Foundation certificate

A qualified certificate that identifies the holder of an electronic seal as a foundation, not a company or association.

A foundation certificate is a qualified certificate that identifies the holder of an electronic seal as a foundation - a stichting under Dutch law, or the equivalent legal form elsewhere. A foundation has no shareholders and no members: it is set up to pursue a specific purpose using assets dedicated to that purpose, and it is run by a board acting under its statutes rather than answering to owners or a general meeting.

That distinction is what separates a foundation certificate from its two closest relatives. A company certificate covers commercial legal forms with owners, such as a BV or NV; an association certificate covers a vereniging with members who set policy at a general meeting. A foundation certificate names the foundation itself as the subject - the certificate carries its registered name and, typically, its registration number from the Handelsregister, where 'stichting' is recorded as the legal form.

Because a foundation has no owners or members to ask, the qualified trust service provider verifies the person requesting the certificate against the foundation's own governance: a board member with recorded signing authority, or someone else acting under a mandate from the board. The certificate is then used to seal documents that the foundation issues in its own name - annual accounts, grant decisions, donation receipts - so that a reader can attribute the sealed data to that specific foundation rather than to any person within it.

Note: A foundation certificate says only that the seal's holder has the legal form 'stichting' - it says nothing about tax status or charitable purpose. A stichting can run a commercial activity just as easily as a charity; recognition as a public-benefit organisation (ANBI) is a separate, unrelated status.