Private Family Foundation · Geneva
The Saffran Foundation
A private grant-making foundation in support of Jewish child welfare, education, and cultural continuity — operating quietly across Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Israel.
Private Family Foundation · Geneva
A private grant-making foundation in support of Jewish child welfare, education, and cultural continuity — operating quietly across Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Israel.
About the Foundation
The Saffran Foundation was established in Geneva in 2006 by Daniel Saffran (1952–2025), a Swiss financier whose career carried him across Europe and Africa over six decades.
Its mission is to support Jewish child welfare, education, and cultural preservation in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Israel, and — since 2019 — the Jewish community of Odessa, Ukraine, a city whose Jewish history holds particular significance for the family.
The Foundation does not seek publicity and does not accept unsolicited applications. Its work proceeds quietly, in partnership with organisations whose effectiveness has been known to the family for many years. Grant decisions are made by the trustees alone, on the basis of relationships developed over time.
Since Mr Saffran's death in 2025, the Foundation has been guided by his daughter, Lena Rausing (née Saffran), as chair. His son, Arno Saffran, serves as trustee alongside independent advisors from the legal, academic, and medical spheres.
Registered Geneva, Switzerland · IDE: CH‑660‑0456012‑7
Private non-profit foundation · Grants to known partners only
Founder
Born in Geneva in 1952 to a family with deep roots in Switzerland and the wider European Jewish tradition, Daniel Saffran spent six decades in international finance, with interests reaching across Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. He was, in the estimation of those who knew him well, constitutionally modest about his means and quietly exacting about where he placed them.
His charitable activity dates to the 1970s — private support to hospitals and schools in Geneva and London, given without institutional form or any expectation of acknowledgement. The Foundation, established in 2006, gave that giving a formal shape: a structure that could concentrate resources, build lasting relationships with partner organisations, and outlast him.
Under his direction, the Foundation concentrated on paediatric healthcare, educational scholarships for children at risk, archival programmes at the Jewish Museum of Switzerland, and — in later years — on the Jewish community of Odessa, whose centuries-long history had been ravaged by both the Second World War and the displacement of the post-Soviet era. He regarded Odessa as a particular obligation.
Daniel Saffran died in Geneva in 2025 and is buried at the Cimetière de Plainpalais. The Foundation passed to his children in accordance with its charter. Those duties have passed, as he intended, to his surviving children.
Private wealth carries a responsibility to the communities and histories from which it was formed.
The Foundation's guiding principle
Grants & Programmes
Grants are made to institutions whose work the trustees have followed for many years, and whose effectiveness has been demonstrated to the family's satisfaction without the need for formal application.
The Foundation's work is carried out through long‑term relationships with a small number of institutions. Selected partnerships are described below.
Switzerland — Geneva
Child healthcare services, neonatal equipment, and family support programmes at Geneva's principal university hospital. A relationship sustained since the Foundation's establishment in 2006, the grant supports the paediatric ward's capacity to treat children from low-income families regardless of insurance status.
United Kingdom — London
Educational and social care services for children and families in the Jewish community across London. One of the Foundation's founding grant partnerships, the relationship with Norwood reflects Daniel Saffran's many years of personal connection to Jewish communal life in the United Kingdom and his particular concern for children in care.
Israel — Jerusalem
A residential high school and youth centre serving at‑risk young people from across Israel, combining academic education with agricultural training and therapeutic care. The Foundation has supported HaKirya since 2013, funding dormitory renovation and the expansion of the village's therapeutic programme. Daniel Saffran first visited in 2010; he returned twice more before his death.
Israel — Jerusalem
Israel's national emergency medical service. Since 2014 the Foundation has funded the acquisition of mobile intensive care units and ongoing paramedic training at the Jerusalem‑area station. The family has no public association with the organisation and does not participate in fundraising events.
Israel — Tel Aviv
Educational programming and the digitisation of archival collections documenting the histories of Jewish diaspora communities worldwide. The Foundation's grant has supported the museum's outreach to school-age visitors and the preservation of community records that might otherwise be lost.
Netherlands — The Hague
The Foundation has supported the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague since 2015, with a focus on the conservation and curation of old master drawings. The Saffran Paper Conservation Fellowship, established in 2018, funds a two‑year residency for a junior conservator specialising in 17th‑century Dutch works on paper — a grant that acknowledges the family's Dutch ancestral roots without making any broader claim to connection.
Netherlands — Amsterdam
The Foundation has supported the Joods Historisch Museum since 2016, funding conservation of 18th‑ and 19th‑century Jewish ceremonial objects, many returned to the Netherlands after the Second World War. As with the KABK grant, this support is an acknowledgment of distant Dutch origins — deliberately low‑key.
Netherlands — Amsterdam
The Foundation supports Joods Kind Welzijn in Amsterdam, funding after‑school programmes for children in the city's Jewish community with a particular focus on families carrying intergenerational trauma. This grant reflects the family's distant Dutch ancestry and its quiet recognition of the historical responsibilities that accompany any family fortune with origins in North‑West European trade.
Switzerland — Geneva
Annual Foundation support for Victoria Hall's youth access programme since 2012, subsidising tickets for school groups and public dress rehearsals. The grant makes classical music accessible to Geneva's wider population. The Foundation's support is anonymous; the family attends concerts but does not seek recognition.
Ukraine — Odessa
Welfare, educational, and cultural programmes for the Jewish community of Odessa — one of the oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. The Foundation has supported Or Sameach since 2019, with grants directed toward child welfare services, a communal library, and cultural preservation in a community that has faced sustained disruption since 2022.
Switzerland — Basel
Educational outreach and conservation of archival collections documenting Swiss Jewish heritage and community life. The Foundation has funded digitisation of communal records, school visit programmes, and the museum's work on documenting the histories of Jewish families who passed through Switzerland during the Second World War.
Switzerland — Geneva
Scholarships and learning support for children from low-income families at the Geneva Talmud Torah school. The Foundation has supported the school since 2008, funding the remission of fees for children whose families could not otherwise afford a place, and providing additional resources for children with learning difficulties.
Israel — Jerusalem
Early-childhood intervention programmes for children with physical and developmental disabilities, delivered across Jerusalem and surrounding communities. The Foundation has supported Yad b'Yad since 2009, providing multi-year funding to allow the organisation to plan and staff its programmes with security.
The Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications. Annual grant expenditure is not published, consistent with the practice of Swiss private foundations. All grant relationships are of long standing and are reviewed annually by the trustees.
Trustees & Advisors
Born in Saanen, Lena Rausing studied art history at the Courtauld Institute, London, before settling in the United Kingdom. She has served as a trustee of the Royal Academy of Arts (2002–2004) and as a patron of the Norwood Charity, a relationship that preceded her appointment as Foundation chair. She assumed the chairmanship following her father's death in 2025 and brings to the role two decades of experience in the governance of cultural and charitable institutions. She is married to Simon Rausing; the couple reside in London.
Arno Saffran is Geneva-based and serves as trustee with responsibility for the Foundation's grant relationships in Israel and Ukraine. He is the director of Unamine, a Geneva-based investment firm with interests in responsible natural resources development in Africa. He has been involved in the Foundation's work since its establishment, and assumed formal trustee duties following his father's death in 2025.
Senior partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Zurich. Mr Dreyfus has advised the Foundation since its establishment in 2006 and provides counsel on grant structures, Swiss foundation law compliance, and fiduciary matters. He brings extensive experience in advising European private foundations and family offices on governance and cross-border philanthropic activity.
Dr Hannah Weiss is a lecturer in modern European history at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, where her research focuses on Jewish community life in Switzerland and Eastern Europe across the twentieth century. She advises the Foundation on its cultural preservation and archival grant programmes, bringing scholarly rigour to its heritage work — in particular the Odessa and Jewish Museum of Switzerland partnerships.
History
Daniel Saffran provides private financial support to hospitals and schools in Geneva and London — sustained over many years, personal to him, and given without institutional form or expectation of acknowledgement.
The Saffran Foundation is registered in Geneva as a private non-profit foundation under Swiss law (IDE: CH‑660‑0456012‑7), with a mandate focused on Jewish child welfare, education, and cultural preservation. Grant partnerships are established with Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, the Norwood Charity, and the Talmud Torah School, Geneva.
The Foundation extends its grant-making to Israel for the first time, with a multi-year commitment to Yad b'Yad in Jerusalem and initial support for Beit Hatfutsot, the Museum of the Jewish People, in Tel Aviv.
Annual support begins for Victoria Hall's youth access programme, subsidising concert tickets for school groups and public dress rehearsals. The grant is anonymous and reflects Daniel Saffran's long personal connection to Geneva's cultural life.
Following Daniel Saffran's visits to HaKirya in 2010 and 2012, the Foundation formalises its support for the residential youth village in Jerusalem, funding dormitory renovation and the expansion of therapeutic programmes for at‑risk young people.
The Foundation begins contributing to Magen David Adom, Israel's national emergency medical service, funding mobile intensive care units and paramedic training at the Jerusalem‑area station.
A grant partnership is established with the Jewish Museum of Switzerland, Basel, supporting the digitisation of communal archival records and educational programmes for school-age visitors — work that Daniel Saffran regarded as among the Foundation's most important.
The Foundation extends grant-making to the Netherlands for the first time, supporting conservation and curation of old master drawings at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague — an acknowledgment of the family's Dutch ancestral roots in commodity trading between the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland.
Two further Amsterdam partnerships are established: conservation support for the Jewish Historical Museum's collection of 18th‑ and 19th‑century ceremonial objects, and an after‑school welfare programme for children through Joods Kind Welzijn. Both grants reflect the family's distant Dutch origins and are made quietly.
A named fellowship at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, is established — funding a two‑year residency for a junior conservator specialising in 17th‑century Dutch works on paper. The first fellow is appointed in 2019.
The Foundation makes its first grant to Or Sameach Odessa, extending its work to one of Eastern Europe's oldest and most significant Jewish communities. Daniel Saffran regarded Odessa as a particular obligation, reflecting the family's awareness of the city's Jewish history and the community's needs following decades of post-Soviet displacement.
Mr Saffran passed away in Geneva at the age of 73, survived by his daughter Lena Rausing and his son Arno Saffran. The Foundation passed to his children in accordance with its charter. All grant partnerships continue without interruption.
Lena Rausing (née Saffran) becomes Foundation chair. Arno Saffran serves as trustee with oversight of the Israel and Odessa grant relationships. The mission remains unchanged. The Foundation enters its twentieth year of operation.
Contact & Correspondence
The Saffran Foundation is a private family foundation. All correspondence is handled through its Geneva legal representatives at Dreyfus & Associés.
The Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications and does not engage in public fundraising. Its grant relationships are of long standing and are not open to new applicants.
Registered in Geneva as a private non-profit foundation
Swiss foundation law — Stiftungsrecht, Art. 80 ff. ZGB
IDE: CH‑660‑0456012‑7