NESsT Case Study Series Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESsT)
Colombia August 2000
03 English
Fundación para la Educación Superior (FES)
Permanent Matching Funds
This case was prepared by the Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESsT), an international nonprofit organization with offices in Budapest, Hungary and Santiago, Chile. NESsT is committed to strengthening the financial sustainability of civil society organizations (CSOs) working for social change and development through the development of self-financing strategies that both generate additional income and further the missions of CSOs.
In the late 1970s, the FES Foundation, one of the largest community foundations in Colombia, established Permanent Funds (PFs) and Permanent Matching Funds (PMFs) as a way to build its endowment and offer a return to the country’s civil society organizations (CSOs). CSOs were invited to provide the Foundation with a donation that was 50 percent matched by FES and would become part of the FES endowment; 30 percent of the yields of the total amount would be returned to the donating organization on an ongoing basis at the Consumer Price Index plus 4 percent. By the late 1990s, there were close to 500 PFs and PMFs, contributing to building the FES endowment valued at approximately US$ 42 million. The Funds supported projects in the Foundation’s six program areas and many were managed
The case was prepared by NESsT in collaboration with the Synergos Institute, an independent nonprofit institute that brings together diverse sectors of society to find new, more effective ways of narrowing the gap between rich and poor. With particular emphasis on countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Synergos strengthens the role of philanthropy and citizen leadership in social development. The case study forms part of the Institute’s series on Foundation Building.
by the Foundation itself. In May of 1999, the Government of Colombia nationalized the Foundation’s assets and took hold of the PFs and PMFs. To date, it is still unknown whether these Funds will be returned to the CSOs.
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NESsT and Synergos wish to thank FES for its participation in this case.