Skip to main content
Home Commitment Foundation Ethics

The Kindernothilfe Foundation: What we stand for

The work of the Kindernothilfe Foundation is based on trust – the certainty that value preservation, the preservation of the founder's wishes and investment security are always guaranteed. We are active in 36 countries around the world and our child rights-based work has an impact in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

 

Ethics, Sustainability and Transparency

Our actions at the Kindernothilfe Foundation are based on the pillars of ethics and sustainability, transparency and control. We are a development cooperation organisation that is primarily committed to the welfare of children and their rights. Kindernothilfe bases its actions on international human rights treaties, in particular the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In line with this approach, we are obliged to set and observe social, human rights and ecological criteria when investing money through endowments. The foundation's assets are managed in accordance with the principles of sustainable, social and environmentally compatible economic activity.

A credible and transparent investment policy is very important to us and is set out in a comprehensive list of criteria. This catalogue is essentially based on the development policy criteria for ethical investment of the Social Welfare Organisation of the Protestant Church in Germany. This ensures that the Kindernothilfe Foundation does not make any investments that violate justice, children's and human rights, peace and the preservation of creation.

How is the policy implemented?

For example, if a company wants to set up a foundation, we thoroughly review it beforehand. Strict exclusion criteria for companies include systematic violation of one of the four fundamental principles, such as freedom of association as defined by the International Labour Organisation, systematic violation of children's rights, involvement in the manufacture of armaments and in research and investment in armaments and landmines, or the production of nuclear power or uranium mining.

Show more

The bodies of the Kindernothilfe Foundation

The bodies of the Kindernothilfe Foundation consist of the foundation council, the executive board and the management. All three bodies are interconnected and monitor each other. This relationship ensures a high degree of transparency in our actions. The management of the foundation is supervised by the executive board. The executive board, in turn, is advised and monitored by the foundation council. Both bodies work on a voluntary basis.

Show more

  • The foundation council is an advisory and supervisory body. Jürgen Weerth is the chairman of the foundation council. It currently consists of six members. The foundation council approves the annual plan and annual financial statements prepared by the executive board and supervises the executive board's budgetary and financial management. The foundation council is also responsible for approving the actions of the executive board. The members of the foundation board are:

    Jürgen Weerth, Former German Ambassador 

    Christiane Wicht-Stieber (Vicepresident of the Foundation Council), Foundation Management Consultant at Bank für Kirche und Diakonie eG (KD-Bank)

    Bernd Baucks, Retired member of the High Consistory

    Christian Kromberg, Executive Director for Legal Affairs, Public Safety and Order for the City of Essen

    Ulrich Lilie, President of Diakonie Germany (retired)

    Helga Siemens-Weibring, Social scientist

  • The executive board is the legal representative of the Foundation and is advised and supervised by the foundation council. The executive board informs the foundation council about the foundation's activities.

    Katrin Weidemann, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kindernothilfe e. V. and the Kindernothilfe Foundation
    Carsten Montag, Chief Programme Officer (CPO) of Kindernothilfe e. V. and the Kindernothilfe Foundation
    Timo Pauler, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Kindernothilfe e. V. and the Kindernothilfe Foundation

  • Guido Osswald is the managing director of the Kindernothilfe Foundation. The management is appointed by the Executive Board. It manages the foundation's affairs and is bound by the instructions of the board of directors.

  • On 28 January 1999, the Kindernothilfe Foundation was approved by the Düsseldorf district government as a foundation with legal capacity under civil law. It is registered with the Duisburg-Süd tax office under tax number 109/5852/0211 and is exempt from tax due to its charitable purposes.
    The Kindernothilfe Foundation is controlled by three authorities:

    1. The supervisory authority for foundations grants legal capacity to the foundation's business and statutes, as well as the amount of assets. The supervisory authority regularly reviews the annual accounts and monitors compliance with the founder's wishes and the use of funds in accordance with the statutes.

    2. The tax office regularly reviews the charitable status and issues tax exemption certificates.

    3. As a third control mechanism, an independent auditing firm audits the Kindernothilfe Foundation's accounts and annual financial statements on an annual basis.

  • In order to inform all donors and foundation founders about the long-term impact of the foundation's work on children in need, the Kindernothilfe Foundation publishes a detailed annual report. We are obliged to provide a balance sheet as a template for our annual accounts, which provides information on the economic efficiency of the use of funds. In addition, we voluntarily prepare a balance sheet with a profit and loss statement in order to make the origin and use of foundation funds even more transparent. 

Contact