A Fair New World?!
How can we move towards a more inclusive, sustainable and solidary art world?! During the A Fair New World?! trajectory (2020-2022) we gathered ideas, practices and tools that offer possible solutions.
Broodfonds (NL)
What?
A ‘broodfonds’ (literally: Bread Fund) is a self-governing Dutch system in which min. 20 and max. 50 independent entrepreneurs contribute to a collective fund to secure each other with a cheaper health insurance if they get sick. Basic principles of a bread fund are transparency, solidarity and equal conditions.
The first Broodfonds started in 2006. In December 2022 nearly 30.000 freelancers were involved in 635 local bread funds, in 200 spots in Holland. Participants are not anonymous clients but meet a few times a year to decide together on the terms and conditions of their fund. In this way, a broodfonds creates a network among entrepreneurs in the same region, seeing solidarity as a way to create their own safety-net.
How?
New members pay a one-time service fee of €250 and a monthly contribution of €10. They open individual bank accounts dedicated to their ‘bread fund’. On these accounts, they save a fixed monthly amount between 33 and 112 euro, as a personal credit. When people cancel their participation, they collect this sum.
If members of a broodfonds fall sick, they receive donations from the others in their group, the total amounting to a net monthly income between €750 and €2500, depending on their own monthly contribution. Members can receive support for a maximum of two years.
Who?
New bread funds are advised by the three initial founders of the first Broodfonds in 2006: Dutch entrepreneurs Biba Schoenmaker, Haiko Liefmann and André Jonkers. They are united in the BroodfondsMakers Coöperatie, the structure behind the bread funds. In December 2022, almost 15 people worked for the cooperation.
