About us
“ZfV – We simplify association management.”
The Organization
The Center for Association Leadership is organized as a stock corporation under Swiss law. Among other things, this allows the ZfV to enable associations, employees, and partners to become co-owners of the ZfV and to have a direct influence on the organization’s operations, direction, development, and implementation. Associations are co-owners of their administrative office without having to bear the entire (personnel) responsibility on their own, and thus also have a say in filling key positions within their association.
Advisory Board
The Team
Martin Diethelm
Martin Diethelm, founder and initiator of the Center for Association Leadership, lived on the Röschtigraben for over 20 years before moving to Valais. He returns from there regularly—with scrapes and sore muscles, but happy. He proudly supports his two daughters, who are nearly grown, and enjoys the time they spend together. He is firmly convinced that there is a solution for (almost) everything and pursues them with perseverance, coupled with occasional impatience. His professional experience includes working with Greenpeace as head of operations, founding and leading Kampagnenforum, Kampajobs, Campax, and other organizations, as well as serving as a consultant and partner in organizational development at B’VM AG and as managing director of bso, the Professional Association for Coaching, Supervision, and Organizational Consulting.
mdiethelm@verbandsfuehrung.com
Fiona Stehrenberger
Fiona Stehrenberger successfully completed her Matura in the summer of 2024 and has been working for the Association for Nursing Science ever since. At the same time, she is studying business administration with a specialization in sports management.
With her strong willingness to learn and high level of motivation, she is always eager to acquire new knowledge and further develop her skills. Since January 1, 2025, she has been actively supporting the ZfV team with her dedication and fresh perspective.
fstehrenberger@verbandsfuehrung.com
Adrian Künsch-Wälchli
Adrian Künsch-Wälchli enjoys bringing people together and making a big difference as a team. As the long-time executive director of a values-based nonprofit, he brings extensive leadership experience in operations. In this role, he has also built up a commitment to Armenia—which remains active to this day—and which has given him broad cross-cultural skills. He also volunteers his expertise on the board of a sports club that provides young people with opportunities to travel abroad, where he helps strengthen the board’s strategic leadership.
His master’s degree from the VMI (Verbands-Management Institut Fribourg) provides the perfect theoretical complement to his work with clients. With his versatile knowledge and broad range of skills, Adrian builds a solid foundation that enriches every interaction and encounter in a lasting and beneficial way.
Sina Gubler
Sina Gubler brings many years of experience in the executive leadership of an association and combines strategic thinking with a keen sense for practical solutions.
She has a wide range of interests, possesses a knack for technical matters, and works quickly, in a solution-oriented and goal-driven manner. Her broad expertise ranges from accounting, project management, and human resources management to organizational development. She is able to tackle complex tasks in a structured way and help both people and projects move forward with clarity and dedication.
She also shows initiative in her personal life: As a passionate dog lover, she volunteers at a dog club and spends a lot of time with her terrier.
Luc Lichtsteiner
Luc Lichtsteiner enjoys working where strategy, processes, and collaboration converge. With his background in economics and economic philosophy, as well as his experience with research projects, he brings an analytical yet practical perspective to the table. He quickly gets up to speed on new topics, rolls up his sleeves, and supports the team in further developing processes and collaboration. As a native of French-speaking Switzerland, he is familiar with different work cultures—and values dialogue that transcends language and cultural boundaries.
Our history
The Centre for Association Management (ZfV) was formally established in June 2024. However, its history began much earlier and, with the founding of the ZfV by Martin Diethelm, led to a convergence of established technical solutions, many years of experience and a commitment to strengthening non-profit organisations in their collaboration and efficiency, thereby contributing to a better world.
For over 25 years, Martin Diethelm and his partners have been keeping abreast of technological developments and utilising them to drive their various businesses and projects forward. From 2008 onwards, drawing on the experience gained from Barack Obama’s US election campaign, Martin Diethelm demonstrated how online tools can be used to organise and mobilise people, which led to the founding of Kampaweb.
Die erfolgreiche Jobplattform Kampajobs setzte früh auf Automatisierungen, damit die administrative Prozesse schlank abgewickelt werden können und die Nutzung der Plattform für die Kunden trotz kontinuierlicher Weiterentwicklung preiswert blieb.
Following Martin Diethelm’s withdrawal from the day-to-day operations of the Kampa group of companies four years ago, his colleague and friend Andreas Freimüller continued to develop the technical aspects of the various organisations. Following the invasion of Ukraine, Campax was able to support the accommodation of refugees, thanks in part to its technical expertise, and today maintains one of Switzerland’s largest NPO databases, comprising two million addresses.
This long-standing commitment, coupled with what is often technical pioneering work and the resulting wealth of experience, has gone into the establishment and implementation of the Centre for Association Management, enabling the company to offer tried-and-tested, effective and efficient services right from the outset.
Yet even with this affinity for technology: in Martin Diethelm’s view, it is and remains merely a (useful) tool that supports people in their commitment, but cannot replace them. Even though the latest generation of AI can perceive human emotions and draw corresponding conclusions: the process within a group of reaching a shared understanding and making well-balanced decisions that the people involved and affected can stand behind and support will remain an essential foundation for the progress of non-profit organisations.
Lesen Sie dazu auch den Blogbeitrag «Automatisierung in NPOs: Der nächste Schritt nach der Digitalisierung für Effizienz und Wachstum».
Our partners
