This is why we invest in innovative projects that rethink the way we deal with the past and the way we strengthen social cohesion. We are aware that funding always involves taking risks and we accept that unusual ideas might also fail.
Since we believe in unconventional approaches and the ongoing development of methods, we look for partners who share our ideas and values. Together, we want to shape social change on the basis of the following funding principles. While we are always glad to meet new people and learn about their ideas, visions and experiences, we generally don’t rely upon grant applications or spelled-out project proposals. Our funding guidelines describe how we want to cooperate with partners in order to best promote the sort of social change we envisage.
- We determine our partners and fields of action ourselves.
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We fund projects that will shape the present and make a lasting impact, especially if they take an innovative approach to a topic or if they improve existing methods or invent new ones.
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We consciously take the risk when selecting our projects that we might fail and generally learn together in our partnership through trial and error.
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We look for projects and partners that take a stand, initiate debates and are prepared to break with convention. We stand by our partners if there is pushback.
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We support projects and partners coming from those generations that will soon assume responsibility for our society.
We see ourselves as a respectful funder that acknowledges our partners’ expertise.
Together with our partners, we continually assess the effectiveness of projects. When necessary, we have the courage to talk about and to adjust a project’s focus and aims
We fund projects that strengthen a culture of debate and promote diversity.
Because we know how fragile democratic structures are, we fund projects that strengthen our pluralistic coexistence and combat antisemitism as well as hatred directed against supposed “others”.
We are a non-profit organization in the sense of the German TaxCode (Abgabenordnung) and support projects that serve non-profit purposes. Our partners confirm that they will use the funds only for the agreed upon non-profit purposes.
We are careful with our partners’ resources; that is why we avoid unnecessary red tape. The focus should always rest on the project’s success - not on its administration.