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Investing in peace – interview with our donor

Published on Thursday, 8th of October 2015

Private investor Harri Tilev supports Finnish mediation efforts in the world’s conflict zones. 

Harri Tilev 1“Very few jobs are more important than waging peace on the battlefield”, says angel investor Harri Tilev.

“For business angels, it is all too common that fools and their money are soon parted. However, investing in CMI’s long-term work in conflict resolution you can be sure of a positive return on investment,” says Harri Tilev.

Forty-year-old Tilev is an angel investor and the founder of the peer-to-peer lending platform Fellow Finance. In Tilev’s view, for conscientious investors money is emphatically not the measure of all things: “I really want to believe that by investing in furthering a peace process in some part of the world, I have made an important societal investment.”

Tilev supports conflict resolution endeavours of the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) in many crisis hotspots. CMI is one of the world’s foremost peace brokers, striving to help find common ground in peace processes.

Tilev is a member of CMI’s Premium Donors club. Every Premium donor contributes 2000 euros annually to CMI’s peace brokerage. Now that state funding for CMI’s work has been severely cut, the generosity and foresight of individual donors are vital in helping to keep CMI independent, and effective.

“The most intriguing contributions of the CMI Premium Club are the insights it gives into topical questions and the events that provide excellent opportunities for networking,” says Tilev.

Investment in conflict prevention

Protracted wars and other violence throughout the world have already driven over 60 million people from their homes. This is more than at any other time since the Second World War.

“Much more needs to be done to understand and treat the causes of conflict, and to promote conflict prevention. Currently we are struggling just to keep abreast of the symptoms of conflict,” Tilev says in reference to Europe’s ongoing refugee crisis.

“CMI does crucial work at the source of problems. Working to help prevent conflict involves acting locally, and also prevents refugee flows.”

Furthermore, conflict resolution is always cost-efficient. Support for peaceful negotiation never costs more than hundreds of thousands of euros. Wars cost billions. “So investment in peace always makes sound economic sense,” Tilev concludes. 

 


Interested in the Premium Donors Club? 

Do you want to be part of building a more stable living environment for millions of people worldwide? Can you invest in peace and wellbeing?

If the answer is yes, then we bid you a warm welcome to the CMI Premium Donors Club. As a Club member, you will be able to join other similarly motivated individuals in gaining a unique insight into the work of CMI. A range of events is organized for Club members: meetings with various experts, research leaders, lectures, and workshops.

The Club currently has around 50 members, and in addition to the aforementioned benefits it provides an excellent opportunity for networking with entrepreneurs and other influential figures. The Club annual membership fee is 2000 euros, all of which is channelled into CMI’s work.

For more information on the CMI Premium Donors Club and on ways to contribute, please send an email to club@cmi.fi