In short — A Swiss grant-making foundation is an endowment that funds other people’s projects, not its own. Switzerland has 13,000+ public-benefit foundations, the highest density in the world. The rules: write only to foundations whose statutory purpose matches your project, present a clear dossier with a coherent budget, and plan 12–18 months ahead, because grants are usually paid after the project is reported.
If you run an association or an operating foundation in Switzerland, sooner or later someone will tell you: “ask a foundation”. The advice is right, but it almost always comes without instructions. This guide sets out how Swiss grant-making foundations actually work and what it takes to ask for — and get — a grant. For the whole picture of how the channels fit together, start with the guide to fundraising for nonprofits in Switzerland.
What a grant-making foundation is
A grant-making foundation is an endowment dedicated to a public-benefit purpose: it does not run its own projects, it funds other people’s. That is the key difference from operating foundations, which manage their own activities and structures. When a cultural or social organisation looks for institutional funding, grant-making foundations are one of the three main channels, alongside public bodies (Confederation, cantons, municipalities) and public calls.
Switzerland has one of the highest foundation densities in the world: more than 13,000 registered public-benefit foundations, and Ticino is among the cantons with the highest concentration. For anyone seeking funds that is good news with a catch: the supply is wide, but precisely for that reason foundations receive far more requests than they can fund.
How a foundation thinks
Every foundation has a statutory purpose: the founding deed defines what it can fund (culture, social work, education, research…), where (a municipality, a canton, all of Switzerland) and sometimes how (projects only, organisations only, minimum or maximum amounts). The board cannot step outside that scope even if it wanted to. The first rule of institutional fundraising is therefore plain and ruthless: you write only to foundations whose purpose matches the project. A request outside scope is not “a try”: it is wasted time for both.
The second rule is that foundations fund projects, not organisations in difficulty. A budget gap is not a project. A programme with objectives, beneficiaries, expected results and a coherent budget is.
Where to find the right foundations
The tools exist and are accessible: registers and databases such as Fundraiso and StiftungSchweiz let you filter by field and region, and in Italian-speaking Switzerland the association of grant-making foundations, ASFESI, is a sector reference; nationally, SwissFoundations is the umbrella body. But the list is only the start of the work. The real selection is done by reading statutory purposes, past projects and — where published — annual reports: that is where you see whether a foundation genuinely fits your project, what it gives and on what logic.
How to ask: from project to dossier
A request to a Swiss foundation almost always runs through a written dossier. The format changes (some foundations have online forms, others want a letter with attachments), but the substance does not. A complete dossier contains the project description, the objectives and expected results, the beneficiaries, the timeline, the organisation behind it, the overall budget, the funding plan (who else is funding) and the amount requested from that specific foundation.
The point where many dossiers lose strength is the budget: numbers that do not match what the project promises, costs underestimated to look “lighter”, no indication of how spending will be reported. Foundation boards read budgets all year: the coherence between story and numbers is exactly what marks a request as professional. In the dossiers I have written for funders such as Migros Kulturprozent, Pro Helvetia, Drosos and Ernst Göhner, the budget is the section I handle first, not last.
Timelines (longer than you think)
Foundation boards meet only a few times a year, often two to four. Between sending a request and a decision, three to eight months can pass. And watch the payment: the contribution is almost always paid after the project is delivered and reported; some bodies grant an advance, but it must be expressly requested and never covers the full amount, and practice varies widely from one funder to another. The organisation must therefore be able to pre-finance costs. In short: institutional fundraising is planned 12–18 months ahead of the project. Anyone writing in June for a September festival is almost always too late.
After the answer: the relationship matters more than the grant
If the answer is yes, the work is not over: prompt, accurate reporting — a final report and a closing budget consistent with the forecast — is what turns a one-off grant into a relationship that lasts years. Keeping a funder who has already backed you is worth more than finding a new one. If the answer is no, it is not necessarily a verdict on the project: often it is just exhausted funds or different priorities. A well-built request leaves a good impression for next time.
Where to start
If your organisation has never done structured institutional fundraising, the realistic path is: clarify the project, build the budget, identify 10–15 genuinely aligned funders, write tailored dossiers and plan the deadlines. I work this way for cultural and social organisations in Switzerland, in Italian, English and French — a method built in the field and through my specialisation (the Impact Club programme at Impact Hub Ticino, CENPRO events). If you want to know whether your project is ready to be presented, get in touch: I reply within two working days.
