Our organization
The Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah funds various kinds of projects consistent with its goals.
This private foundation with public utility status has a duty to ensure that its endowment is well used and pledges to assess and choose the projects it supports with intellectual rigor and fairness.
The Foundation has set up the necessary tools for meticulous, transparent management.
The Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah is a member of the French Foundation Center.
How the Foundation operates
The Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah is administered by a 25-member Board of Trustees divided into three sections: government representatives, representatives of Jewish institutions and qualified figures.
Every three years, the Board of Trustees elects an Executive Board, which reviews and deliberates on all the matters submitted to the Board and makes decisions within its scope of competence.
The Board of Trustees is assisted in its decision-making by six thematic committees, which can put forward proposals on the projects submitted and advise on the Foundation’s orientations.
A judge from the Court of Auditors chairs the financial committee, which safeguards the endowment’s value and the efficient use of its revenues. It also gives its opinion on the funding of projects with particularly large budgets.
The nearly 100 people who make up those bodies participate in the Foundation’s governance without compensation.
The Directorate General and a permanent staff of 15 salaried professionals implement the Executive Board and the Board of Trustees’ decisions.
Many independent experts also participate in the Foundation’s work by sharing their technical or scientific skills with the commissions.
Project review
The projects presented to the Foundation are reviewed by project managers and submitted for independent appraisal before being assessed by one of the six thematic committees.
Then, the committees’ recommendations are submitted to the Executive Board and, in some cases, the Board of Trustees, which, with help from the financial committee, if necessary, decides which projects to support and the amount of funding they will receive.
The presidency
The president is elected by the Board of Trustees.
President
David de Rothschild
Chairman of Rothschild & Cie