This is how the Voys Social Return Foundation is taking shape

In 2024, Voys set up the Voys Social Return Foundation. Becoming steward-owned meant our profit will be fully reinvested into society. The foundation is how this happens: investing in initiatives working on sustainable food systems, the energy transition, and reversing climate change. 

We haven’t talked much about how the foundation actually works yet. Partly because we’re still figuring that out. Time to change that. Here’s what we have has been working on.

The goals we set are large: we want to see an end to hunger, speed up the energy transition, and reverse climate change toward pre-industrial levels. Saying that is easy. Knowing where a donation actually helps is harder.

We used a framework called theory of change to guide and make sense of our thinking. We start from the end goal and work backward, asking: what has to change for that goal to be possible, and what role can an investment realistically play? Granted, it is slower than picking a cause and transferring the money. But it forces us to be specific about what our money is actually for, and understand how the intervention we’re making is meaningful.

We’re still working through this, sector by sector. It is not finished yet, and it probably won’t be for a while.

A theory of change is only as good as what you actually know about the problem. Next to the framework, we’ve spent time getting out into the field and the network we want to invest in.

We visited Wageningen University and met with people from the Wageningen University Fund to understand where research on sustainable food systems is heading and what gaps still exist. We also visited Schevichoven, a farm built around regenerative, sustainable, and local food production, to see what that actually looks like outside a strategy document.

We’ve also been talking to venture firms already active in this space in the Netherlands. This helps us understand where the pain points are, what the Netherlands is genuinely strong at, and where capital is still scarce.

Our first donation went to the Donor Impact Invest Fund, and through that, we’re now part of its network too. That gives us a closer look at how an established impact fund operates, before we’ve fully worked out how we want to operate ourselves.

You might expect us to wait until the strategy is locked before spending a euro. Well, we didn’t. While the framework keeps developing, the foundation has already supported impact initiatives.

Building the thinking and making real commitments at the same time doesn’t have to be contradicting. Rather, it’s how we learn what good due diligence actually requires, what questions we forgot to ask, and where our own logic is too neat on paper. A spreadsheet model only gets you so far. The rest comes from doing it.

This is also why the foundation focuses on early-stage support: capital and expertise for startups and ideas working on systemic change within our three domains. At that stage, founders often don’t have a polished impact plan yet either. Sometimes a letter of intent is the most honest document either party can sign.

Voys started small too, with only our own belief in the idea. That’s part of why the foundation focuses on early-stage initiatives in the Dutch startup ecosystem rather than established players.

We look at whether impact is genuinely central to what someone is building, not whether it has the best projected financial return. Sometimes that’s reinforced through a steward ownership structure of their own, sometimes not. What matters more is whether the mission is the reason the company exists, not something added on top of it.

As a Voys customer, you’re part of the change we’re aiming to create. Profit flows into the company’s mission, and the foundation is one of the places it ends up. Nothing extra is required from you for that to be true.

We’ll keep sharing how this develops, including the parts that are still messy. 

If you or someone you know is building something where sustainable food systems, the energy transition, or climate reversal is the actual point, not a layer added afterward, the foundation wants to hear about it. Even if the plan isn’t fully formed.

Email us at socialreturn@voys.nl.

If you’re interested in our steward ownership journey, you can read why Voys became steward-owned and how steward ownership shapes the company. 

You can also find more information about the focus areas and goals of the Voys Social Return Foundation.