Formerly the Fondation de la Financière de l’Echiquier, the new structure turned its attentions throughout the health crisis first to dealing with the emergency and now to supporting the recovery.

The timing proved prescient. In 2019, Fondation de la Financière de l’Echiquier readied itself to become Fondation Groupe Primonial, following the acquisition of the asset management company by the leading independent wealth management group, and expanded its scope of action, hitherto focused on education and social and professional integration, to include health. The first act of the new body, after it was launched in conjunction with Fondation de France in June 2020, was to provide a disinfecting robot to Institut Mutualiste Montsouris.

La Financière de l’Echiquier took an innovative step in 2006 by creating the first French foundation to be housed by an asset management company, with a financial regime based on a percentage of assets under management. “The more clients, the more funding for the foundation,” noted Managing Director Cécile Jouenne-Lanne. The new scope of the Primonial Group – with EUR48 billion of assets under discretionary or advisory management and a diversification of business lines – will therefore boost financial resources over the coming years.

Crowdfunding

With its current budget of EUR1.3 million, the foundation has focused its efforts in 2020 and 2021 on actions “that respond to the growing inequalities and difficulties resulting from the crisis, in an unprecedented social climate that threatens the most vulnerable”. Since its creation, it has supported groups facing significant exclusion, such as the homeless, immigrants, women in isolated circumstances and ex-prisoners. In March, Cécile Jouenne-Lanne turned to the charities in the Foundation’s orbit for a status report on the changing situation. “This was the first time that we had really reacted like this, on a ‘hot topic’, as it would have been unthinkable just to stand and watch.” An initial crowdfunding effort allowed us to allocate EUR150,000 to around twenty charities to cover urgent need, such as IT equipment for schoolchildren under lockdown in some of the poorest districts of Lyon.