Harvip Foundation

The Harvip Foundation was created in 2010 by Guido Lombardo and Lorenzo Guidi, Harvest Investment Partners Principals. The Foundation aims to raise funds for charitable projects in various fields, which are carefully selected and monitored in order to ensure the best use of its contributions.

The Harvip Foundation approach

• "Funds management" approach to charity: the Harvip Foundation aims to raise funds and to add value in the selection and monitoring of charitable projects in various fields;
• Annual selection process: at the end of each year, the Harvip Foundation selects the charitable initiatives to whom it allocates the funds raised during the year;
• "Hands-on" approach: the objective of the Harvip Foundation is to make a difference, by carefully selecting and subsequently monitoring the development and success of the selected projects;
• No leakage: administrative costs are covered by the two Principals, so 100% of third party funds raised go to the selected charitable initiatives.

Fund raising

The Harvip Foundation aims to raise funds through different channels:

• Principals personal contributions;
• Harvest Investment Partners dividends: The Harvip Foundation owns 100% of the share capital of Harvest Investment Partners ("Harvip"), so the distributable earnings are streamed up to the Harvip Foundation at the end of each financial year;
• Fundraising events: The Harvip Foundation aims to organize one or two annual events in order to present its activity, the charitable projects and to raise funds for future contributions;
• Third party contributions: The Harvip Foundation aims to raise funds also through friends and families, as well as Harvip's business partners.

Current Projects

The Harvip Foundation aims to choose and monitor projects, in which the contributions made shall be used towards a specific and well-defined objectives. Kids Home Is the first charity that the Harvip Foundation has selected and is working on a specific project with: the Smile Project.

• The Kids Home: The fist contributions made by the Harvip Foundation has benefited Kids Home. The Kids Home is an innovative non-profit organization that provides support to children in need in Chiang-Mai, Northern Thailand.
• The Smile Project: The Smile Project was set up in 2005 literally to make and keep the children smiling by offering after- school activities to the children suffering from the difficulties of their daily lives. Over the last five years, the Smile Project has provided educational and leisure activities to an average of 45 children. Thanks to its individualized approach, it has also contributed to create a supportive environment where children can express themselves, get support and gain confidence;
• The Smile Project has developed into a critical platform for Kids Home to identify difficult individual cases that can then receive specific support via other Kids Home projects (ex. kids with particularly difficult economic situation, cases of violence, risks of abandonment or school drop-out etc.);
• Kids Home and the Harvip Foundation are working together in order to develop the Smile Project into a more structured intervention, benefiting a larger number of children. The objective for the Smile Project is to be progressively scaled-up during 2011-2012 to benefit approx 90 children.

Imminent Projects

The Harvip Foundation has made its selection of the new beneficiaries of the 2011 contributions: Grassroot Soccer and the Swinfen Charitable Trust.

Grassroot Soccer:

• Grassroot Soccer was founded in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in 2002 by Dr Thomas Clark, a pediatrician, and Methembe Ndlovu, the former captain of the Zimbabwe national football team. Grassroot Soccer uses the power of soccer to educate and inspire young people to live healthy and productive lives. Grassroot Soccer trains local role models – soccer players, teachers, community leaders – to deliver an interactive AIDS prevention and life skills curriculum to at risk youth.

• Thanks to the support from the Harvip Foundation, Grassroot Soccer will train 30 local role models in 2011 to serve as Grassroot Soccer community leaders in Zimbabwe. These leaders will educate over 1,000 young people in 2011 through afterschool lessons and week-end soccer and community service tournaments.

The Swinfen Charitable Trust:

• The Swinfen Charitable Trust was set up by Lord and Lady Swinfen in 1998, with the aim of assisting poor, sick and disabled people in the developing world. The Trust's policy is to do this by establishing telemedicine links between hospital-based practitioners in the developing world and expert medical and surgical specialists who generously give free advice via the Internet.
• The Harvip Foundation and the Swinfen Charitable Trust are finalizing the details of the project, which they will work on together in 2011.