Independent Swiss foundation · est. 2021
Supporting lasting change in coffee-farming communities.
The ViFOUNDATION works alongside coffee farmers at origin to reduce risk and strengthen livelihoods — funding agroecology, soil, water and financial resilience, and reporting on what each project delivers.
Nine projects across seven origin countries in Latin America and East Africa.
Accountability
The foundation's work, set out plainly.
Headline figure to confirm from project records
Projects
Impactful projects driven by farmers and community needs.
Every project works in communities where ViCAFE sources its coffee. Open any one for the full account — its budget, its status and its outcome.
Mosan — Coffee Value Chain for Climate Action
The foundation's largest and most recent project: a three-year programme at Lake Atitlán, Guatemala that turns organic and sanitation waste into biochar-based substrate — rebuilding the soil coffee depends on while targeting more than 1,000 tonnes of avoided CO₂.
View moreLake Atitlán — photograph by chensiyuan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA), used as a placeholder until a Mosan project photo is added.
Learning Cachoeira
Miriam is one of the leading coffee farmers in Brazil and a passionate advocate for organic farming, agroforestry, women in coffee, and the empowerment of marginalized farming communities.
Digital advice with farmbetter
farmbetter is on a mission to provide digital advice to smallholder farmers, making knowledge about sustainable agronomic practices readily available.
Rwenzori's Potential
In 2023, ViCAFE established a small holder cluster consisting of three farms in the Rwenzori Mountains, situated on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Closing the Equity Circle
Coffee farmers generally earn relatively little but bear considerable risks, especially with the increasingly unpredictable and severe weather due to climate change.
Bio-Fábrica
Oscar is one of ViCAFE's longstanding coffee partners.
Bring back the Trees
Monocultures typically increase the vulnerabilities of ecosystems towards climate change.
Aprolma's Wishlist
Since 2016 ViCAFE works together with the Aprolma Women's Cooperative in La Paz, Honduras (65 members).
Bring Water Up
Ciumenene Farm is in the highlands of Kiambu, Kenya.
Partnerships
The organisations we work with.
Governance, independence & finances
The foundation's credibility rests on independence — so it is documented.
An independent foundation under Swiss law
The ViFOUNDATION is an independent Stiftung supervised by the Federal Foundation Supervisory Authority. ViCOLLECTIVE AG (ViCAFE and Vivi Kola) supports it through a CHF 0.50-per-kilogram coffee pledge and pro-bono work; project decisions rest with the board.
The ViCAFE relationship, disclosed
Three board members are also active at ViCAFE. Each affiliation is stated below, conflicted members are recused from related decisions, and the board is working to add an independent academic voice from a coffee-origin country.
Audited and supervised
The annual accounts — balance sheet, income statement and the statutory auditor's report — are audited by KPMG Zürich and reviewed by the supervisory authority. The annual report will be published on this page.
Finances & oversight
The board
The board, and where each member stands.
Kurt Lambert
Mark Heasman
Pascal Herzog
Silvio Mattanza
academic voice
from origin
Incoming member
Support the work
An open platform, with a clear way to contribute.
Companies, organisations and individuals can support the foundation's work. Every contribution is auditable and reported.
Give by bank transfer
Questions
About the foundation.
What is ViFOUNDATION?
ViFOUNDATION is an independent Swiss foundation (Stiftung) that works alongside coffee-farming communities at origin — funding agroecology, soil, water and financial-resilience projects. Its accounts are audited by KPMG in Zürich and it is supervised by the Swiss Federal Foundation Supervisory Authority.
Where does ViFOUNDATION work?
In the coffee-growing regions where ViCAFE sources its coffee, including Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
What kinds of projects does it fund?
Agroforestry and regenerative-farming training, composting and soil health, tree planting, solar-powered irrigation, digital agronomy advice, support for women's cooperatives, and a farmer financial-participation pilot.
How is the foundation funded?
Chiefly through ViCAFE, which pledges CHF 0.50 for every kilogram of coffee it sells, alongside donations and project-specific partnerships such as the Swiss Sustainable Coffee Platform.
Is ViFOUNDATION independently audited?
Yes — its accounts are audited by KPMG in Zürich, and it is supervised by the Swiss Federal Foundation Supervisory Authority.
How can I support the foundation?
By donating to the foundation's ZKB account or partnering as an organisation. Details are in the Support section above.
Contact
Get in touch with the foundation.
Send us a question, tell us about your organisation, or share your own project ideas. For partnership enquiries you may also write to Pascal Herzog directly at pascal.herzog@vicollective.ch.