About the Salève Foundation
Supporting girls’ equitable access to education and training
Our Story
The Salève Foundation is a small family foundation created in 2019. It promotes the lasting empowerment of at-risk girls and women, those who are most vulnerable to social, economic, or political exclusion or sexual and gender-based violence, by expanding their access to secondary school, skills-building, and vocational training.
The foundation is named after Mount Salève, a small mountain on the foothills of the Alps. The name was chosen because of the mountain’s proximity to Geneva, where the foundation was created. As well, in French “Salève” is a homophone of “Ça lève,” which means “it lifts up.” Lifting up individuals and communities in need, in close partnership with those people, is at the core of the Salève Foundation’s mandate.
The foundation pursues its mission through grant-making, advocacy, and partnerships. For more information about its activities, see What We Do.
Our Mission, Vision & Values
Our Mission: To contribute to increased and lasting access to secondary school, skills-building, and vocational training for girls and women who are vulnerable to social, economic, or political exclusion or gender-based violence through grantmaking, advocacy, and other partnerships.
Our Vision: A world where girls and women at risk of violence and exclusion are empowered to lift themselves out of their current circumstances and pursue their own economic, social, and intellectual paths in life.
Our Values:
- Community-driven change: actions and advocacy should be driven by the voices of those who experience and understand the challenges firsthand
- Systemic change: the foundation favors initiatives leading to wide-reaching, sustainable change, which often depends on improvements to public policies and laws as well as their full implementation
- Collaboration and networking: organizations sharing the same goals should collaborate where feasible for maximum impact and mutual support
- Learning: the foundation will seize on all opportunities to learn from others and to share its acquired knowledge widely.