{"id":16925,"date":"2021-06-30T15:12:35","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T15:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/?p=16925"},"modified":"2021-06-30T15:12:35","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T15:12:35","slug":"the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/","title":{"rendered":"The Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten"},"content":{"rendered":"

As every year at the closure of annual financial statements, the President of United Fund for Belgium writes the Activity Report of the past fiscal year of our association in his “President’s Letter”. We invite you to discover it in the article below.<\/span><\/p>\n

As mentioned in my letter of the last year, it was at the end of our previous fiscal year that the Covid-19 crisis burst in all its brutal force: United Fund for Belgium was forced to cancel its biennial Gala Dinner, to close down its office and the interaction with the Associations we supported came to a nearly total standstill. During this entire fiscal year 2020\/2021, we have remained totally virtual when it comes to our daily operations, our Board Meetings and even our Annual General Assembly in June last year. <\/em><\/p>\n

We launched a special Covid-19 Campaign supporting our Associations in their effort to adapt to the new normal and this campaign turned out to be a financial success: we raised 42 k\u20ac in a very short period, supporting 24 special Covid projects. On the contrary, our autumn activities were limited to our Golf Tournament and a number of digital events, which turned out to be well attended but financially very poor. Needless to say that we continue learning on a daily basis on how to navigate this new normal. I can now confirm to you that as an organization, we have withstood this brutal storm, even more, we have delivered a very good year as you will see from the numbers below. Our donors, our Board and our Executive Team have performed superbly in these very, very difficult circumstances. Last year I quoted Churchill who said: \u201cDifficulties mastered are opportunities won\u201d and I believe we have never been as close as we can to our beneficiary organizations and donors and have laid the foundation for even more opportunities.<\/em><\/p>\n

During the Campaign 2020\/2021, United Fund for Belgium has financed projects<\/strong><\/span> for <\/em>k\u20ac 731, distributing that amount to 114 different charity projects from associations across the whole country, including 24 projects supported as part of the \u201ccoronavirus\u201d campaign. This is substantially higher than last year (k\u20ac 482) and more importantly, the second highest level of the last five years.<\/em><\/p>\n

As importantly, we have continued to diversify our sources of funding. Corporate donations<\/strong><\/span> remain of course the single largest component and increased substantially this year (K\u20ac 598 vs K\u20ac 489 in 2019-2020), which is very good news.\u00a0 They were reinforced by very successful in house-campaigns<\/strong><\/span> at some of our donors (K\u20ac 50 vs <\/em>K\u20ac 31) and individual gifts<\/strong><\/span> (K\u20ac 12 vs K\u20ac 18), although the latter were a little weaker.<\/em><\/p>\n

Also, due to the Covid-19 situation, corporate donors were not able to organize any \u201cvoluntary days<\/strong><\/span>\u201d (K\u20ac0 vs K\u20ac8) but our special Corona Campaign managed to raise 42 k\u20ac in a very short 1-month period.<\/em><\/p>\n

Covid-19 hit us particularly hard in the profits from sales & fundraising events<\/strong><\/span>: they fell from K\u20ac 146 to K\u20ac 56 this year. The merchandise sales activities, such as the Dandoy Speculoos at St Nicolas, the Galler chocolate Easter-eggs and the Xmas cards, were still successful (K\u20ac 40 vs k\u20ac 47) but when it comes to events, the situation was critical (k \u20ac 15 <\/em>vs k\u20ac 90).<\/em><\/p>\n

Fortunately, donations to help cover operational costs<\/strong><\/span> and\/or build up the Martin Kallen Fund remained nearly stable (k\u20ac 86 vs k\u20ac 89 last year).<\/em><\/p>\n

As a result of all this, total contributions<\/strong><\/span> reached k\u20ac 845 this year (vs k\u20ac 772 in 2019-20) a solid 9.5 % increase vs last year which we can consider as a success in these very difficult Covid-19 conditions.<\/em><\/p>\n

As mentioned before, this year, donations collected<\/strong><\/span> via the corporate & individual fundraising campaign, will be distributed to 114 different charity projects across the whole country.<\/em><\/p>\n

We have continued our efforts to professionalize and digitalize our operations. Also, we have continued to strengthen our team with the arrival of Ms. Yana Antalovtsi, Marketing & Communication Coordinator.<\/em><\/p>\n

We have started this new fiscal year with a different mindset: we hope that after the summer, we will be able to hold some serious \u201clive\u201d activities given the improvement in the Covid-19 situation. This fiscal year will only be 9 months long as the Board has decided to adjust our fiscal year with the Calendar year and it will thus end on 31\/12\/2021.<\/em><\/p>\n

The team is determined to be closer than ever to our current communities so that together we can continue supporting social integration in Belgium, a need that is better understood by us all than ever before after this painful period in our history as human societies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Next year 2022 will be an exceptional year as we will celebrate our 50-year existence. The unique success that United Fund for Belgium has achieved over those 50 years is, however, owed mainly to our donors<\/strong><\/span> and to the many volunteers<\/strong><\/span> who help and have helped our cause (including the members of the Board Committees and my colleagues in the Board of Directors).\u00a0 As President, I already want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of them and invite all of you to join us in these celebrations.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dirk Luyten<\/p>\n

President<\/p>\n

United Fund for Belgium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As every year at the closure of annual financial statements, the President of United Fund for Belgium writes the Activity Report of the past fiscal year of our association in his “President’s Letter”. We invite you to discover it in the article below. As mentioned in my letter of the last year, it was at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten - UFB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten - UFB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As every year at the closure of annual financial statements, the President of United Fund for Belgium writes the Activity Report of the past fiscal year of our association in his “President’s Letter”. We invite you to discover it in the article below. As mentioned in my letter of the last year, it was at […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UFB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-30T15:12:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ufb.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ufb-equipe-dirk-luyten-president.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ufb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ufb\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ufb\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/69c8f65d1c3c0934a18dad759f616542\"},\"headline\":\"The Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-30T15:12:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":844,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/11\\\/ufb-equipe-dirk-luyten-president.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten - UFB\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/11\\\/ufb-equipe-dirk-luyten-president.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-30T15:12:35+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/11\\\/ufb-equipe-dirk-luyten-president.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/11\\\/ufb-equipe-dirk-luyten-president.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":750},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/30\\\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Accueil\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"United Fund for Belgium\",\"description\":\"Combattons l\u2019exclusion pour plus d\u2019int\u00e9gration sociale\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"UFB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"United Fund for Belgium\",\"alternateName\":\"UFB\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Logo-UFB-RS.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Logo-UFB-RS.png\",\"width\":200,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"United Fund for Belgium\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ufb.be\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/69c8f65d1c3c0934a18dad759f616542\",\"name\":\"ufb\",\"description\":\"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/ufb.wpengine.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten - UFB","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten - UFB","og_description":"As every year at the closure of annual financial statements, the President of United Fund for Belgium writes the Activity Report of the past fiscal year of our association in his “President’s Letter”. We invite you to discover it in the article below. As mentioned in my letter of the last year, it was at […]","og_url":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/","og_site_name":"UFB","article_published_time":"2021-06-30T15:12:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":750,"url":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ufb-equipe-dirk-luyten-president.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ufb","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ufb","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/"},"author":{"name":"ufb","@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/69c8f65d1c3c0934a18dad759f616542"},"headline":"The Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten","datePublished":"2021-06-30T15:12:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/"},"wordCount":844,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ufb-equipe-dirk-luyten-president.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/","url":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/","name":"The Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten - UFB","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ufb-equipe-dirk-luyten-president.jpg","datePublished":"2021-06-30T15:12:35+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ufb-equipe-dirk-luyten-president.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ufb-equipe-dirk-luyten-president.jpg","width":1000,"height":750},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/2021\/06\/30\/the-letter-from-the-president-dirk-luyten\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Accueil","item":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Letter from the President, Dirk Luyten"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/","name":"United Fund for Belgium","description":"Combattons l\u2019exclusion pour plus d\u2019int\u00e9gration sociale","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/#organization"},"alternateName":"UFB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/#organization","name":"United Fund for Belgium","alternateName":"UFB","url":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Logo-UFB-RS.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Logo-UFB-RS.png","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"United Fund for Belgium"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/69c8f65d1c3c0934a18dad759f616542","name":"ufb","description":"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit","sameAs":["http:\/\/ufb.wpengine.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufb.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}