Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones promised each other to dedicate their achievement to the children of the world and to use the media exposure and fund-raising potential of their fame to combat forgotten or disregarded suffering.

This led to the establishment on 9th September, 1999 of the Winds of Hope Foundation, recognised as a charity under the auspices of the Swiss Confederation. Its launch capital consisted of the Budweiser cash prize won by the round-the-world team as well as a donation from Breitling.

Winds of Hope provides an annual grant to support humanitarian organisations which work - often to general indifference - to eliminate the little-known causes of suffering.
By making the media aware of intolerable situations in the world, Winds of Hope tries to encourage the political will to take necessary urgent measures while appealing to the public and businesses to help finance certain humanitarian actions.