KOMPAS
FOUNDATION
A Dutch foundation, built on the belief that technology should reach the people who need it most.
About their money, their rights, the letters they do not understand. In their own language, without judgment, without anyone knowing they asked. Free. Anonymous.
It does not replace debt counsellors or social workers. It removes the barriers that stop people from ever reaching them.
Source: CBS Schuldenproblematiek in beeld 2025 / CBS Integratie en samenleven 2024
These are people, often people that need help. Let us introduce you to one of them.
67 years old. Turkish roots. 15 years in the Netherlands. Her world is her community: neighbours, family, a life conducted almost entirely in Turkish.
She never needed the Dutch system. She has her husband.
Not always well, if she is honest. She sometimes wishes he would ask her more. She has her own ideas about these things. But she knows he is trying. He always tries. And somehow, things get sorted. For fifteen years, that has been enough.
Three weeks ago, he suddenly passed away.
Her anchor is gone. And with him, every certainty she had about how life works. She does not know where the money comes from. She does not know what accounts exist, what is owed, what is due. For fifteen years she never needed to know. Now she does. And she has no idea where to begin.
Her community shows up. People come, they cook, they sit. There is real love here. But in her culture, you do not show financial struggle to the people closest to you. It brings shame, not just to her but to the family she represents. The people who would help without hesitation are the very same ones she cannot ask. Which is exactly why she stays silent.
And then the letters start arriving. One by one. Envelopes she dreads to open. A final warning. A bill long overdue. Somewhere in that pile, an eviction notice. Each one sits on the table like a sword above her head. She does not know which are urgent. She does not know which are already too late.
Fatma got help through a rare coincidence. A neighbour in her eighties noticed something was wrong and wanted to help. She was even willing to learn some Turkish to do it. That neighbour happened to have a son working in finance. Together, with patience, they managed to sort things out.
Fatma has returned to Izmir, where she found the family she had lost touch with through the internet. She still misses him almost every day. But she has found her footing again. Surrounded by family, the good days are coming back, more and more.
Most people like Fatma do not have a neighbour who cares.
Without that, they can slip through the cracks entirely.
Financial Kompas is built for everyone who does not have that neighbour. For anyone navigating the Dutch system alone, in any language, at any hour. A letter they cannot read. A right they did not know they had. A question too complicated or too shameful to ask out loud.
No appointment. No Dutch required. No one who needs to know they asked. This is what that might have looked like for Fatma.
She uses it sometimes to read news from Turkey. One day she notices a flyer lying next to the keyboard. In Turkish. It says you can ask anything — about money, about letters, about rights. And that it is completely anonymous. Nobody will know. She puts it down. But after a few minutes she changes her mind, opens the tool on the computer, and pretends to ask for a friend.
"Arkadaşım emekli maaşı olup olmadığını nasıl kontrol edeceğini bilmiyor. Hollandaca konuşmuyor. Bunu nasıl yapabileceğini açıklayabilir misiniz?"
My friend does not know how to check if she has a pension. She does not speak Dutch. Can you explain how she can do that?
The tool does not ask about the friend. It answers. In Turkish. There is a central website. Step by step. Even how to set up the login. She reads it twice.
She follows the steps. Logs in. Finds out she does have a pension. More than one. She did not know that. The tool helps her write a message to the pension company in Dutch and tells her where to send it. She does. She hesitates. She doubts. But then she asks about the letter she has not been able to sleep over for three nights. She is afraid of what the answer might be. But she has to know.
She photographs it and uploads it. The translation comes back. It is serious. A final warning. The rent has not been received and they are threatening to evict her. But the tool also notices something: the letter is addressed to her husband. They do not know he has passed away.
The tool helps her write to the housing association in Dutch. But then she hesitates. If someone calls, she will not understand. She cannot speak Dutch on the phone. She tells the tool this. It explains that many agencies have Turkish-speaking colleagues, or can arrange a translator, and suggests she adds to the message that she would like to speak with someone but does not speak Dutch. She adds that line. She adds her phone number. And she sends it.
An hour later, just as she gets home, her phone rings.
A colleague at the housing association, calling her back. They had read her message. They understood immediately. The eviction has already been stopped. They walk her through what comes next, step by step, in her own language. For the first time in weeks, she does not feel alone in this.
A few days later, letters arrive from the pension company. Bank account updated. When she checks, there is money in her account. More than she expected. Enough to cover everything.
For the first time since he died, the weight has lifted a little. She can breathe again. Room to grieve. And room to look forward.
A tool she could trust. In her language. Anonymous. That connected her to the right people without her having to ask anyone for help. Delivered through a flyer, a library computer, a debt counsellor, a community centre — in whatever form reaches the people who need it.
That is Financial Kompas. Free. Private. Multilingual. Available wherever people are — in the languages they think in, without judgment, without anyone knowing they asked.