Vehbi Koç Foundation Celebrates Half A Century!
“Vehbi Koç Foundation,” established on January 17, 1969 as Turkey’s first private foundation is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. In a statement marking the foundation’s fifty years, Semahat Arsel, Vehbi Koç Foundation Chair, said, “Vehbi Koç worked hard for 16 years, starting in 1951, and pushed for the ‘New Foundations Law’ to be passed and finally succeeded. Since then, numerous business people followed his example to establish ‘Private Foundations’. So many of those foundations have taken important steps for our country. In a way, Vehbi Koç changed the fate of civil society in Turkey by making sure that this law was passed. “Vehbi Koç Foundation has provided countless services in the fields of ‘Education - Culture and Healthcare’ for the development of our country and the society. The total amount of investments that the Foundation made in fifty years reached $1.355 billion. As Turkey’s first and largest private foundation, Vehbi Koç Foundation also collaborated with important European and American foundations. The Foundation won several awards, making us proud. I would like to thank the Koç Family, Koç Group Companies and all our executives for their contributions through this process. We feel content and grateful for fulfilling Vehbi Koç's legacy. We are also excited to inform you that we will be opening our new contemporary art museum on our 50th anniversary.”
“Not only the onus is on us but we also put our heart into everything we do.”
Erdal Yıldırım, General Manager at Vehbi Koç Foundation explained that the foundation always operates by taking charge and never saying “let someone else do it”, “The Vehbi Koç Foundation is an important role model in Turkey, with significant contributions to the development of civil society and philanthropy. Not only the onus is on us but we also put our heart into everything we do. As we leave behind half a century, we will celebrate this important milestone with a series of activities around the theme of ‘philanthropy’. Anyone who allocates their time, labor, expertise or resources for public benefit is a philanthropist. As we tell our own story, we will also try to show that there is always an area where anyone can make a difference by taking voluntary action. To mark our 50th anniversary, we prepared an encyclopedia of the Foundation’s activities as well as the people and institutions that have contributed to the Vehbi Koç Foundation. The encyclopedia will be accessible to everyone on vkv.org.tr as of January 20. We hope that this encyclopedia will be a comprehensive resource for civil society organizations and the public.”
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