Gjensidigestiftelsen

The Gjensidigestiftelsen is the largest foundation in Norway, and combines two important roles. It is a significant financial player and the principal shareholder of Gjensidige Forsikring ASA, and it is an important contributor to various socially beneficial causes, with the focus on health and safety.
In June 2010 Gjensidige Forsikring became a public limited company (ASA). At the same time, the Gjensidige Foundation was converted from an ordinary foundation to a financial foundation. Up until the end of 2010 the Gjensidige Foundation owned all the shares in Gjensidige. In connection with Gjensidige’s stock market flotation on 10 December 2010, the Foundation sold some of its shares, and Gjensidige gained approximately 47,000 new shareholders. At present, the Foundation owns a little over 62 per cent of Gjensidige’s shares.
The Foundation’s financial objectives are to manage its long-term ownership of Gjensidige, to pass on a share dividend to Gjensidige’s non-life insurance customers, and to manage the revenue raised from the sale of shares. The Foundation’s non-profit objective is to promote health and safety through charitable donations. Such donations are made in accordance with the Foundation’s fundamental values, which are : “Preventive – Developing – Activity creating – Society building”.
From its establishment in October 2007 up until 2015, the Foundation has distributed over NOK 1.4 billion to more than 5.200 projects that promote health and safety initiatives.

Mission

Through its programme of donations the Foundation aims to promote safety, health and other worthy causes falling under the scope of its core values: preventive, developing, activity-creating and society-building.

Geographic Focus

Norway

Programme Areas

The 5 Priorities Areas of the foundation are the following:
– Safety
– Learning & Sharing
– Social inclusion and diversity
– Physical activity
– Diet

Safety
The foundation supports projects that contribute to minimize the potential for damage in accidents. The foundation looks for all kinds of preventive activities for children and youth, for example, training in traffic safety. Furthermore, it supports measures to strengthen the voluntary preparedness efforts, as well as measures to strengthen the population first aid and lifesaving skills.

Learning & Sharing
The foundation supports projects that create good social networks and meeting places, and that contribute to master challenges in everyday life. Furthermore, it supports projects that contribute to gain a more complete secondary education. It also supports projects that contribute to the recruitment of youth leadership and volunteers.

Social inclusion and diversity
The foundation supports projects that contribute to include groups that do not participate on an equal basis as others. The same applies to projects which help bringing generations together. The foundation also looks for projects that strengthen children’s and young people’s ability to resolve conflicts by peaceful means and measures to prevent violence and insecurity.

Physical activity
The foundation supports projects that contribute to be more physically active. Examples include the construction and adaptation of facilities and areas for different physical activities like sports and outdoor activities and sport equipment. The objective is that these measures should include as many as possible, especially those who lack an offer. The foundation prioritizes projects targeting the community, including new groups, and that are open and accessible and encourage innovation and partnership.

Diet
The foundation supports projects that stimulate people to choose a healthy diet. Examples of projects that can get support are measures that promote good dietary habits through knowledge dissemination and trainings, in particularly targeting children and young people.