• Between 2013 and 2018, philanthropic organizations have invested close to USD 600 million in social projects in Colombia, according to a study carried out by the OECD Center for Strategic Philanthropy on a total of 54 large-scale organizations in the country.
• Over the last 15 years, the SURA Foundation has invested close to COP 183 billion in social, educational and cultural initiatives.
• In turn, the SURA Foundation was ranked in third place among the entities that invest the most in educational programs, with a total of USD 18 million for the aforementioned period.

Medellin April 30, 2021 As a result of the amount invested in initiatives aimed at improving educational, social and cultural conditions throughout the country, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranked the SURA Foundation in third place among the organizations with the highest social investment in Colombia between 2013 and 2018, this for a total investment of USD 37 million.

Over the last 15 years the SURA Foundation has invested a total of approximately COP 183 billion in its different work fronts, these dedicated to enhancing the quality of education, strengthening cultural initiatives and driving social development, thereby benefiting more than 700 organizations throughout this same time frame. In fact, in 2020, the Foundation reached a historic milestone in terms of the amount invested in social initiatives with more than COP 26 billion, which improved the conditions of more than 280,000 individuals and 2,563 organizations.

"The investment we have made in recent years demonstrates our commitment to driving harmonious levels of development for society as a whole and enhancing the well-being of the people, organizations and territories where we operate. In 2021, we shall be celebrating our 50th Anniversary, having created and provided our support to wonderful initiatives of great impact and for which we have continuously adapted our efforts in order to produce a meaningful level of social development in keeping with the reality in which we find ourselves," stated María Mercedes Barrera, Executive Director of the SURA Foundation in Colombia.

 According to the OECD study, the country's philanthropic funding was mainly concentrated in supporting projects mainly in the education sector, which accounted for just over one-third (37%) of the total social investment made between 2013 and 2018. On this front, the SURA Foundation also earned third place with a total of USD 18 million invested in the aforementioned period. Our unwavering focus on channeling our efforts on this work front is to bring about a higher quality of education, providing learning through formative processes that go beyond the classroom to other scenarios that involve a more cognitive, social and emotional approach.

In this sense our efforts in 2020 were aimed at ensuring continuous and long-term educational programs staged on-line. Here, the Foundation invested a total of COP 6,634 million, benefiting 2,161 organizations and 8,806 individuals through the different initiatives carried out.

"We, at the SURA Foundation, greatly value the power of education and knowledge as tools for ensuring greater equality and self-reliance, which form not only the basis for transformation but also an indisputable way to achieve competitiveness in all those territories where we are present. ° Through programs such as Felix and Susana, we provide tools for encouraging healthy coexistence. We are also helping youngsters and adolescents with our scholarship program, which has forged different alliances with various universities nationwide; here it is important to note the Nicanor Restrepo Santamaría Scholarship, which first began in 2015 and is specific to our Foundation", added María Mercedes.

This year, the SURA Foundation plans to invest COP 16,555 million mainly aimed at helping schools to reopen safely, strengthening institutions within the cultural sector, helping people to better exercise their citizenship while continuing to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in all those communities where the Foundation is present.