Over the last year, in addition to the many local associations supported by its regional banks, branches and subsidiaries, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale strengthened its community engagement through the action of its Foundation, created to help achieve a fairer and more sustainable world.

This Foundation focuses on two areas of action, the environment and the regions, and its two priorities during its first year of operation were to: help to promote equal opportunity among young people everywhere who were profoundly affected by the health crisis and encourage action by all in favor of the environment.

The outcome of its first year of engagement is a total of €6,500,000 collected for around fifty projects, helping 25,000 beneficiaries, of which 10,000 young people.
Young people were particularly impacted by the health crisis, which is why they are a central concern of the Foundation.

Created in the early stages of the Covid-19 crisis, the Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale Foundation has put in place a comprehensive platform of supports to meet different needs of young people: equal opportunity, housing assistance, integration through employment, study grants, access to culture, sponsorship, etc. “We focused initially on young people, from secondary school students to young workers, because they were most impacted by the health crisis”, highlights Christophe Salmon, General Director of the Foundation.

€1,400,000: this is the total amount allocated to the Foundation’s program for young people. One notable example of its work is that carried out with “Fratries”, an inclusive city center house-share project aimed at young workers and young people with a mental or cognitive disability. The first of these opened in Nantes in May 2022. Alongside the Foundation, all Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale entities were mobilized around the project: “Whether it was financial aid, the donation of vehicles, free home insurance or professional immersion days for young people with a disability, every one of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale's regional banks, branches and entities contributed their know-how to help the associations meet their concrete needs” points out Daniel Baal, Vice Chairman of the Foundation.

More recently, we supported “L dans la ville”, an association that provides support with integration through sport for young women from priority urban districts. At the initiative of the “Sport dans la ville” association, the Foundation seeks to break down stereotypes and open up opportunities for more than 2,000 girls. Our support will help to roll out this program to 14 new sports centers.

Raising awareness around the environment to encourage action

In the belief that it is vital that everyone takes action if we are to effectively combat climate change, the Foundation organized two major events involving more than 3,500 of the group's elected representatives and employees. More than 1,000 people participated in World Clean up Day, picking up waste and raising awareness around pollution.

The Foundation also supports initiatives of general interest that help to combat global warming and its impacts, particularly its health impacts. As part of the Group’s long-standing support for this cause, the Foundation provided funding to Professor Caroline Robert's team at the Gustave Roussy Institute for research into the treatment of melanoma.

To support efforts to preserve biodiversity, the Foundation supported Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité (FRB) which is conducting scientific research into the adaptation of business processes. This research aims to demonstrate within three years the level of dependency of humans and the economy on biodiversity, and to assess the loss of ecosystemic services caused by the erosion of biodiversity.

Activities in 2022

In 2022, the Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale Foundation aims to strengthen the links it has established with the structures it is already supporting through funding and volunteering.

Nicolas Théry, Chairman of the Foundation, says: “The Foundation contributes to projects that are useful, and in which we strongly believe. Our objective over the coming years is to continue this work with the same ambitions and perspective: support large projects with an impact throughout the regions, but also show innovation by promoting new initiatives and supporting their development. This ability to take risks must be continued!“.

New strategic objectives are also in sight for the year ahead, such as helping to combat job insecurity and exclusion. In this regard, the Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale Foundation will provide aid to the Toit à Moi association in upscaling its activities nationwide with the goal of providing housing for people who are homeless and facilitating related social integration projects. This is aligned with the practical support that CIC Ouest in the Loire-Atlantique region has been providing to the association for several years.