We aim:

To promote ‘Culture and Identity’ by supporting cultural, educational and social initiatives
To preserve threatened cultural heritage, if ‘responsible parties’ are lacking the required resources
To prepare, to conserve, and to spread cultural heritage including cultural identity 

Stichting Horizon was founded on 28 January 1997. Its purpose is (I) to promote the general good, in
particular cultural, educational and social affairs, (II) to distribute funds for social,
charitable, scientific and/or cultural ends, and (III) to administer the foundation’s
capital in such a manner that the realisation of the foundation’s objectives is secured
long-term. The foundation does not seek to make a profit.

Stichting Horizon works to counteract portrayals of cultural differences as irreconcilable. We support initiatives that spread information about own and neighbouring cultures in order to provide a greater understanding of shared values.
Under the header of ‘culture & identity’ we sponsor a variety of projects that work with tangible and intangible cultural heritage in Germany, Eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, the Balkans and Georgia) and Latin America.

They include and combine fields such as:

Photography
Film
Archaeological research & excavations
Ethnological and sociological research
Built heritage restoration
Natural heritage restoration
Music, dance and theatre
Strengthening culture and identity of people from different backgrounds

General
Board Members and members of the Project Committee are responsible for the identification of beneficiaries and/or projects possibly qualifying for support by Stichting Horizon. In principle, the Foundation is not open to requests for support of the activities of third parties.

Beneficiaries
For efficiency reasons and in view of our limited resources, Stichting Horizon supports activities in a limited number of countries/regions only. Moreover, for compliance reasons and to minimize the risk of non-properly executed projects, the foundation aims to establish multi-year relationships with a limited number of ‘Regular’ Beneficiaries. All beneficiaries are assigned a sponsor who is always a member of the Horizon Board or Project Committee.

Projects
The majority of our projects have a term of one year at maximum. ‘Regular beneficiaries’ are allowed to present new requests for support on an annual basis after consulting their Sponsor on work plans, budgets, etc. Requests for general support, i.e. periodically recurring exploitation subsidies, are usually extended on a yearly basis but must still be formally requested every year. All projects are to be presented to the Project Committee and Board for final decision making.

Project execution
The recipient of financial support is responsible for the (timely) execution of a project selected, approved and financed by the foundation. Stichting Horizon is involved in the execution of its projects by exception only.

Stichting Horizon (RSIN 8077.95.252), a Dutch foundation, was founded on 28 January 1997. The foundation is based in Zeist, The Netherlands, and shares its premises with a family foundation.

Governance
The Foundation is governed by three documents:
– Articles of Association (as amended on 5 November 2020)
– Regulations of the Board of Stichting Horizon (as adopted on 16 May 2020)
– Strategy Stichting Horizon (as updated in 2022)

The foundation does not aim to make any profits. (Article 2, Articles of Association)

Board
Henk G. Lubberdink, Chairman
Jeremy C.P. Amos
Stefan W.G. Henle
Pamela Veder

Project Committee
Henk G. Lubberdink, Chairman
Jeremy C.P. Amos
Alexander R. Amos
Stefan W.G. Henle
Pamela Veder
India I.C. Davison
Jan W. Haas
Felix B. Henle
Paola K. Henle
Ginka Tscholakowa-Henle, expert
Nelia Henle, emerging sponsor

Office
Hans Molenaar, Secretary General
Nils Smit, Assistant Secretary
All staff is employed by a family foundation.

Auditors
Mazars

Memberships
Stichting Horizon is a member of the following organization:
– Vereniging van Fondsen in Nederland- FIN (organization of foundations in The Netherlands), since 1997.

Remuneration Policies
Board members are entitled to a fee for every Board meeting attended. The Chairman receives 130% of this amount per meeting.
Members of the Project Committee do not receive a remuneration from the Foundation for their activities.

BOARD

Meetings. In 2022, the Board and Project Committee could finally meet in person again after the COVID-19 restrictions were repealed. The two meetings were held on 2 July and 10 December in Amsterdam.

Composition of the Board and Project Committee. At its meeting held on December 10th the Board of Stichting Horizon unanimously approved the reappointment of Jeremy Amos for another 3-year term as Board member. Besides the reappointment, the composition of the Board and the Project Committee remained unchanged in 2022.

Strategy. In its meeting held on July 2nd, the Board formally adopted the strategy for the period 2022 – 2025. The changes compared to the previous versions are modest. The Board and Project Committee are in agreement that Horizon’s mission and strategy are still embraced and widely supported and do not require any fundamental changes.
The adjustment of the strategy is mainly to avoid projects or beneficiaries being completely dependent (in the long term) on Horizon. But it is understood that in some cases it is extremely difficult for Beneficiaries to find funds from other parties. Nevertheless, all Beneficiaries should understand that they need to look for other sources to support their projects and not to have a 100% dependency on Horizon. It should be part of Horizon’s mission to encourage Beneficiaries to find other sponsors in order to secure their own long-term survival.

Website (horizonfoundation.nl). The content of this website is regularly updated. Project proposals, final & progress reports on projects and various documents governing the activities and organization of the foundation are available to the members of the Project Committee in a password protected section of the website.

Horizon has assigned all projects to individual members of the Project Committee who will act as sponsor to a project and will be the principal point of contact. The Office is responsible for contacts with beneficiaries regarding operational matters.

Internationales Jugend- und Kulturzentrum “Kiebitz”

In May, the Horizon visited this long-time beneficiary in Duisburg, Germany, where it was given a tour through the building and attended a rehearsal of a stage performance.
Amongst other topics, Horizon and the Kiebitz management discussed the financials, projections for the remainder of the year and plans for next year. As the Kiebitz director will reach pensionable age, the organization will have to look for a successor. Horizon has indicated it wants to be kept informed on developments regarding the search for a successor.

Caucasian House

From June 8 until June 11 Horizon visited the Caucasian House in Tbilisi, Georgia. It was informed that by the end of June, the term of managing director will end, after which he will join the Caucasian House’s Board and focus mainly on fundraising. A successor has already been appointed. In addition, the chair of the Board will step down, but she will remain a member of the Caucasian House Board. She will be succeeded by a highly experienced member from the organisation’s own ranks. Horizon knows this person well and is confident that this person will assume the position of chairman very well.
Horizon had discussions with the board on its planned activities for next year and marketing strategy to further increase their name awareness and to improve the Caucasian House brand. On the geopolitical front, tensions abound. The political situation in Georgia and the Caucasus as a whole is unstable, and the war in Ukraine is also a cause for concern.
On Friday June 10th Horizon travelled east to Nukriani to visit the new weekend school. Despite the fact that the school in this remote region often suffers from electricity cuts and loss of water pressure, the new location and modern building offer a lot more possibilities to setup a comprehensive and better programme for the children.
During the visit Horizon learned that there is little interest from parties other than Horizon in sponsoring cultural and educational activities.

Traditions pour Demain, Switzerland/Latin America

On 18 October, Horizon visited Traditions pour Demain (TpD) in Geneva, where it met and had lunch with the organisation’s president, director, project coordinator and founders.
TpD gave update on the organisation, in particular regarding the transition process and the changes in the board and secretariat. TpD also announced that it will move to another office in Geneva, to the same building as its main donor. This relocation represents not only a reduction in costs, but also the possibility of creating synergies that will be beneficial for the future of TpD.
TpD gave an update on a recent field trip to Guatemala and Ecuador where they visited one of projects sponsored by Horizon.
TpD presented its 2021-2024 strategy and reiterated that there will be no major changes, except in advocacy activities, which will fade into the background for now as TpD wants to focus more on raising awareness among the Swiss and relevant institutions. Communication and fundraising will be a core challenge in the new configuration. TpD is also in the process of being re-certified by Zewo, a Swiss label that guarantees the transparent management of the organization.

For the other projects, the sponsors and/or the Office had regular contacts with the beneficiaries via e–mail correspondence and/or digital meetings.

Due to a combination of circumstances is has been decided to postpone Horizon’s Board trip to Romania until 2023.

In 2022 the Board approved 42 new project applications for a total amount of € 722.947, of which 23 were submitted by existing beneficiaries to finance extensions of existing projects or a new activities and amounted to € 671.447. In addition, the foundation’s Board approved 19 smaller or one-off projects for a total amount of € 49.477

The allocation of the 42 projects to the various geographical areas is as follows:

Country (No. of projects)

Publicatieplicht ANBI 2022

Annual Accounts 2022

Extract Management Report 2022

Policy Horizon 2022 – 2025