A fair chance to participate fully in society in the Netherlands
We partner with social enterprises that focus on improving employment prospects and actively contribute to creating an inclusive labour market.
About the Anton Jurgens Fonds
The Anton Jurgens Fonds supports initiatives that help people in vulnerable situations. We provide our partner initiatives with financial and non-financial support in order to amplify and maximise their impact. In the Netherlands, we focus on improving the employment prospects of people in economically precarious situations, while in West Africa, we work to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
Investing in impact
We focus on social impact rather than financial gain. We succeed in our mission when one of our partner initiatives brings about sustainable improvement in the lives of people in vulnerable situations and outgrows the need for our support. The Anton Jurgens Fonds can often support initiatives that are unable to secure assistance elsewhere. Our vision is long term, and we don’t mind if it takes a little while for an initiative to get to the point where it can stand on its own two feet financially.
Improving farmers’ livelihoods in West Africa
We partner with organisations that promote more productive agriculture, encourage entrepreneurship and strengthen local organisational structures.
Established in 1925
The Anton Jurgens Fonds was established in 1925 to “reduce and above all prevent material and non-material poverty among people in economically precarious situations”. The foundation was named after its founder, entrepreneur Anton Jurgens, who was the co-founder of what would become the major multinational company Unilever. In 1969, after financially supporting both family members and social institutions, the foundation began to focus exclusively on social initiatives. Around 2011, the board decided to adopt a more entrepreneurial approach, inspired by the man whose name the foundation bears.
Anton Jurgens
In 1871, a man named Antoon Jurgens and his three sons bought a French recipe for margarine production and became the first in the world to produce this alternative to butter on an industrial scale. One of the three sons, Henry, passed at an early age. Henry’s son, Anton, joined the company at age 21. Under his leadership, the business grew into a multinational public company with seven factories in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France. In 1927, the company – now one of the largest margarine manufacturers in the world – merged with Van den Bergh. Two years later, Anton initiated a merger between Margarine Unie, as the company was then called, with Lever Brothers from England. Unilever was born.
Entrepreneurial spirit
With his resourcefulness, determination and commercial and financial acumen, young Anton managed to transform the business from a small-city firm in the Netherlands into a world-class company. In reorienting the foundation’s approach, the board resolved to honour its founder's entrepreneurial spirit by making financial sustainability a guiding principle. This means that partner initiatives will eventually outgrow the need for our support and will be able to help people in vulnerable situations in a sustainable manner.
Focus on social impact
Today, in addition to financial assistance, the foundation also provides non-financial support to initiatives in order to enhance their financial and operational professionalism while amplifying and maximising their impact. But, in order to boost social impact, we must address a couple of key questions: How do we measure impact? And how can we tell how much of it is due to the initiative and how much is due to the support of the Anton Jurgens Fonds?
We have developed a tool for measuring our influence on social enterprises in the Netherlands. We are also researching how to quantify the impact of social enterprises on their target communities. When we can monitor both our influence on initiatives and the impact of their efforts, we can make targeted adjustments to further strengthen our impact and help even more people escape vulnerable situations.
Meet us
Help us make a positive impact
We support initiatives that have a positive impact on people and communities. By amplifying their impact, we contribute to creating an inclusive labour market in the Netherlands and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in West Africa.
We are a small team of dedicated professionals, and each member brings their own particular expertise to the table. We also work closely with the initiatives we support, from social enterprises to NGOs and other organisations. Would you like to help us and our partner initiatives make an even bigger difference?
Memberships
The Anton Jurgens Fonds is recognised by the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration as a Public Benefit Organisation (ANBI) and registered under RSIN number 805640927. You can read an outline of our policy plan here and view our ANBI form here. We are a founding partner of Social Enterprise NL, a national platform representing, connecting and supporting social enterprises. We are also a member of FIN, the association of charitable organisations and foundations in the Netherlands.
Contact us
Please feel free to get in touch if you would like to learn more about us or the initiatives we support.
Stichting Anton Jurgens Fonds
Kwakkenbergweg 62-1
6523 MN Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Telephone number: +31 (0)24 360 99 10
Email address: info@antonjurgensfonds.nl
Are you looking for the London Committee of the UK-based Anton Jurgens Charitable Trust? Please visit www.ajct.org.uk for applications and more information about the Trust.