Five questions to Corinne Massin

Corinne Massin, you are the Executive Director of the Mécénat Servier endowment fund. Could you tell us about the activities you support within this fund?

Mécénat Servier was set up in 2016 to coordinate and centralise corporate philanthropy at Servier, which has existed for 70 years, in France and abroad. As such, we have taken up the areas of commitment that have reflected the support granted since the Servier Group's inception: health, but also education, as well as culture and social cohesion. Our vision is to use this approach to support associations that work to help the most disadvantaged members of society, or those who are vulnerable because of illness. We support large-scale, long-term projects (at least two years).

Our approach is collective: we involve our employees at every level of our actions, whether it's in choosing the beneficiary associations of L'ARRONDI sur salaire, or in the composition of the members of the Selection Committee who vote for the projects presented to Mécénat Servier. We offer them the opportunity to make a commitment through 4 commitment schemes, which enable them to support our partners by donating their time and offering them expertise and know-how: ARRONDI sur salaire, solidarity leave, solidarity seminar, skills sponsorship, and senior skills sponsorship since October 2023.

More recently, we have also responded to emergency situations around the world: the war in Ukraine, the earthquakes in Turkey and Morocco. Wherever we are present, the Group has released exceptional sums for emergency humanitarian aid.

The Mécénat Servier Endowment Fund was created in 2016 with the aim of engaging Servier Group employees around solidarity. Why have you made education and access to culture two key pillars of your action?

We are "Committed to Solidarity" to contribute to the common good and to support projects to help local populations wherever we operate. Access to education and culture has always been part of the Group's DNA, because we want to pass on knowledge so that we can innovate. Our employees represent an enormous pool of scientific expertise, but that's not all: all the Group's businesses are represented and, in essence, offer a wealth of experience from which our associative partners can benefit.

Access to culture is a window, an opening onto the world; it enables them to learn in a different way by awakening their curiosity and creativity.

It is with this in mind that you have been supporting Culture pour l'Enfance since 2022. Why have you chosen to support the Art immersion programme, which gives 8,000 children the chance to discover the arts every year?  

We chose to support Culture pour l'Enfance and its Art immersion programme because it's a fantastic way for children to be introduced to the arts and culture. The use of digital technology inevitably affects them by bringing them into their own time, but it also allows them to take a leap into history and our cultural heritage. And that's not all! Art immersion enables children who are sometimes far from museums to discover artists, understand their art through educational workshops and get to grips with reproducing drawings and paintings! At the very least, it's an eye-opener, and at best, why not, a discovery of future talent.
 

How do you work with the project leaders you support?

We study their project and support them over the long term to ensure that the various aspects of the project are visible and implemented. We evaluate the impact of the project on the association and its beneficiaries on a half-yearly and/or annual basis. Our support also involves offering skills sponsorship, if the charity needs volunteers to carry out project support tasks. But we often go even further: we establish links with other partners who can help and complement each other. We develop real local relationships so that we can listen to their needs.

The commitment of Servier Group employees is one of the cornerstones of your action. What are the different ways in which you engage your employees, especially as the search for meaning at work is a topical issue?

Indeed, as early as 2017 we introduced several engagement schemes for our employees. There was real demand and we were keen to offer ways of engaging them that suited everyone, given their professional or personal organisational constraints.

• First of all, there is skills sponsorship, which currently allows employees to volunteer four days a year in France (two days donated by the company for every two days volunteered by the employee). You can apply for one-off assignments, posted online by the associations themselves on our Let's Volunteer platform. These assignments call on professional expertise (translation, IT, accountancy, etc.) or personal skills (making origami for places where sick children are looked after, laying parquet, building a henhouse in a centre for people with disabilities, etc.).

In October 2023, we extended the scheme to a special format: senior skills sponsorship, which enables employees between six months and two years from full retirement to commit 100% of their time to a non-profit organisation while retaining 100% of their fixed remuneration. This opportunity offered to Group employees in France, in its pilot period, is a real chance for the associations to benefit from a full-time equivalent, rich in experience and qualifications. It's a win-win situation.
 

• It's also the Congé Solidaire® organised by the NGO Planète Urgence, which enables employees to spend two weeks of their holidays on an international solidarity mission in Africa, Asia or Latin America. Mécénat Servier covers the cost of plane tickets and accommodation. Once again, this is a way of helping local populations and showing our solidarity.

• In France, the ARRONDI sur salaire scheme makes it possible to support three of our partner associations, chosen by our employees, in a different way. Mécénat Servier matches employee donations with the same amount.

• The solidarity seminar is a two-day opportunity to get an entire team involved in charity projects and to learn life and organisational lessons for day-to-day work.

A big thank you to Corinne Massin for her day-to-day commitment, and to the Mécénat Servier endowment fund, which has been supporting our Art immersion project across France since 2022, enabling 8,000 children each year to discover art and culture. Thank you so much for them!