The Vanderes Foundation is a Dutch certified Public Benefit Organisation (PBO, better known as ANBI in the Netherlands). We are a capital fund, aiming to maximize returns in order to maximize our donations to the most impactful philanthropic interventions. We fiercely believe that philanthropy, if carried out based on evidence, has the power to transform the world for the better.
By default, we donate to the Effective Altruism Funds. These funds are run by experts, who spend a lot of time researching the most effective philanthropic interventions in the following cause areas: Global Health and Development, The Long-Term Future, Animal Welfare and Effective Altruism Meta. Where we feel we can have an outsized impact by supporting a specific intervention directly, our board can decide to do so on a case-by-case basis.
1. Big
2. Solvable
3. Neglected
The Vanderes Foundation was founded by Ies van der Sluijs in 2017. He strongly believed in the power of education and saw it as one of the keys towards escaping poverty. After having founded earlier foundations backing 1. early cancer research and 2. rural development, Ies decided to focus on education with the Vanderes Foundation.
Initially the Foundation focused on supporting education lenders through impact investment. We provided affordable capital to be lend out to underprivileged students in lower GDP countries, bringing tertiary education within their reach. When we studied impact measurement, we came across the Effective Altruism movement and became very interested to learn more about their vision on philanthropy. Through our interactions with Effective Giving we were confronted with the limited impact per dollar spent we realized with our capital.
In the spirit of Ies’ wish to improve lives, we decided to act upon our newly acquired knowledge and shift our mission to maximizing our impact. It was not an easy decision, as Ies could no longer give his blessings. But we feel that this rational approach of doing the best we can, would fit his personality. We are also backed by his family.
We are very proud to carry out this mission and create as much positive impact as possible, in his name.