Funding Conditions
Can I apply to the Toepfer Foundation for funding for my own plans or projects?
In its work, the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S. sees itself primarily as an operational foundation that initiates and implements its own projects and programmes within the framework of its statutory purpose. It is open to partnerships and co-operation in relation to the topics it works on, but does not usually support third-party projects.
However, in exceptional cases relating to three fields of our work under the motto ‘Small Change’, applications for funding may be considered where projects by others make a particular contribution to the Foundation's objectives and programme. The foundation sees the ‘Small Change’ funding funds as a search for initiatives or projects where ‘small money’ can have a big impact, i.e. where it can be expected to make a difference. A connection to the goals and programme of the foundation's work is mandatory.
If you would like to submit an application for funding for your own plans or projects, please note the following points:
Please read the general funding conditions carefully
Please complete the application form for the funding fund that matches your project (overview of programme-specific funding funds below)
Please provide us with a completed cost and financing plan via the application form (the templates can be found on the respective subpages of the funding funds)
Only fully completed applications can be considered
The three programme-specific development funds are:
- Small Change for Hamburg & Europe
According to its statutes, the Toepfer Foundation is particularly committed to European understanding and unification while preserving cultural diversity. In this context, projects are generally eligible for funding if at their core they promote dialogue and familiarity in Europe and bring people together across milieus and borders. The mere participation of people of different European origins in a cultural or scientific activity is not sufficient to justify the objective; even purely bilateral projects require additional justification with regard to the European dimension of the project.
The Toepfer Foundation feels equally committed to its "home port" of Hamburg and to social cohesion in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. We welcome corresponding applications that are aimed at social dialogue, the coexistence of cultures, religions or milieus as well as the strengthening of a lively, discourse-open and pluralistic urban society. Here, too, it is not sufficient to justify an application on the grounds that the activities are taking place in Hamburg.
You can find more information and the application form here.
- Small Change for Transformative Change
Nature and landscape conservation, agriculture and forestry have traditionally been at the core of the Toepfer Foundation's activities. Since 2007, these "green activities" have been bundled under the title "Future-orientated land use". Against the backdrop of the climate and biodiversity crisis, the Foundation is interested in approaches that address the pressure for change on agricultural and food systems, landscapes, ecosystems and urban-rural relationships in a constructive way.
In this context, projects can be funded that make a contribution to the socio-ecological transformation towards sustainability, for example by testing innovative approaches to more sustainable and climate-friendly land use or by creating opportunities for transformative learning and democratic discourse on these issues. We particularly welcome projects that combine social and ecological issues - for example, projects that seek answers to how future-oriented land use can be organised more fairly and how the transformation towards sustainability can be shaped collectively.
Funding is focussed on northern to federal Germany, but projects in other European countries can also be funded in individual cases.
You can find more information and the application form here.
- Small Change for Culture & History
The Toepfer Foundation supports ideas and projects in the fields of culture and history with small contributions.
We see culture as a place of encounter and discourse and are particularly interested in the contributions that cultural initiatives make to this, as well as in reaching marginalised target groups. At the same time, we want to stimulate innovation and change on a small scale and therefore also provide funding for new, daring and unexpected projects.
A critical examination of its own history and the involvement of its founder in the National Socialist era is an ongoing task for the Toepfer Foundation. We are therefore particularly open to requests for funding that seek an active and critical engagement with the German and European history of the 20th century, projects that deal with the culture of remembrance and initiatives that use references to history to combat anti-Semitism, racism and marginalisation.
You can find more information and the application form here.
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