Oranje Fonds

The Oranje Fonds was founded in 2002 when it was presented as a gift from the Dutch people to the Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima in honour of their marriage. As patrons of the fund, they are very much involved in the Fund and its sphere of activity. In its founding year, the Oranje Fonds merged with the Juliana Welzijn Fonds, which had been active in the social sector since 1948.

Mission

To reinforce integration, participation and social safety in society, and reduce social exclusion in the Netherlands.

Geographic Focus

The Kingdom of the Netherlands, including the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.

Programme Areas

Oranje Fonds supports community and social welfare organisations within three distinct themes:

• Neighbourhood Cohesion
• Diversity
• Active Citizenship

Neighbourhood Cohesion
Seeks ways of bringing together people in communities and neighbourhoods via the following activities:

• Neighbours’ Day – recruits people across the whole country to participate in initiatives for and by the community, from cleaning up playgrounds and organising community football matches, to erecting public benches in the neighbourhood
• Top Locations in Action – offers administrators and users of meeting spaces the opportunity to improve their sites so that they can accommodate more and new activities
• Summer Schools – gives fresh impetus to the professionalisation of youth workers and community professionals through an intensive week-long programme of relevant theory and modern professional practice
• Neighbourhood Gift – a special prize to the value of €3,000 awarded to a neighbourhood organisation or residents’ collective

Diversity
Withing the field of diversity, Oranje Fonds supports the following:

• Appeltjes van Oranje Awards- awarded annually to three exceptional and successful social initiatives
• Photographic Exhibition Kleurrijk Welzijn (Colourful Welfare) – consisting of life size photographs and sound bytes from social care workers illustrating how welfare work contributes to quality of life and social cohesion in multicultural communities
• Language Meetings – focusing on ethnic minority men and women who have been in the Netherlands for some time, yet remain disadvantaged in terms of language
• Man 2.0 – focusing on the emancipation and participation of socially excluded men

Active Citizenship
The Active Citizenship programme focuses on voluntary work in the broadest sense, including:

• Best Friends – supports the national campaign Wanted: Friend m/f
• Oranje Fonds Development Programme – a training and coaching course to help expand social initiatives which have been successful at local level
• Mentoring Projects – supports and promotes 26 mentoring projects in as many cities, and establishes far-reaching partnerships between schools, local authorities, the business world, and welfare organisations
• NL DOET, Dutch National Volunteer Day – offers people the chance to get involved for one day in voluntary work without obligation, matching volunteers to tasks and organisations via a special website
• Active Ageing – supports fifteen organisations that encourage older people to participate more in voluntary work