In mid-September last year, an award ceremony at the Chateau Status restaurant in the buffer zone in Nicosia, Cyprus, saw 10 ‘bi-communal’ businesses receive €10,000 each as winners of the annual ‘Stelios Award for Business Cooperation in Cyprus’. The award promotes island-wide, bi-communal business cooperation between Turkish-Cypriot and Greek-Cypriot entrepreneurs and is one of several offered each year in different locations by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, the personal philanthropic vehicle of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
Since the founding of the award five years ago, Sir Stelios has distributed more than €1 million to a wide range of businesses. This year’s winners ranged from a literary agency supporting the work of women writers, to a web-based radio station and a bakery. Of the more than 20 applications, many were start-ups. “We see this as tangible proof that the spirit of entrepreneurship is alive and well in Cyprus - especially during these times of extreme economic difficulty - and that entrepreneurs on both sides of the green line continue to uphold a commitment to peace and reconciliation,” said Sir Stelios.
Stelios, as he is popularly known, sees his philanthropy as reflecting his individual style. “Philanthropy should be done in a way we enjoy and one of the things I enjoy is interacting with other entrepreneurs so a lot of what I do involves supporting other businesses,” he says. “If you help a business thrive, that can have an exponential impact.”
Foundation structure
The Stelios Philanthropic Foundation is domiciled in Monaco, with a separate but related foundation in the UK. The management team includes a full time director, based in Monaco with co-ordinators in the UK, Greece and Cyprus. “The thing to remember is that this is high-touch philanthropy,” says Stelios. “A lot of what I do is unique to me. As far as
I know there is no other foundation that does what I do in Cyprus, for example.”
“It’s all about being easy,” says Marie-Louise Bang, foundation project coordinator, with a nod to the famous brand. “Because Stelios is funding these philanthropic initiatives personally, it’s a structure that allows for efficient payment of expenses and receipt of income.” Stelios intends to continue his private funding of the Foundation for the near- to medium-term. “I don’t have a reason to endow it upfront,” he says. “I do it on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis every year, though it will feature in my estate planning.”
The three Es
The Foundation focuses on three broad areas of activity: education, entrepreneurship and the environment. In addition to scholarship programmes at City University and the LSE, his almae mater, the Foundation sponsors three annual, entrepreneurial awards: the Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the UK; the Stelios Award for Business Cooperation in Cyprus and the Stelios Haji-Ioannou Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Greece. He has also promoted clean-tech entrepreneurship in Monaco.
His hands-on approach extends to the running of the Foundation. “We tend to keep most things in-house, including the recent hiring of a PR coordinator, because it allows for more control and agility,” says Bang. “Stelios’ perspective has always been, “Since I’m giving away money, I don’t want to spend more than I have to to give it away. We have a very stringent ethos about keeping costs low”. A five-person Foundation Council (Conseil d’Administration) meets quarterly in Monaco to oversee the Foundation’s activities.
The foundation sticks very closely to the “three Es” with the aim of maximising the exponential effect. “We have thousands of requests all of which are wonderful initiatives, but we have to stay grounded, otherwise we lose the power of the branding,” says Bang and, she adds, “It is important to recognise the power of branding: the non-monetary giving can be as powerful in terms of being able to inspire and get people going themselves.”
