The Bertelsmann Foundation is the largest private operating non-profit foundation

Foundation (charity)

A foundation is a legal categorization of nonprofit organizations that will typically either donate funds and support to other organizations, or provide the source of funding for its own charitable purposes....

 in Germany, created in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn

Reinhard Mohn

Reinhard Mohn was a German businessman who turned Bertelsmann, a "provincial, war-shattered German publisher", into the sixth largest media conglomerate in the world.-Early life:...

. The Bertelsmann Foundation holds 77.4 percent of Bertelsmann AG.

The Bertelsmann Foundation is active in political, social, economic, educational, cultural and health-related issues. It does not provide grants

Grant (money)

Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...

, scholarship

Scholarship

A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...

s or project funding to others, but focuses on researching, publishing and stimulating public debate on its topics. It is active worldwide and has since inception spent around €868 million on nonprofit projects. The total budget for the 2009 fiscal year has amounted to €62.9 million, according to the foundation.

The Foundation is based in Gütersloh

Gütersloh

Gütersloh is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 96,320 people.- Geography :...

, with representations in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Washington D.C., and Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

. The board includes Gunter Thielen

Gunter Thielen

Gunter Thielen is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Bertelsmann Foundation.He graduated from RWTH Aachen University, with a PhD, in mechanical engineering and economics...

 (chairperson), Liz Mohn

Liz Mohn

Liz Mohn née Beckmann is the widow of Reinhard Mohn, the owner of the media conglomerate Bertelsmann. She serves on the supervisory board of Bertelsmann and on the board of the Bertelsmann Foundation....

 (deputy chairperson), Jörg Dräger and Brigitte Mohn.

Criticism

Bertelsmann Foundation has been criticised for their engagement in the political field, especially in educational

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 and labour politics, where they were allegedly promoting neoliberal ideas such as an increase of competition in education and research and for the introduction of tuition fees to the German university system. The foundation has been accused of channeling their concepts into reforms of public universities in order to eliminate e.g. free access to education and academic autonomy.

External links

• Bertelsmann Foundation (official website, in English)