Discussion: How innovative and legitimate are foundations?

Together with Murmann Verlag and the Centre for Social Investment, the Wertevolle Zukunft Foundation hosted a panel discussion on 7 December on the role of foundations. The number of foundations in Germany is growing steadily despite the financial crisis. They are described as innovators who promote the common good where the state and the market fail; they aim to act as mediators representing the interests of the disadvantaged; they are expected to be sources of ideas and risk-takers who invest in areas that would otherwise be neglected, and they wish to preserve values that might otherwise fall into oblivion.

On the other hand, it can be argued that foundations merely represent the interests deemed important by a select few donors, that they evade democratic scrutiny and, on the whole, tend to be structurally conservative instruments of an elite whose motives remain unclear and whose performance is difficult to verify.

The Wertevolle Zukunft Foundation therefore, in collaboration with Murmann Verlag and the CSI – Centre for Social Investment and Innovation, hosted a panel discussion on 7 December 2009 on the topic ‘Legitimate Innovators – what role do foundations play in Germany?’.

When does ‘good intentions’ equate to ‘good results’?

Among other things, the discussion centred on the following questions: What social responsibility should foundations assume? What can we learn from foundations? Do foundations handle tax-privileged funds responsibly, and do good intentions necessarily lead to good results?

The panellists were:

• Robert Jacobi, author
• Dr Volker Then, Executive Director of the Centre for Social Investment and Innovation (CSI)
• Dr Steffen Sigmund, sociologist, University of Heidelberg
• Christian Steinberg, founder and board member of the Wertevolle Zukunft Foundation

If you would like to find out more about the panel discussion, please feel free to get in touch with us.