The current charity fund VSBfonds was created in 1990 when the VSB bank merged with two others to form the financial services giant Fortis. But the fund’s roots actually go way back to 1784 when six socially progressive citizens set up a charitable fund to educate the masses under the slogan ‘knowledge is the way to personal and social development’. By 2007 the VSBfonds was one of the country’s biggest corporate charitable foundations with a budget of €60m, but two years and a credit crisis later its budget has been slashed to just €26m.