A Year Like No Other

The managing board of ERSTE Foundation: Mario Catasta (CEO), Eva Höltl, Franz Portisch, Boris Marte (dep. CEO)

Photo: Peter M. Mayr

Ivan Krastev sees a paradox in the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the world (“Is it tomorrow yet?”): although in 2020 we were supposed safe and continued cooperation with the numerous initiatives and partner organisations, while we – like many others – had to prepare for times to keep as much distance from each other as possi- of financial uncertainty. From the first moment of ble and borders were closed temporarily, we all felt the crisis, our aim was to lay the foundation for a more than ever, perhaps for the new beginning. first time in history, that we are inhabitants of one world, fateful- From the first moment of Many projects were ly connected, united in the fight the crisis, our aim was to lay unable to implement their against the virus. We are facing the same crisis all over the world, even though it does not have the the foundation for a new beginning. programmes as planned. For example, cultural venues in most European countries same consequences for every- were closed for months to one. Therefore, many reviews of 2020 will probably reduce infection levels. Artists, project managers, be much alike. This is our take on the situation as we journalists, scholarship holders, lecturers and look back on a year like no other. others involved in programmes were unable to At the beginning of the year, we at ERSTE Foun- travel at all or could do so only to a very limited dation felt encouraged by the inspiring ideas for a extent. Conferences, exhibitions, seminars, and sustainable future that the guests of our 200th an- similar events were cancelled or moved online. niversary lecture series had presented us the year Even Zweite Sparkasse now shifted to providing before. We were eager to share these thoughts customer services online. At the same time, the with our colleagues at the European Foundation NGO sector struggled with similar economic Centre conference that we were to host in Vienna problems as the for-profit sector, but was offered in May. The conference, entitled “Foundations and much less government compensation aid, or The New Normal”, obviously had to be postponed none at all, in many countries. Moreover, social until 2021. Meanwhile a new normal became real- inequality was exacerbated: sudden joblessness ity when the coronavirus pandemic broke out in or unemployment, precarious living conditions, March, massively impacting ERSTE Foundation’s parents and children struggling with homework in multiple ways. Our staff worked from schooling, crises in the care sector and severe home for most of the year, something we were or even fatal courses of the disease abruptly well prepared for in technical and organisational aggravated the problems of (potential) clients of terms. We also did everything possible to ensure many NGOs.

As a direct response to this situation, ERSTE Foundation implemented measures as early as spring 2020 that were specifically tailored to civil society actors coping with the pandemic. In April 2020, ERSTE Foundation set up the CEE Solidarity Fund as an unbureaucratic hardship fund for small to medium-sized NPOs in Central and South-Eastern Europe. Furthermore, Erste Group and ERSTE Foundation launched a comprehensive social banking initiative providing a total of around EUR 25 million in liquidity to non-profit organisations in Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia, with ERSTE Foundation covering the interest payments due in 2020. Many projects also reacted quickly. In April 2020, for example, the journalistic platform Reporting Democracy called on journalists to report on how the pandemic was reshaping politics and society in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

In parallel to the rapid responses to the crisis, work continued on long-term projects. With Two Next we launched a limited company that will help nonprofit organisations offer digital products and services in areas that the pandemic has put into the spotlight: care and financial inclusion. Drawing on our long experience with FLiP, we were able to forge a new alliance with key stakeholders of the Austrian social partnership to launch the Foundation for Economic Literacy, which aims to help integrate financial and economic education in Austrian school curricula in the future.

The pandemic has tended to sideline other events that also deserved our attention in 2020. The conditions in the refugee camps on the island of Lesbos, which is to say on European Union soil, and in Bosnia remained unresolved throughout 2020 and call urgently for new solutions on how Europe deals with asylum and migration. Gerald Knaus, long-time partner of ERSTE Foundation and Europe’s Futures fellow, seeks to break the deadlocked debate. He presented his book Welche Grenzen wollen wir? at ERSTE Foundation in autumn and then personally handed a copy to Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen. However, we have also seized the time to focus on the future and engage in “innovation dialogues” with our partner network. What lessons can we learn from the health crisis? Which lessons will remain relevant in the longer term? How will we as a society and economy be able to engage with nature in a new way? Are we ready to live and do business in a decarbonised world? 2020 has again impressively demonstrated that times are changing and that as a foundation whose mission calls for a long-term perspective, we will have to deal with these questions for even longer. This also includes finding ways to tackle the challenges of the future in strong democracies. In this context it is appropriate that as part of the Solidarity Belarus residency programme, which was set up at short notice (with tranzit.at), we were able to invite activists and artists from Minsk to come to Austria, allowing them to take a moment to recover and recharge.

At the beginning of 2021 we were filled with hope at the prospect of an effective vaccine against the pandemic. At the same time, we will feel the economic and social consequences of this crisis for a long time to come. It is also up to us to learn the right lessons from it and translate them into ideas and concepts for shaping the future. In any case, we will not be able to return to pre-pandemic normality. Let’s not allow the experience of living through a global crisis go to waste, for the challenges in the near future will be even more demanding. We will continue to use ERSTE Foundation’s distinctive identity and the freedom to manoeuvre it provides to help contribute to a better life!

Mario Catasta Boris Marte

CEO Deputy CEO

Eva Höltl Franz Portisch

Board Member Board Member