Anton Jurgens Fonds | Kwakkenbergweg 62-1 | 6523 MN Nijmegen | tel: 024 - 360 99 10 | NL: info@antonjurgensfonds.nl | UK: grants@ajct.org.uk | route
The Anton Jurgens Fonds was founded in 1925 and its mission is defined as follows:
"Combating and especially preventing material and immaterial poverty, particularly among people who are weak economically."
Our present-day translation of this mission is:
"Making a result-oriented contribution to helping vulnerable groups within society meet the basic necessities of life, live independently, develop personally and give meaning to their lives."
AJF believes in a world in which the realisation of independent living, personal development and autonomy is a real possibility for all groups within society.
The values that formed the foundation for the life and work of our founder, Anton Jurgens, still guide the foundation’s activities today: entrepreneurship, social commitment and an open, Christian view of life, in which fellow human beings are the central focus.
The similarity between the initiatives of the Anton Jurgens Fonds is: they are all socially enterprising. In AJF’s eyes, 'socially enterprising'means: offering a creative and enterprising solution to a social problem.
In the Netherlands, this might be an entrepreneur that specifically hires talented young people with autism to work in his software-testing company. In Africa, it could mean the realisation of a more efficient processing method for locally produced rice, which benefits both domestic consumption and sales.
Because the scope of AJF initiatives extends beyond the common definition of Social Entrepreneurship, AJF has its own definition of a 'socially enterprising initiative': An initiative whose principal mission is social in nature, but with a business slant.
The common denominator in the (inter)national AJF portfolio is: to bring about a sustainable positive impact on the living conditions, development and social participation of vulnerable groups within society.
In view of the fund’s aim to achieve sustainable social impact, we do not only offer financial support to initiatives. We also provide non-financial support by making our expertise and network available for the benefit of structuring and/or expansion of social enterprises, aimed at the future. The healthier an enterprise, and the better the social goals are safeguarded within it, the higher the social impact of that enterprise will be. Since this type of support is very intense and time-consuming, we attach great importance to establishing long-term relationships with our cooperation partners.
The Anton Jurgens Fonds currently has approximately 70 social investments in its portfolio, divided between the regions of the Netherlands and West Africa/Indonesia. The average investment, loan or donation is € 50,000. On average, our cooperation with project initiators lasts 1 to 3 years. Each year, the Fund enters into a new cooperative venture with an average of 20 project initiatives. The average time from application submission to an investment is 3 to 6 months. Click here to see what AJF has facilitated in 2017.