Help support STEAR
Help STEAR with becoming an official foundation!
Will you help us become an officially registered foundation?
Our Story
In January 2021, STEAR was founded with the aim of giving students and young professionals the chance to shape a bright shared future between the two continents. Our founding Presidents, Dao and Luke, hoped to inspire people to cooperate in a way that the future has already begun to demand, a desire which underpins STEAR’s values and mission. In our first 1.5 years of existence, we published our own journal, held a virtual conference and presented our research to the European Union and the Asia-Europe Foundation. However, STEAR is more than the sum of its events and publications; it's a community of young people from over 30 countries in Europe and Asia. It’s a community where young people can develop themselves, increase their intercultural understanding and make lifelong friends.
A Message From Our Members
Taking STEAR to the next level
Becoming a legally registered foundation
For the upcoming year, STEAR has even bigger ambitions. We want to reach more young people and policy-makers with our existing projects, but also launch new projects such as a podcast and a summer school. To realise these ambitions, we want to register STEAR in the Netherlands as a foundation (in Dutch: stichting). This will enable us to liaise more effectively with international organisations and apply for grants we need to fund our projects and events. Moreover, becoming an officially registered foundation will help STEAR with arranging certain practical matters, such as a business bank account, and will give STEAR more external credibility. In short, registering as a foundation will allow us to take our ambitions for STEAR to the next level.
Financial goal for the crowdfunding campaign
Unfortunately, legally registering as a foundation comes at a price. We need to pay a notary to write legally valid bylaws, and we need to pay a registration fee at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce. This is why we aim to raise €1.000 with this crowdfunding campaign. In case we fail to receive the necessary funds for the legal registration during this crowdfunding period, we will set the money we did receive aside in our bank account and try to obtain the missing funds by other means (such as grant applications or incidental donations). If we receive more than the €1.000 we need, we will use the surplus funds to pay for our events or overhead costs.
How is STEAR financed?
STEAR is a non-profit organisation and all its members, including its Board, are voluntary and unpaid for their work. STEAR reinvests most of its financial resources to support the running and development of its activities, including the Conference, the Global Village and regular panel events. As such, financial resources are used to cover the technical, marketing and other expenses of the latter events. Finally, a part of STEAR's money is also used to cover expenses essential for the perennity of the organisation, including the costs for hosting our website.
For questions about the crowdfunding campaign in particular or STEAR in general, please feel free to contact our Co-Presidents Leonie and Koen at stearpresidents@gmail.com.
Why You Should Support STEAR
"I joined STEAR because I want to put my interest in Europe-Asia relations in to use. STEAR offers a wide range of information consisting of news articles, policies, and even fun facts about both Europe and Asia which are being posted on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram. And this highly benefits the people, just like me, who are interested in IR, Diplomacy, and Politics to be able to learn and engage with other people who share the same interest/s. Being a part of STEAR is a great opportunity for me to represent my country, the Philippines, in the organization and also to share the opportunities, which STEAR has to offer, to my fellow Filipinos."
Barachiel Concepcion, HR Officer
Our Sponsors
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
Asia Society Switzerland