Print For Good: FESPA launches the FESPA Foundation

FESPA today announces the launch of The FESPA Foundation, a new sister organisation to FESPA, dedicated to encouraging sustainable practices throughout the speciality print and visual communications industry, and channelling resources into community support and educational outreach programmes.

Under the strapline ‘Print for Good’, the principal activities of The FESPA Foundation are:

• Encouraging exhibitors to produce print applications that can enrich educational environments for children in underprivileged communities, thereby reducing printed waste from FESPA exhibitions worldwide;
• Facilitating the collection, transportation, distribution and installation of these print materials in the beneficiary communities, via international and local partners;
• Collecting in-kind and monetary donations that further support the beneficiary communities, for distribution via credible local charities and community outreach programmes.
• By diverting printed exhibition sample materials that would ordinarily be wasted towards meaningful community support projects, The FESPA Foundation’s work aligns clearly with FESPA’s ISO 20121 Sustainable Event Management System standards, reducing event waste and maximising the positive legacy of FESPA exhibitions.

Transforming Evane Intermediate School, South Africa

Illustrating the initiative’s transformative potential, The FESPA Foundation has revitalised Evane Intermediate School, a rural school serving 90 children in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This project was overseen by FESPA Foundation associate Steve Thobela ka Mdlalose in South Africa, with active support from the FESPA Africa team and partners, and using funds and in-kind donations from FESPA. A print business owner, former CEO of Printing SA, and founding General Manager of The Mandela Rhodes Foundation which develops young leaders across Africa, Thobela coordinated resources and directed a local project team to repaint and decorate the school, upgrade decrepit toilet blocks, and deliver a range of printed educational posters and creative materials to provide a more functional and inspiring learning environment. 

 

Sustainable Impact at FESPA Global Print Expo 2025

The FESPA Foundation’s first major initiative will be to collect printed materials and in-kind donations at FESPA Global Print Expo (6-9 May 2025, Messe Berlin, Germany), for distribution to community projects in southern Africa.

The FESPA Foundation seeks the active support of exhibitors at FESPA Global Print Expo 2025 to produce printed applications such as educational posters, maps, student clothing and backpacks to a defined set of technical and creative specifications and to donate these, meeting a range of educational needs informed by local programme partners.

A number of exhibitors have already committed to supporting The FESPA Foundation in this way.

Visitors to the Berlin show will also be invited to make in-kind donations of items such as used reading glasses, notebooks, pens, art kits or school supplies. Visitors and exhibitors will also have the option of making monetary donations to The FESPA Foundation to fund the purchase of items such as mosquito nets for malaria prevention and clean-water drinking straws.

Printed materials and donations collected at FESPA Global Print Expo will be transported to South Africa free of charge by FESPA’s global logistics partner DSV. In South Africa they will be distributed via the Kingsley Holgate Foundation, a recognised community charitable organisation which was initially established to support malaria prevention, water purification and access to Rite to Sight spectacles for the poor-sighted in Africa. It now also provides Early Childhood Development and Conservation & Communities initiatives, among others.

In the medium term, The FESPA Foundation intends to replicate this activity in other regions, for example, diverting printed materials from FESPA events in Mexico and Brazil to communities in need in their respective regions, and funding outreach initiatives in Asia.

Neil Felton, CEO of FESPA and founder of The FESPA Foundation explains: “FESPA is a global support organisation, and our mission has always revolved around supporting communities, educating and knowledge-sharing, and promoting sustainability. Through The FESPA Foundation, we can bring these core values to life beyond our day-to-day work, encouraging practices that reduce waste and environmental impact while creating long-term value for communities. Those of us who live and breathe print believe wholeheartedly in its unique potential to engage, inform and inspire. By creating the Foundation, we want to harness the combined strength of our global exhibitor and visitor base and demonstrate how, together, we can channel the power of print to drive positive change globally.”

Find out more about The FESPA Foundation here.