The ONCE Foundation for Cooperation and the Social Integration of People with Disabilities was founded in 1988, by agreement of the ONCE General Council, and launched into society in September of the same year as an instrument of cooperation and solidarity from the Spanish blind towards other collectives of people with disabilities in order to improve their living conditions. In addition to the ONCE itself, as founding entity, the principal organizations for disabled people are present in the ONCE Foundation, through its maximum governing body, the Board of Trustees.
The Board of Trustees of the ONCE Foundation also includes CERMI (Comité Español de Representantes de las Personas con Discapacidad – The Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disability), a platform which unites the principal organizations for disabled people in Spain, many of them specific to one autonomous community, bringing together more than 3,000 associations and entities, which represent the 3.8 million people with disabilities and their families that exist in Spain. The ONCE Foundation’s principal source of financing for each fiscal year comes from the 3% of the gross income obtained from the commercialisation of games of chance by the ONCE. This figure represents one of every three euros that the ONCE dedicates to social services.