Monographie Bonn-Rhein-Sieg

CIVIC INVOLVEMENT AND THE PHILANTHROPIC SECTOR
“Do good and talk about it” is a well-known sentence. If this
will help to draw public attention to charity, helpfulness,
support and protection, then it surely isn’t the worst of ideas.
This is because, where attention is attracted, it grows into
awareness and, ideally, possibly even engagement and civic
involvement.
be presented here, two of these outstandingly functioning
initiatives can be mentioned as examples that represent the
full bandwidth. On the one hand, the civic trust Buschdorf,
which is involved in the fields of senior, children and young
adult support, orphans, support for persons with disabilities
and social work in the area.
Variety is important
Civic involvement has many facets – be it as an honorary office,
in an association, a voluntary commitment in an initiative,
an organisation, a union, or as a mutual advocacy for a
certain concern. Already in earlier times, foundations that
had the purpose of providing targeted support were established
for certain areas of social responsibility. They provided
the capital to translate certain initiatives into action. Especially
in the past decades, a clear increase in the establishment
of foundations with greatly varying objectives has
been recognised.
In Bonn alone, there are more than 180 incorporated
foundations, and in the 53 postal code area there currently
are 303. Whilst the Limbach foundation, which is located in
Wachtberg-Berkum and has the purpose of supporting
senior citizen welfare, already received its recognition in
1898, the two youngest, the Hannes-Lindemann Marine
Foundation (which has the foundation goal of education,
upbringing, vocational training, nature conservation, en -
vironmental protection, public health care and hospitals,
animal protection, science and research) and the Knut
Hinrichs foundation (with the foundation goal of development
assistance) were only recognised in 2016. Both newly
established foundations have their headquarters in Bonn.
On the other hand, there is the civic trust Bonn, a community
foundation of numerous dedicated citizens, all of whom
pursue a common objective: making life richer in content
in Bonn and for Bonn. The foundation was initiated by
Sparkasse Bonn (since 2005 Sparkasse KölnBonn) in 2001
and has the purpose of sustainably promoting civic involvement
on a diversified footing.
Everyone can become a founder
Frequently it was personal experience and sometimes
misfortunes or the attempt to take action and remedy an
injustice that resulted in the establishment of a foundation
by private persons. Time and again, prominent persons have
given their name for a good cause or were even initiators
themselves. Also, large organisations or multi-corporate
enterprises often operate an own foundation.
Bonn’s donation parliament has selected another approach.
It supports non-profit associations, initiatives and groups
that combat poverty, isolation and homelessness, or those
that dedicate their efforts toward integrating all population
groups, and supporting education opportunities for young
people in Bonn. Within the context of parliamentary meetings,
the members of the parliament decide on the concrete
use of the donations.
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Two examples
Corporate responsibility
There are a number of civic trusts and they are found especially
often in the federal city. Although all of them cannot
For a number of years, the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg Chamber of
Industry and Commerce has been committed to the social
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