‘The idea of domination is finished, what we really need is collaboration,’ says André Hoffmann, president of the MAVA Foundation, the Swiss biodiversity conservation philanthropy which is in the process of winding up operations. He tells Charles Keidan why and explains his views on the limits of philanthropy and the need for businesses that create value, rather than profits.

Charles Keidan: Why is the MAVA Foundation closing its doors this year?

André Hoffmann.Credit: MAVA Foundation

André Hoffmann: There are at least three answers. The first is my father put in a sell-by date, which we executed. Second, my two sisters have different agendas. They want to go and do their own philanthropy. And thirdly, I am not convinced that philanthropy is the answer to the challenges the planet is facing at the moment. Of course, philanthropy is one of the tools available and I will continue to do that in a private capacity, but I don’t think that philanthropy alone can change the issues we are addressing, and that’s why we have decided to go a different way.