UBS launches collective philanthropy initiative to help clients address critical global issues

• UBS Collectives will address child protection, climate change, health, and education-related issues
• By mobilizing its capital and expertise, the UBS Collectives support underfunded approaches to reduce inequalities

New York, NY,October7, 2021 – Harnessing the power of collective philanthropy, UBS today announced the launch of UBS Collectives (“Collectives”), an innovative social-impact initiative that connects UBS’s philanthropic clients on issues that matter most to them. Led by UBS’s Philanthropy Services team, UBS Collectives will help clients combine their expertise and mobilize their capital to fund initiatives that address child protection, climate change, health, and education-related issues.  

“Our goal is to mobilize private capital and support effective programs to address some of the most critical challenges of our time, which can best be addressed by working together,” said Phyllis Costanza, Head of Social Impact at UBS and CEO of the UBS Optimus Foundation. “We are excited to offer clients the unique opportunity to work alongside their peers and expert practitioners to drive systemic change across some of the most complex philanthropic issues.”

Clients will have the opportunity to participate in the following UBS Collectives:

• Transform Collective will support family-based care for vulnerable children as an alternative to institutional care. These philanthropists will aim to reform policies and practices to protect vulnerable children, strengthen families, and reduce the number of children living in institutional care facilities (estimated between five to six million children worldwide¹).
• Climate Collective will develop and implement strategies that mitigate the effects of climate change, sequester carbon emissions using nature-based solutions, support local community development and improve biodiversity in Southeast Asia and beyond.
• Accelerate Collective will explore innovative social finance models to unlock more-effective funding that will improve the health and education of disadvantaged children in West Africa and Southeast Asia.

“Wealthy philanthropists are interested in more than just donating money – they want to become advocates for the issues they are passionate about,” said Tom Hall, Global Head of Philanthropy Services at UBS. “To do that, they want to fully understand the root cause of those issues and work with likeminded individuals and experts to create solutions to address them.”

UBS’s Philanthropy Services team will mentor and provide guidance to the members of the Collectives over the course of three years. During the first year, each Collective will build a framework tailored to their respective philanthropic issue, focused on strategy, implementation and measurement of program impact.

In the second year, members will travel to the locations relevant to their Collective, where they will put their learnings from year one into practice. All three UBS Collectives will then convene through webinars, in-person conferences and additional site visits to monitor the progress made by their efforts.

¹ The Lancet (2020): “Institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation of children 2: policy and practice recommendations for global, national and local actors”. The Lancet.