The Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for Human Progress (FPH) is an independent Swiss grantmaking foundation based in Lausanne, officially established in 1982. Its offices are located on Avenue Dickens in the city center. The foundation was founded with the patrimony of Charles Léopold Mayer, a Franco-Irish chemical engineer and humanist who bequeathed his entire fortune to support scientific and social progress.
FPH operates with a stable annual budget of approximately 10 to 11 million Swiss francs, drawn from the returns on a patrimony valued at 400 million CHF in 2017. The foundation is overseen by the supervisory authority of the canton of Vaud and governed by a council of 7 to 11 members, supported by a permanent staff of around fifteen.
Its core activities center around funding civil society organizations and networks working towards social and ecological transitions, responsible governance, and ethical approaches to development. Rather than focusing on one-off projects, FPH seeks to support long-term, systemic change through the development of networks, production of rigorous analysis, and advocacy efforts.
Recent examples of FPH-supported projects include grants for whistleblower protection legislation in France, funding for participatory decision-making in European philanthropy, and backing research on corporate accountability and value chains. The foundation’s support has been instrumental in fostering collaborative initiatives such as the Rethinking Value Chains collective and participatory funds like FundAction. FPH consistently prioritizes projects with a clear strategy, evidence basis, and potential for broader societal impact.