The Nyenrode Fund Foundation (SNF) was established in its current form and mission in 2004. In the years before, the fund had a dormant existence after having emerged from the Nijenrode Study Fund. This fund provided soft loans and gifts to students to pay for their studies. From the start in 1946 by the business community, Nyenrode (then called NOIB) has been a private course that does not receive any government subsidy. Before 2004, the Fund fulfilled the traditional role of an endowment fund based on the Anglo-Saxon example. A tribal capital, mainly due to a number of large donations from US alumni and a large donation from Sam Johnson and S.C. Johnson Wax, with which the return could provide financial support through scholarships to talented students.
The new President of Nyenrode at the time, Herman Bruggink, initiated the current Nyenrode Fund Foundation in 2004, in which, in addition to an endowment, the fund could also be used as a fundraising platform for many other projects. The primary project became a large package of scholarships from 2006, funded by companies, alumni and alumni companies. Between 2006 and 2010, more than 200 grants were awarded to students who successfully participated in an intensive international selection procedure.
In 2005 the Postma Chair was merged into SNF. The Postma Chair Foundation, founded in 1996, aimed to raise funds from alumni for the Postma Chair. A chair named after Dr. E.B.J. Postma, the striking (second) Rector of Nyenrode (1950 - 1980).
With the financial crisis, the interest of companies in providing scholarships declined significantly from 2009 onwards. This, added to the fact that the government had meanwhile taken measures to make it impossible to provide a second scholarship as a loan, SNF was able to find an alternative in a new concept of revolving scholarships. Groups of alumni (organized in volumes, disputes and circles) as well as individual alumni bring together grants in order to invest again in educational terms in future and explicitly selected students. After graduation, these students are approached to make the same possible for the next generation of students through donations.
It is worth mentioning that, for example, the alumni in America have united themselves under tax regulations in a separate foundation, American Friends of Nyenrode University (AFNU), which periodically makes donations to the Nyenrode Fund Foundation for this purpose.
In addition to providing scholarships for talents, the Nyenrode Fund Foundation is committed to financing facilities for students and the university, chairs and the preservation of the estate and the associated heritage. In short: Nyenrode Fund Foundation invests in the past, present and future of Nyenrode Business University.
