Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands is a member of the Royal House of the Netherlands and honorary chairperson of the Netherlands Red Cross. She has been involved with the organisation for more than 50 years. She began her voluntary work in 1966, serving as a nursing auxiliary 1st class. From 1987 to 2011, the year in which her final term of office ended, she was vice-president of the organisation. In 2011, in recognition of her services, the Netherlands Red Cross set up the Princess Margriet Fund, which works to help populations at risk to prepare better for natural disasters. The Fund is led by Liselotte de Koning. To mark the Princess’ 75th birthday in 2018, the Red Cross and the University of Twente established a chair in her name. The Princess Margriet Research Chair, part of the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at the University of Twente, focuses its research activities on building resilience against natural disasters and climate change. Professor Maarten van Aalst was appointed to the chair in 2019.
Since 1967 Princess Margriet has been actively involved in the work of the International Red Cross. From December 1995 to December 2003 she chaired the highest international body of the Red Cross, the Standing Commission. From 2005 to the end of 2013, Princess Margriet was a member of the governing board of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. She took part in many international conferences, often as head of the Dutch delegation, and in meetings for board members and delegates.