The primary mission of our Foundation established by Sabancı brothers in 1974 was to give back to society, based on Hacı Ömer Sabancı’s philosophy of “Sharing what we have obtained from this land with its people”. We have built institutions all around Turkey such as schools, teachers’ centers, dormitories and Sabancı University. We have supported equal opportunity by offering grants and scholarships, and encouraged success by awarding prizes. We have contributed to our country’s culture and arts by hosting or supporting events.

Since 2007, we have restructured our Foundation and incorporated a new approach to our mission: To be part of the solution to social problems. As this new approach required a new mode of operation, we have launched activities as part of what we call strategic philanthropy. We have identified “women”, “youth”, and “persons with disabilities” as our focus areas and carried developed projects in cooperation with numerous non-governmental organizations, or provided grants for their projects.

As the next step in our roadmap, we define our approach as “Making Lasting Impact”. We are developing our activities to make a greater impact. We are structuring our grant programs in a way that allows future expansions. As we take advantage of the power of arts to raise awareness, we also go beyond awareness and make a lasting impact through our projects.

Our Foundation, which has incorporated the climate emergency into its areas of focus and continued to review all its activities through a climate lens, also provided its first grant support in the field of climate change in Turkey in 2022, and became the first Turkey-based institution in to sign the "International Philanthropy Commitment for Climate Change."