CEO Update: Q2, 2025

Operational highlights for Q2

Your quarterly inside track on the work of the World Scout Foundation from CEO, Mark Knippenberg.

77th BPF Event Registration live

Registration is open for the 77th BP Fellowship Event! Join Baden-Powell Fellows from across the world along with our Honorary Chairman, HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Board Members and distinguished guests, 23–26 October 2025, in vibrant Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!  

We can’t wait to welcome you for a discovery and celebration of Malaysian Scouting and Scouting’s global impact, of BP Fellows and your incredible solidarity and friendship, plus magnificent architecture, diverse cuisine and culture, and the warmest Scout and Malaysian hospitality! Our event preparations are advancing well with the strong support of the leadership of Persekutuan Pengakap Malaysia, the National Scout Organization of Malaysia, our Malaysian Board Member, Dato’ Soo Keng Yeoh and welcome staff support from the World Scout Bureau. 

Don’t delay — register today!

• Take advantage of our early bird registration fee until 31 July.
• We also have great accommodation rates at The Ritz-Carlton, available until 5 August. For example: MYR 650 (around USD 153) plus taxes for two persons sharing a Deluxe King or Twin room, including breakfast for two; or MYR 1200 (around USD 282) plus taxes for a Junior Suite for two, including breakfast.
• Please note too that the 47th ASEAN Summit will also take place in KL at the same time as our event and is expected to impact the availability of accommodation closer to the date.  

Did you know that you are also welcome to bring guests? Contact us for support with your registration and with any questions! 

Honours Programme Field Trip  

A thrilling programme has been confirmed for up to 20 Members of the Honours Programme to discover Tunisian Scouting and exciting projects and initiatives on the Honours Programme Field Visit, 5–8 December 2025, to Tunisia.  

This is a great opportunity to learn about the impact of your support and the impact of Scouting on young people and their communities in Tunis and further afield through interactions with local Scouts in Borj Cédria and Hammam Sousse and the national Scout leadership in the capital Tunis, our main base for the visit. We’ll be joined throughout the visit by the International Commissioner of the Tunisian Scouts — the best possible guide — and have also secured a fantastic rate at a stunning boutique hotel in the Tunis Medina, available until 15 August!

Please let us know asap if you are interested in participating! This is also a great time to move up to the Honours Programme, to take advantage of this opportunity. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to discuss your ongoing Fellowship and an additional gift to World Scouting

World Scout Moot, Portugal

Preparations are underway for the Foundation’s presence at the 16th World Scout Moot in Portugal, an event held every four years for Scouts aged 18–25. We will hold a BP Fellows’ reception and run a World Scout Foundation exhibition booth at the Ready for Life — World Scouting tent between 31 July and 2 August 2025.  

All BP Fellows present at the World Scout Moot are invited to join our reception on Saturday, 2 August (final timing to be confirmed) and will receive an invitation via email. Several BP Fellows are already confirmed, including our Board Member, HH Princess Sama Bint Faisal Al Saud.  If you are planning on attending, message Flor Cagliero. We look forward to connecting with you! 

Our BP Fellowship

In the second quarter, we welcomed 13 new BP Fellows, 22 new Young BP Fellows and six Members of the Honours Programme (new and moving through the various Circles).  

Local Chapters played an active role in engaging and cultivating donors:  

• The Swedish Chapter hosted its Annual Meeting on 8 April, where seven new BP Fellows were recognised in the presence of our Honorary Chairman, HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
• The US Chapter hosted its traditional BP Fellowship Meeting at the National Annual Meeting of Scouting America on 14 May, in Orlando, Florida. More than 40 BP Fellows and prospective donors participated, and we recognised five BP Fellows who had not yet received their pins. Special thanks to Darci Swanson and Bob Sinclair, and to Randy and Kimberley Potts, WSF Board Members, members of the Honours Programme and US Chapter Board, for generously sponsoring the reception.
• Thijs Stoffer and I attended the Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Foundation Fundraising Dinner hosted by the Scouts of Japan and the Annual Meeting of the Scouts of Japan in Fukuoka (23–25 May 2025). This was a great opportunity to discuss participation in upcoming BP Fellowship Events in Malaysia and Sweden, and the recruitment of new BP Fellows and Honours Programme Members.
• On 27 May, Board Member HE Ambassador Ahmad Rusdi hosted a high-level cultivation dinner together with Board Member Thijs Stoffer in the presence of government officials, political leaders, corporate figures, and Indonesian Scouting representatives at the Mulia Hotel in Indonesia.  

We progressed our preparations to reach out to prospective donors, with the support of fundraising task forces for the BP Fellowship events in Malaysia and Sweden and we advanced relationship-building with High-Value Donors, including two who visited the office in May. We worked on developing a pipeline of new high-value donors and the development of proposals and support documentation aligned to World Scouting's funding priorities alongside the Business Development Unit of the World Scout Bureau, to leverage several larger asks. The team also advanced donor reporting. 

Founder’s Heritage

During this quarter, we updated our marketing materials for the Founder’s Heritage in anticipation of several upcoming engagements later in the year. The Founder’s Heritage is the legacy giving programme of the World Scout Foundation, a meaningful way for you to leave a legacy for World Scouting.  

We’re delighted that 65 BP Fellows have already chosen to leave a gift in their will or testament to World Scouting, shaping the future for generations of young people in World Scouting, while accommodating your own personal, financial, estate-planning and philanthropic goals.  

Find out more about our planned giving programme and your benefits as a member of the Founder’s Heritage here. If you are interested in joining, get in touch with us for a personal consultation — we would love to hear from you! 

Renewed Messengers of Peace funding

In April, we were excited to announce renewed Messengers of Peace Funding for World Scouting. The transformative Messengers of Peace agreement was signed at the Human Capability Initiative event in Riyadh between HE Yousef bin Abdullah al-Benyan, Minister of Education of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and President of the Saudi Arabian Scout Association, and our WSF Board Member Siegfried Weiser, Chair of the Messengers of Peace Oversight Committee.  

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will provide an additional USD 50 million over the next decade to enhance Scouting’s core educational programmes and strengthen the capacity of National Scout Organizations to take action in promoting peace, dialogue, and community action worldwide, inspiring a global culture of peace. The agreement builds on over 15 years of collaboration between World Scouting, the World Scout Foundation, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Institutional partnerships

In the second quarter of 2025, we continued to strengthen our pipeline of institutional partnerships and deepen alignment with World Scouting’s global funding priorities. We submitted several strategic funding proposals, including to the European Commission and the Hilton Humanitarian Prize, and continued the ongoing work with key partners such as UBS Philanthropy and Accenture. These efforts are focused on securing major multi-year funding to support flagship initiatives under the Scouts for SDGs, including leadership development, digital innovation, and humanitarian response.

Note: If you are a UBS client and interested in learning more about a potential collaboration, please get in touch with Mischa Rychener, Director of Philanthropy, to find out more.

2024 Digital Annual Report   

Our third digital Annual Report was published in April and circulated widely, including to all our BP Fellows, new network donors and subscribers, and we’ve had over 700 visits to date! We also produced a PDF version, which is available to download from the top navigation bar of our digital report. We hope you’ve already enjoyed reading through it! Discover a wealth of impactful and inspirational Scout initiatives, learn more about our work, donors and volunteers, our financials, governance and more here! 

WSF Logo  

You might have noticed that we have revised the Foundation’s logo, following approval by the WSF Board. This simple, considered, modification of our logo was undertaken to ensure linkages with the updated World Scout Emblem and WOSM brand; enable the development of more aligned joint branding for institutional funding; make useful modifications to enable better digital and embroidered use of our logo — all whilst retaining key characteristics of our established, elegant and widely recognisable World Scout Foundation logo. You can see the new logo on our website and at the top of our e-news! 

79th Meeting of WSF Board & Committees, Egham, UK 

Our Foundation Board met under the leadership of WSF Chair, Rob Woolford, and our Honorary Chairman, HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden on 3 May in Egham, UK. Governance (Investment, Audit and Oversight) and fundraising Sub-committees engaged in multiple sessions prior to the Board Meeting, in addition to two joint meetings of all volunteers, to share progress and plan for opportunities ahead. We also enjoyed local engagements, a Friends of Scouting cultivation dinner in central London, and a stunning Gala Dinner held in the historic surroundings of the Great Fosters Hotel, with the support of the newly energised UK Chapter of the World Scout Foundation. 

At the Gala Dinner, we were honoured to bring together BP Fellows from the UK, international BP Fellows with ties to the local area, representatives of the leadership of the UK Scouts, potential donors, and our Board and Committee members and their guests, to spotlight the impact of World Scouting and welcome 27 new BP Fellows alongside three Honours Programme recognitions. 

Learn more about the key topics and decisions taken at our meetings, discover more about our Gala Dinner inputs and recognitions, and view our photo galleries here. 

An additional meeting of the Board will take place in Riyadh in September allowing for important engagements with high-level representatives of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

78th BP Fellowship Event, Sweden

Our 78th BP Fellowship Event is planned to take place 7–10 May 2026 in Stockholm, Sweden. Please save the dates! Registration is expected to open in November.

Stay in touch — we always love to hear from you!  
 

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