Roger Federer on His Foundation
Moderator: Oliver Adler, Global Economics & Real Estate Research
What is your role in the foundation given that your time is so limited? What do you do? What don’t you do?
The annual meetings are key. We come together then as a family – because my parents are also very involved, as is my manager Tony Godsick, and Janine Händel, the managing director of the foundation. We have a great team. We always get together to debate which projects we should support and look at how the projects we’re already supporting are doing. These are important meetings, as they set the tone as well as the direction we want to go. It’s very important to have baseline studies so you can see the point at which the project started and then look at where is it now. To my mind, it’s no good just walking away from a project after a few years and saying, "Okay, you’re on your own now." We want to help people in these countries create a better future for themselves. I also try to do field visits as much as I can. Obviously, becoming world number one made it difficult for me to do as much as I’d like. I did one trip to South Africa in 2005, and another this year to Ethiopia. I’ll probably do more trips in the future, because I feel the investment of my time is worthwhile too. It’s something I owe to myself, to my foundation and to the people around me who expect to see pictures of me in those places – but unfortunately time is just so limited when you’re at the top of the professional game. I also spend time looking at different ways to generate funds for the foundation, because ultimately that means we’ll have more money to give to the kids who need it more than we do.
Can you explain a bit more about how the foundation is financed? Obviously you provide funds yourself. Do others provide funds? How does it work?
Yes, the foundation is lucky enough to enjoy support from private donors. As well as obviously being very grateful to them, I also feel very honored by their confidence that my foundation will put their funds to good use. But I try not to be dependent on just private donors. I provide funds myself both directly and indirectly, through merchandising, sponsorship, and so forth. That’s how it’s worked for the last couple of years. Now, with tomorrow’s Match for Africa, we are finding new ways of financing the Roger Federer Foundation.
We enjoyed watching that film about your visit to Ethiopia. Could you tell us a little bit more about your experiences there?
The feeling you get from a field visit is quite extraordinary. There’s nothing quite like going out there and meeting the people, feeling the atmosphere, and seeing where your money actually went. For me that’s a great source of motivation. Seeing the kids singing, seeing the schools that have been built, seeing a new fountain that is now operational so people can take water home to their families. It’s the little things like this that count, as well as being able to speak to the parents and the teachers, trying to motivate them and maybe bringing a bit of sport into their everyday lives. It’s so different when you’re actually out there to traveling around the world or sitting at home. So that’s a very important part of it for me, as well as a huge motivation to do much more in the future, of course.
How do the kids in Ethiopia relate to tennis?
Well, I don’t know if all of them knew who I really was, to be quite honest. That said, there were clearly people who recognized me while I was traveling in the bus from the airport to the project. I was actually quite taken aback, because I didn’t really expect it to happen – I wasn’t there with a tennis racquet or my headband looking like the sportsman Roger Federer. That’s when the meaning of fame hits you in a positive way – what a great inspiration and role model you have a chance to be. And that can be enjoyable: It’s very important for me to talk with the kids themselves, play a bit of sport with them, and geneally interact with them. For example, one of the girls asked me, "How old are you?". To which I responded with the question "What do you think?", whereupon she said, "I think you’re forty-five." (laughter) She thought it was very hard to judge how old white people are. All I could think of saying was "Well, thankfully I’m not forty-five quite yet. But it won’t be long now…".
Children are obviously very important to you. You’re renowned for taking the time to thank ball boys and ball girls after big matches, and so on. Can you say a bit more about kids and why you focus so much on them?
Obviously everyone goes through that junior stage. And I used to be a ball boy myself at the tournament in Basel. Being there on the court with the big people, with the pros, was a huge inspiration. And once you get to go and become a leading professional yourself, you start doing kids clinics yourself, and this interaction gives you a wonderful feeling. Now of course I have kids of my own, which adds a whole new dimension. It’s a wonderful feeling – so rewarding. Such hard work! But I love every single day I spend with my twin daughters. They’re always running around in different directions now. But to get back to the point, the desire to help kids out in some shape or form was something I really hoped to be able to do at some stage. That’s why I decided to focus my philanthropic activity on education, because education is not something you can take away from someone.
And what about the relationship between education and sports? Do you think there’s a danger that kids will focus too much on sport instead of learning? Or is it a good fit?
I’ve always taken the view that sport is a great tool for friendship, for learning how to cope with winning and losing. There’s no doubting that sport has worked wonders for me, of course. In Switzerland today, I get the feeling sport is sometimes still looked upon more as a hobby, even though we admire athletes once they make it to the big stage. But early on in their school years, it’s hard for teachers or for schools to really let go of their students, to give them free rein to become professionals. On the other hand, I was extremely lucky when I was still in school in Basel. I had some great teachers who really had an understanding of I was trying to achieve. Even though sometimes I was laughed at and had to hear things like "Yeah, OK. You might be good, but equally you might not be good enough." My parents always believed education was vitally important, and when I quit school at sixteen years old they made it clear that they expected me to go back to school if I didn’t make the grade on the tennis court within a few years. To which my response was simple: "Of course I’ll go back to school. That’s only logical." And I genuinely do think education is crucial. But perhaps we could be just a touch more open to sport here in Switzerland at times. Anyway, things did work out for me fortunately, and very rapidly. I became world number one in the juniors and went on to become the player I am today. In Africa, I think you need a rather different perspective. To my way of thinking, in Africa and in other places around the world sport can be used much more as a way of bringing people together to have fun, to have a better lifestyle, rather than it being a question of whether one can make it as a professional or not. So I think sport has a very different meaning in a country like Malawi, for instance, than it does here in Switzerland.
You have mentioned Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, and the way they inspired you. How did they or others help you set up your foundation?
I don’t mean they helped in a practical way. But they inspired me, and who knows, maybe that’s something more important. Indeed, that’s one thing I’m also trying to do in my own way – to inspire others. I heard just recently that I inspired Rafa Nadal, my main rival, to start his own foundation. Which brings us to one of the main reasons why I’m doing charitable work – to inspire others because of who I am, because of my reputation. My fame actually counts for something insofar as I can leverage it for a worthwhile purpose. It’s a wonderful feeling being able to inspire others. So obviously Andre had that impact on me. And when I meet interesting celebrities nowadays I always try to turn the conversation to the charity sphere. What could we improve? What do they think? What is their approach? Just as in the world of tennis I still need to be inspired and helped by others to fulfil my potential as a player, I guess the same is true in the world of philanthropy – I need to become a better philanthropist.
rimo, one of our partner organizations in Switzerland, end of October this year. He participated in a group meeting with parents and as you can see on the title image of this letter he was actively involved in play and crafts with the kids. It was fun to watch other fathers remaining in the background at first, leaving the care for their children to the mothers. Seeing the handicrafting superstar they gradually reconsidered their roles and ventured into the world of child’s play too. Roger quite simply motivates further than by just being a world-class athlete. If you would like to learn more about a
