How many people does it take to improve one life?

Today, we are celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the UBS Optimus Foundation – our in-house foundation that works to design and continuously improve how financial support has impact in the larger world. Doing so requires a wide range of people – philanthropy experts, impassioned clients, leading philanthropic organizations, UBS finance experts, employees, frontline partners, enterprises, academics and governments.

And together, all of these individuals are able to do great things. In the last five years alone, we’ve driven bold change that has fundamentally improved health, education and child protection systems for over 10 million children.

As Chairman of the UBS Optimus Foundation Board, I've seen firsthand how the Foundation has developed and succeeded. It's been 20 years of challenging traditional funding mechanisms. 20 years of bringing the right people together to collectively do remarkable things. 20 years of proving that doing good financially and achieving social returns can go hand in hand.

Let me highlight a few of our achievements:

• So far, we have developed and launched three development impact bonds (DIBs) to support education and health care. Our pilot education DIB concluded last year and achieved 116% of the enrollment target for girls in Rajasthan, India and 160% of the learning target for both boys and girls in its final year.
• The way we have facilitated different networks. For example, we have brought together a global philanthropist community committed to driving change.
• Currently, we’re managing 200 programs worth CHF 211 million, across 40 countries.
• We have granted CHF 464 million in funds to date of which 45% were deployed to healthcare programs, 24% to education programs, and 20% to child protection programs, with the rest going into early childhood development programs and emergency response.

When I talk to clients, I hear time and time again that they want their philanthropy to be transparent and measurable. Regardless of their age, clients are increasingly looking to drive positive and sustainable societal change. More importantly, they also realize their success will be limited when acting individually, that they need to pool forces to achieve more. They want to be more impactful, more hands on and better connected. They want to see that their actions have a measurable impact.

And this is exactly what the Foundation is doing – it takes the same business-minded approach to philanthropy that we apply to all aspects of our work at UBS. As a result, our clients can be sure it delivers the social return they should be getting from their charitable contribution.

Our goal at UBS is not only to help preserve and grow our clients' wealth but also to help them pursue their social goals in line with their beliefs and values. Philanthropy is a vital part of that. And it's not going to diminish.

So while we celebrate this anniversary, it's with the knowledge that the last 20 years are only the beginning. And as we look to the future, organizations like the UBS Optimus Foundation are going to be more important than ever before as they are instrumental in demonstrating of how philanthropy can create social change and in promoting innovation and new thinking within funding models.

I'll give you an example. The first impact bond was launched in 2010 and since then, they have been growing steadily in number and reach. As we are able to develop, pilot and improve our models, we can offer solutions that are ever more effective and ever more measurable. The rise of data-driven models, increased collaboration with state regulators, the availability of higher risk capital and broadening cross-industry, cross-institutional collaboration are all factors that will change the landscape of philanthropy, creating new opportunities.

The last 20 years of innovation and growth has been a great achievement, both for the UBS Optimus Foundation and philanthropy in general. The funding we mobilized in the last two decades reflects the generosity and passion of our clients and employees, the proactivity and professionalism of our team, and the hard work and dedication of our inspiring partners in the field. I feel confident that our approach of working with philanthropists, organizations and governments will continue to be hugely beneficial in tackling the greatest social issues. And there is more to come.

Disclaimer: The UBS Optimus Foundation is a grant-making foundation that helps UBS clients use their wealth to drive positive social change for children. The foundation selects programs that improve children’s health, education and protection, ones that have the potential to be transformative, scalable and sustainable.

Development impact bonds are not financial products.

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be relied upon as investment advice or the basis for making any investment decisions. In providing wealth management services to clients, UBS offers both investment advisory and brokerage services which are separate and distinct and differ in material ways. For information, including the different laws and contracts that govern, visit ubs.com/workingwithus.

UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC.