid foundation for itself, the association will be able to finance itself through membership fees, partnerships, and various projects. In short, you help us, so we can help you.

Supported by big players of the Swiss startup scene

The “Giving Back” initiative has already secured support from some of the big players in the Swiss startup scene. The biggest contributors to the initiative are Bettina Hein, Andreas Goeldi, Christian Wenger, Paul E. Sevinç, Manuel Grenacher, Alan Frei, Matthias Brunner, Maria Zazo, Niklas Nikolajsen, Cyrille Boinay, Beat Scheidegger, Mike Baur, Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler, Joel Roos, Andreas Brenner, Ben Simon, and the team from Frontify. Smaller contributions were also made by a variety of different Swiss startup scene members.

However, this is just the beginning and more support, whether monetary or word-of-mouth, is encouraged and very welcome. If you would like to get to know the fundraising initiative a little bit better and consider becoming an enabler yourself personally or as a company, more information is available on our Giving Back page here.

Let’s level up the entire Swiss startup ecosystem together! No support is too small!