Proximus

In October 2003, the Proximus Foundation, which was set up by Proximus in December 2002, invited non-profit social-sector associations within Belgium to submit projects for consideration. The goal? To contribute financial and human resources to these associations for projects to be deployed in 2004. Proximus employees were also asked to submit projects in conjunction with non-profit associations.

On 9 January 2004, the Jury Award was presented by the Proximus Foundation's independent jury. This was chaired by Baudouin Michiels, President of the Fonds Prince Albert, and was made up of leading figures from Belgian society such as Ingrid Berghmans, the ex judo champion, Dominique Monami, the former Belgian women's tennis champion, and Marlène de Wouters, a leading presenter on Flemish TV channels.

For the Employee Award, Proximus staff were then given an opportunity to vote via the company's intranet between 17 January and 14 February.

Proximus gives its customers a say. How does it work?

It is now the turn of Proximus customers to select the four finalist projects to receive funding from the Proximus Foundation in 2004. The Proximus Foundation jury has already picked out 10 projects for customers to choose from. Customers can vote for the four winners by sending an SMS free of charge to 2728 from the beginning of March until 10 April.

Customers can only vote once. For a vote to be valid, the SMS sent to 2728 must only contain a number from one to ten corresponding to the project that the customer would like to see selected. They will then be sent a free SMS confirming that their vote has been received.

The ten initiatives will be presented in a document enclosed with the March bill and on the Proximus Foundation website, (www.proximusfoundation.be). The four projects picked by Proximus customers will be allocated a total of €100,000. The results of the Employee, Jury and Customer votes will be published at the beginning of May. A total of some forty projects will receive funding from the Proximus Foundation in 2004.

The Proximus Foundation at a glance

The Proximus Foundation was set up in December 2002 as a public service foundation. Its aim is to provide assistance to persons residing in Belgium who are disadvantaged by their social exclusion, their age or a disability and to help them to integrate into society. The Proximus Foundation also seeks to promote volunteer work among its employees. To these ends, Proximus allocated an annual budget of €500,000 to the Proximus Foundation in 2003 and 2004.

The Proximus Foundation operates by calling for projects to be submitted. In October each year, non-profit associations recognized by the Ministry of Finance that are involved in social welfare and/or with the disabled are asked to submit projects to the Proximus Foundation jury. Proximus employees who want to work with an association can also submit projects.

The Proximus Foundation makes three awards: the Proximus Employee Award (max. €50,000); the Jury Award (max. €350,000); the Customer Award (max. €100,000). In 2003, 35 projects received funding from the Proximus Foundation.

The Proximus Foundation is the outcome of much thought within the company, which has long supported initiatives in the social welfare, health and environment sectors (special SMS rates for the deaf and hard of hearing; support for a range of initiatives such as the Red Cross Duck Race in Flanders and the Cedric Foundation; Child Focus; the PC for Schools project whereby Proximus provides reconditioned computers and printers from its IT park to schools that request them).

For all additional information:

Proximus Foundation Press Office
Tel. : + 32 2 545 66 03
e-mail : press@proximusfoundation.be