Project funding

For your project to meet our funding criteria, it has to be a non-profit initiative, designed to strengthen health promotion or prevention in Switzerland and have a nationwide reach.

 Criteria

Does your project meet our funding criteria? If so, contact us by email – ideally with information on your organisation and a description of your project, including the objectives, budget and timeline. The more specific and structured your application, the faster we can review it. You can also send us a non-binding preliminary inquiry.

Submit application

Once you’ve been in touch, we will review your application and get back to you. If your project is eligible for funding, we will discuss any outstanding questions in person and work together to determine the next steps.

If the board of trustees approves your application, we will enter into a funding agreement with you. Throughout the funding period, we will support your project as a partner. Regular communication and shared learning are particularly important to us.

More and more young people are struggling with mental health issues. The Sanitas foundation therefore supports non-profit projects that strengthen the mental resilience of adolescents and young adults in Switzerland. Our objective is to help young people overcome challenges during transitional periods, such as moving from school into the working world or from living at home to independent living. We focus on striking a balance between digital and analogue lifestyles, fostering a healthy body image and taking holistic approaches.

We’re living longer and longer – but are we staying healthy for longer, too? Mobility is often required to participate in social life and benefit both physically and mentally. That’s why our goal is to enhance the mobility and independence of older people with fragile health. We support projects that promote physical and mental well-being, foster social inclusion and improve lifestyle factors for disadvantaged older adults.

GORILLA Schweiz encourages young people to embrace a healthy, active and sustainable lifestyle. Through school workshops and via digital channels, freestyle athletes bring exercise, nutrition and sustainability to life. With support from the Sanitas foundation, GORILLA BALANCE is a new initiative promoting young people’s mental health. It offers practical guidance to help young people strengthen their emotional well-being – and makes mental health a natural part of a healthy lifestyle.

GORILLA Schweiz

Stress and feelings of overwhelm are increasing among pupils, placing greater demands on teachers too. Mindfulness can improve self-regulation, strengthen relationships and create a more positive classroom environment. MoMento Swiss offers mindfulness-based training for teachers, supporting mental health and creating a school day that encourages learning and personal development. The Sanitas foundation is helping MoMento expand its services from German-speaking Switzerland into French-speaking Switzerland.

MoMento Swiss

Digital media have a major impact on young people. They can offer valuable support, but they can also become a burden.In innovative workshops, digitalhealthminds combines physical activity with exercises that encourage a healthy approach to the digital world. Young people learn through play to reflect on their habits and achieve a healthier balance in their use of digital media. The Sanitas foundation is funding an evaluation of the programme, laying the groundwork for expanding the services available.

digitalhealthminds

Children and young people today are growing up with digital media – but learning to use it healthily and responsibly takes guidance. That’s why Cevi Schweiz offers a national prevention day, a campaign and training courses focused on digital health. The Sanitas Foundation supports this prevention project to help children and young people navigate the digital world safely and confidently. Cevi is Switzerland’s third-largest youth organisation. Through training, continuing education and recreational programmes, it provides a community setting in which young people can develop and strengthen their personalities.

Cevi Switzerland    

Kinderseele Schweiz runs a wide-ranging support programme for families with a parent experiencing mental health challenges. This helps prevent mental health disorders in children and adolescents who grow up in affected families. The online platform, which offers information, anonymous online advice and a network of contact centres, is already well established in German-speaking Switzerland. Now it is set to be expanded to cover all of Switzerland. The Sanitas foundation is supporting this expansion so that more families can receive the support they need in challenging situations.

Kinderseele Schweiz

For over 25 years, the organisation Lilli has been providing information and support on all aspects of sexual health. This free and anonymous online advice service and the extensive collection of fact-checked information help young people form self-determined and respectful relationships. In this way, Lilli makes an important contribution to violence prevention and sexual health. The Sanitas foundation is supporting Lilli in the development of an AI-powered search function so that young people seeking advice can find even more targeted answers to their questions.

Lilli

Connecting with nature can support well-being and contribute to everyday health. Forest bathing is a simple and accessible practice to help you find inner peace and recharge your batteries. Kashapona offers a growing collection of audio guides that make forest bathing (shinrin-yoku) easy to access and grounded in scientific evidence. This promotes mindfulness, presence and recovery – without the need for therapy. The offer is aimed at a wide audience, especially young people and older adults. Kashapona is currently available in French. The Sanitas foundation is helping to fund the translation into German and English, so that even more people in Switzerland can benefit.

 Kashapona

Young people in Switzerland are online up to three hours a day. This offers opportunities, but also poses risks such as cyberbullying, disinformation and data misuse. To promote digital resilience, a team from the University of Zurich, Zurich University of Applied Sciences and Graubünden University of Applied Sciences is developing Cyber Safari. Inspired by the Foxtrail concept, this project combines digital learning with physical activity. In an interactive treasure hunt, young people solve fun challenges designed to strengthen their media skills. The Sanitas foundation is supporting the technical implementation of the app to prepare young people for the challenges of the digital world.

Cyber Safari project website

Obesity is a serious societal challenge. Although state-of-the-art weight loss injections (GLP-1 receptor agonists) provide a new method for weight loss, the weight usually returns once the injections stop. Taking emotional eating behaviour into account could help to encourage sustainable behavioural changes. The Bern University of Applied Sciences has therefore launched a pilot study to test whether mindfulness-based group therapy changes eating behaviour and improves weight control in the long term. The Sanitas foundation supports this new approach.

Bern University of Applied Sciences (Nutrition and Dietetics)

One in five people in Switzerland suffer from a pollen allergy. In spring, pollen from shrubs and trees causes streaming eyes and sneezing, while in summer it’s mainly grass pollen. The symptoms of a pollen allergy can be severe, which is why the aha! Swiss Allergy Centre provides information about the pollen count on its website pollenundallergie.ch and the Pollen News app. To improve therapy management, pollen count information will in future be calculated for the whole of Switzerland by MeteoSwiss and made available via the app and the website of aha! Swiss Allergy Centre. The app service also includes a symptom diary.

pollenundallergie.ch and the free Pollen News app