Colruyt Group Foundation makes a meaningful difference
Interview with Lisa Colruyt
With 29 projects, a staff of 5 full-time co-workers, and an annual budget of 5 million eurios, the new Colruyt Group Foundation is one of the largest corporate foundations in the country. Empowering young people so they can stand on their own feet, making healthy food accessible to everyone, and promoting more environmentally friendly agricultural techniques. "By strongly focusing on these themes with our foundation, our goal is to increase our positive impact as a retailer", says the enthusiastic managing director Lisa Colruyt.
How exactly did the Colruyt Group Foundation come about?
“The foundation evolved from our Collibri Foundation, which has been supporting educational projects for young people in difficult situations since 2003. In 2023, there were around 20 projects being carried out in Belgium and elsewhere, which helped 16,500 youths and involved an investment of over a million euros. The streamlined foundation continues to support young people, with a focus on professional integration and citizenship. On a more general level, we focus on empowering people, specifically those in vulnerable situations. Our purpose is for them to develop their potential and hopefully create positive change in their environment. We also contribute specifically to making the food chain more sustainable from farm to plate.
That’s why we support organisations in Belgium that assist farmers in making the transition to more sustainable production methods. In other countries, we prioritise the training of young farmers, so that they can earn a viable income from their land. We link these educational projects to our sustainable chain projects to promote enriching interaction between the two. Finally, we focus on consumption aspects in order to make nutritionally balanced food more readily available to vulnerable families.”
We want to empower people, so that they can develop their full potential and become a driver for change.
Does the foundation initiate these projects or are they already established?
“We’re open to projects in various phases of development. Our focus in Belgium is primarily on scale-ups. We give mature initiatives that have proven their added value a nudge in the right direction to help increase their reach. For this category, we launch a call for projects each year with a focus on either vulnerable young people or sustainable food. In those countries in which the company establishes sustainable chain projects, we gladly help to develop new educational projects for young people, i.e. start-ups. We also pioneer a number of pure innovation projects, such as studying whether agricultural solutions that are effective in one country can also be used elsewhere.”
You can’t help but wonder why a retailer would want to create a foundation.
“As a company, we’ve always focused on creating added social value. We are actively committed to improving health, society, animal welfare, and the environment, but understand that some challenges transcend our possibilities as a retailer. The fact is, a targeted foundation that closely aligns with the challenges that are the focus of the group creates more opportunities.
The work carried out by the foundation is an excellent addition to all the efforts of the group to fulfil its social role. Colruyt Group works with dozens of partners on achieving more sustainable food production and generating awareness among a large audience about making more conscious choices. The foundation on the other hand, has fewer partners and focuses more specifically on defined target groups and initiatives that require additional support and time.”
What exactly is the relationship between the company and the foundation?
“It’s simple. It is in the DNA of Colruyt Group to carry out its business activities as sustainably as possible. The foundation, on the other hand, does not have a commercial purpose. But thanks to our shared roots, we work side by side in a goal-oriented way. The added value that this brings can clearly be seen in countries in which Colruyt Group buys from local agricultural cooperatives, providing a stable income in the process. The foundation can support educational projects for young farmers in these same regions. Both initiatives are managed separately, but consistently benefit from each other’s knowledge and experience. Good examples are young people who intern at the cooperatives, where they find inspiration for their own projects.”
How is the foundation funded?
“De firma dekt alle werkingskosten en een groot deel van de projectkosten. Alleen al voor de projecten wordt er op termijn jaarlijks 5 miljoen euro uitgetrokken. Daarmee groeit de foundation uit tot een van de grootste bedrijfsstichtingen van het land. Voorts zijn er donaties van particulieren via het fonds ‘Vrienden van Colruyt Group Foundation’, beheerd door de Koning Boudewijnstichting. In onze voedingswinkels kunnen klanten ook altijd hun kasticket afronden ten voordele van de foundation. Een kleine inspanning met een groot effect. Maar we zijn van plan om hen veel nauwer te betrekken bij onze werking.”
Through our savings programme, we contribute to a better world together with our partners, customers, and suppliers.
How exactly do you intend to achieve that?
“We’re using the existing Colruyt Group savings programme. This is how it works: a customer who buys products with a high Eco-score A or B, i.e. a low ecological footprint, automatically earn points in their Xtra loyalty app. Those points can then be used to support a Belgian charity. Over the past two years, customers have redeemed over 29,5 million points and provided a significant boost to quite a few fantastic environmental projects. Since this summer, five youth projects organised by our partners in Brussels, Debateville and Odyssée, have been added to the savings programme. I am very pleased to see how strongly our customers feel about supporting these initiatives.”
Any plans to go beyond educational projects?
“No, because our intention is for customers to gradually save for more foundation projects. What’s more, they will also have the possibility in the future to earn points when purchasing products that offer added value in terms of health, society, or animal welfare. In other words, we are going to be rewarding conscious consumption even more and support even more charities together with our customers. Incidentally, the savings programme also offers our suppliers the opportunity to highlight their products with an Eco-score A or B and to create a link to a unique programme that lets them help us and customers make the world a better place. Fantastic, isn’t it!? Of course, companies can also support social projects or the foundation directly in those areas that are important to them.”
How do you select only a few of the countless initiatives that are in need of support?
“In recent years, we’ve developed a selection process with the Collibri Foundation, by which we select initiatives that align best with our long-term goals, focus areas, and values. We devote considerable time and energy to the selection process and involve experts with relevant knowledge in the specific areas. We also consider the organisation’s expertise and drive.
They must be absolutely willing to enter into an active partnership based on mutual trust. And that partnership is not non-binding, but entails clear agreements on the goals we want to achieve together. We always prioritise long-term collaboration. This offers partners stability, so that they can focus fully on their project and do not have to worry about finding new funding sources.
We develop active long-term partnerships based on mutual trust.
What kind of support can partners expect?
“We offer them financial support and a tailor-made mentoring programme for the duration of the partnership. We establish an annual budget for every project and invest in the long term: a minimum of three years, with an average of six years. This gives the initiative the time to grow and develop, and for us to measure its evolution. Project managers can also expect concrete support in the form of, for example, special offers on products or free use of our infrastructure. Most importantly, our team is readily and widely available to our partners. They can count on strategic advice from experts and coaching on such topics as impact goals, leadership, and well-being. Finally, we meet twice a year to monitor the progress of the projects and make any necessary adjustments.”
Do you also facilitate connections between the various partners?
“Absolutely. The foundation lets us develop a network with all Belgian non-profits and foreign partner organisations, schools, universities, local authorities, and specialists. Workshops and our annual partner event are ways in which we bring them into contact with each other to share knowledge, experiences, and good practices.
This lets us learn from each other and achieve more together, producing a sort of collective brain that enables us to come up with concrete solutions to complex problems. But apart from that, we have also found that this approach offers considerable potential for cross-pollination between our partners and the company. Just think about how much in-depth knowledge about things like agriculture and health that all our co-workers have…”
Do co-workers also contribute to these efforts?
“We have absolutely been involving them in our efforts for some time. For example, four Indonesian students doing an internship at the company each year stay with our co-workers for a month. In 2022, we launched a mentoring programme in which personnel acted as a personal mentor for young people in Belgian projects. This year, around 30 young people had the opportunity to not only boost their language skills and confidence, but also get inspiration for their studies or career…
A truly enriching experience for both the young people and the mentors. In the future, we will be offering our personnel more opportunities to get involved on a voluntary basis. The foundation acts as a genuine hub for enriching interaction with partner organisations, project participants, customers, suppliers, and colleagues.”
New dynamics, new projects
Colruyt Group Foundation manages the 21 projects already running under the Collibri Foundation banner, aimed at educating and training vulnerable young people, both in and outside Belgium. The foundation added eight new projects in 2024, with a focus on such complementary topics as regenerative agriculture, access to nutritionally balanced food, livelihood security, and community development.
29
active projects include:
Regenacterre supports farmers in their sustainable transition
Since 2016, the organisation has been offering independent consultancy with a twofold purpose: to restore soils and to improve the economic performance of farms. At the same time, they are developing a network of independent experts and working with the agri-food industry to draft more sustainable specifications. This is how Regenacterre is building a future-proof and prosperous agricultural sector.
Rising You offers career prospects to young refugees
Rising You facilitates the integration of refugees through sports, training, and support in finding work. In 2019, Rising You launched the TalentTrainer programme, a mobile technical school specially for young refugees aged 16 to 19 years. The three-month programme helps young people with limited language skills and who are enrolled in reception classes for non-Dutch-speaking newcomers (OKAN) to discover and explore their professional possibilities. This makes it easier for them to earn a diploma and promotes long-term professional integration.
Eight invests in independent cocoa producers
Eight is changing the lives of young cocoa producers in Côte d’Ivoire with direct financial support to rural communities. This approach gives young people autonomy and the chance to decide for themselves what to do with the money. Through that financial security and freedom of choice, Eight promotes a future in which sustainable agriculture and communities thrive together.
NoJavel! cultivates solidarity and resource upgrading
NoJavel! distributes and processes unsold high-quality organic food for people in vulnerable situations, some of whom also receive support through a socio-professional reintegration process. Founded by people who were themselves struggling with food insecurity, the organisation emphasises respect and human dignity. That approach strengthens the social fabric of the community, while promoting healthy and sustainable food.
