Inside A Crisis: What Drove FIND To Collapse?

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Despite repeated warnings from staff and donors, Swiss regulators failed to avert a crisis that upended operations and strained the finances of a prominent Geneva-based diagnostics non-profit. This content was published on August 28, 2025 - 09:00 22 minutes Claire-Marie Dikansa

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In the 20 years since its founding, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) has become an influential player in the global health landscape. FIND develops and supports diagnostic tools for conditions such as HIV, malaria, hepatitis C, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases. Its diagnostic tools have been used by millions worldwide – primarily in low-income countries.

FIND is a partner of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and helped coordinate the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The non-profit's rise in global health was supported by a steady stream of funding from major international donors. In 2023, its backers included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ($6.2 million; about CHF5.57 million at the time), Japan ($1.3 million), the United Kingdom's Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office ($10,6 million) and the United Kingdom's Department of Health and Social Care (1.8 million), the Netherlands ($2 million), the international Unitaid initiative ($8.5 million), and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), which donated about $1 million that same year, according to the FIND 2023 financial report.

In total it received $59.8 million in donations in 2023 – making it an important player in the Swiss foundations landscape. FIND's 2024 financial statement is not available to date.

Today, the aforementioned donors, as well as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) and the UK charity LifeArc, have decided to suspend their payments, freeze them, or wind down their projects with the foundation, according to sources and documents provided by the organisation. FIND has allegedly lost about a third of its workforce since January 2024 due to layoffs, non-renewals of contracts and resignations and many of its programmes have stopped.

Hundreds of pages of documents viewed by Swissinfo, as well as interviews with former and current staff, point to a management crisis which led to serious financial consequences.

In mid-August 2024, one of FIND's former board member alerted the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (FSAF), the governing body of Swiss-registered foundations, about the situation. In September, three other board members raised the alarm. Employees and donors had already warned the authority as early as June 2024 in writing.

More than a year later, no decisive measures have been taken by the FSAF to stop the crisis. This raises the question of the control mechanisms in place to oversee Geneva's more than 1,350 foundations, many of which receive public funding from Switzerland and other countries.

In November 2024, the SDC, operating under the Swiss ministry of foreign affairs and a former contributor to FIND, asked accounting firm PwC to carry out an independent audit on the foundation's governance.

The audit was supported by donors, who had frozen their grants, to investigate alleged mismanagement at FIND. They said they would align with its findings.

More than four months past its expected release date, the report has been finalised, but not published. The delay has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest within the SDC and prompted questions about why the findings have yet to be made public.

Read more on how Geneva foundations are monitored in part 1 of our investigation.

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