Community foundation

The Community Foundation is a form of social self- organization of citizens for citizens. Community foundations are foundations who are committed to promoting and operationally for the local public good.

Features

A community foundation is an independent, autonomous acting, non-profit organization of citizens for citizens with the broadest possible foundation's purpose. It is committed to sustainable and durable for the community in a geographically defined area and is promoting and operates for all citizens within its catchment area in general. With their work supports civic engagement.

Just as community foundations, community foundations aim from the continuous development of a foundation's assets. They offer especially for smaller donations as well as carriers fiduciary foundations adequate form of organization. Community foundations are based on a community or region, but also offer the possibility to realize numerous foundation purposes. For self- understanding usually belongs to the complete independence of state, municipal or corporate structures. Community foundations are built and supported by a plurality and diversity of donors.

To community foundation representatives gave the working group community foundations in Dresden itself a definition, the so-called " 10 Characteristics of a community foundation " early in 2000. These features are mainly based on the idea of the independence of the individual, or persons, the idea of ​​participation, the service kolodok and transparency. After defining the call was for an award of "real community foundations " loud. Thus, the working group community foundations developed the cachet of the Federal Association of German Foundations, which will now be awarded annually on the occasion of the Day of community foundations in each case for the validity period of two years at the community foundations. As of September 12, 2013 are 259 community foundations in Germany, bearing the seal of the Association of German Foundations.

10 Characteristics of a Community Foundation

Adopted by the Working Group on Community Foundations of the 56th Annual Meeting of the Association of German Foundations, May 2000

Some data

Since the establishment of the first German community foundations in Gütersloh 1996 and 1997 Hanover numerous other foundations of this type have been created throughout the country. Since there is no statutory definition of community foundations, diverge the data on the number, capital and resources using existing community foundations according to the respondents. The Active citizenship has 2013 348 community foundations registered in their list of community foundations in Germany June 30, meeting the " 10 characteristics of a community foundation ." Be included in this database researched by a nationwide media monitoring, community foundations, whose statutes corresponds to the " 10 characteristics ". In her " Länderspiegel community foundations ," an analysis of community foundations in Germany in 2013, the citizenship comes to the conclusion that over 38 million people in Germany - ie 46 % of the population - now potentially have access to a community foundation - as donors, donor, volunteer or project applicant. The largest community foundation density Baden -Württemberg with community foundations 7.5 per million inhabitants. This is followed by Lower Saxony (6.8 ) and North Rhine -Westphalia (5,6). Among the East German federal states of Thuringia is 3.1 Bürgerstiftungen per million inhabitants over. The assets of the German community foundations grew in 2012 to a total of 235 million euros ( at 31 December 2012). This represents an increase of 12.3 percent compared to the previous year. The community foundations have been raised in 2012 totaled 10.2 million euros in donations and distributed more than 14 million euros for charitable purposes. Almost half of these funds invest community foundations in education ( 47% ), followed by arts and culture (17%) and social (15 %). Since 2005, community foundations have funded non-profit purposes with almost 72 million euros. 12,000 total volunteers involved in community foundations: 8,000 are volunteers in projects or offices active and another 4000 in Board, Board of Trustees or Board of Trustees. Other foundations in Germany describe themselves as community foundation, " 10 features of" Foundations of citizens for citizens, however, do not meet. With these foundations not the citizens decide, but in many cases local politics and local government eg on the bodies cast and allocation of funds.

Activities

In an international comparison, there is a special German community foundations is that the majority is promoting not only active, but also their own projects carried out surgically. With their work, community foundations can creatively intervene and act as promoters of social change. The spectrum is broad, ranging from art and culture to youth work and projects for or with the elderly. Whether violence prevention or conservation projects together is the projects that they are often focused on integration and participation. In terms of state and civil society community foundations play a bridging function: due to their special status they can be brokered and share interests, according reinforcing. Community foundations are partners of the State, Donors and the region, which they undertake. A State of alternative and want but can not represent them.

Particularly successful working community foundations have been used for several years awarded the prize citizenship. The winners of 2013 are the community foundations from Landshut and Munich ( Bavaria), Neuss (North Rhine -Westphalia) and Wiesloch (Baden- Württemberg). Winners of the previous years included the Heilbronner Community Foundation, the Community Foundation Lilienthal, the Community Foundation Hellweg region, based in Soest and Wiesbaden Foundation, the Community Foundation Barnim Uckermark, the Community Foundation Emscher Lippe- country, the community foundation Arnsberg and the Community Foundation of Vechta, the Community Foundation Bad Essen, the Community Foundation of Hamburg and the community foundations Leipzig, Münster, Pfalz, Weimar, Berlin, Braunschweig, Ratzeburg, Wiesbaden, Germany, Ahrensburg, Lingen, Nuremberg, Halle ( Saale), Herten, and community foundations in Dülmen, Berlin- Neukölln, Hanover, Dresden, Fürstenfeldbruck and Schwäbisch Hall.

Socio-political background

Notwithstanding constitutive of community foundations will the social commitment of a foundation related and those promoting people arises the motivation for the establishment of a community foundation usually either the observation that state structures are connected to the provision of services and offerings that serve the common good, overwhelmed, or conviction that such services and offerings should a priori not be a matter for the state and better should be taken by the citizens themselves. According to community foundations are particularly widespread in societies that have a traditionally state- distant self-understanding (especially the U.S., where since the beginning of the 20th century community foundations - so-called Community Foundations - exist). At the same time, they represent a social response to an economic shift of wealth away from the control state is to companies and private capital; this aspect is particularly characteristic of the United States, but increasingly also for the patterned trends in increasing financial distress welfare state dominated systems of the western industrialized countries such as Germany.