We primarily support communities and volunteer structures. Rather than simply sending money to projects, we tailor our support to the needs of individuals engaged in the areas we cover to create sustainable development. This enables individuals and groups to concentrate on their core strengths, while we take bureaucratic burdens off their hands.

This includes:

• legal support
• organisational support
• conferences, workshops and general travel expenses
• aiding and relaying grant applications to other bodies
• technological expertise
• access to our network

Our Philosophy of Support:

We believe that our commitment to freedom should also be reflected in the way we support individuals and groups. For the projects we support this means that we aim to take bureaucratic matters off their hands rather than burdening them even more with complicated and impractical report structures. We are fully aware of the many unexpected twists and turns projects can take especially in their early stages, and offer tailored support accordingly. Rather than punishing groups or individuals for changes and new perspectives, we regard these as very normal and often necessary stages in any project, especially in the fast moving digital space. Similarly, we acknowledge that taking risks, including the risk of failure, is part of many worthwhile undertakings in life, and therefore also of research projects or grass-roots initiatives.

This also means that we are ready to support explorative projects, most of which are in too early stages for applications with other funders, or initiatives that are still working on what their final goals might be.

We also realize that while direct monetary support can be helpful in many cases, it can also thwart the prospects of grass-roots initiatives and volunteer networks. We place great faith in such communities and networks. Our methods of help are transparent, and our primary tools are trust and honesty. We rely on long-lasting relationships, and share ideas and thoughts with a large number of experts in their respective fields.

Here as well, we tailor our support to the respective needs of initiatives and volunteer groups, offering know-how, access to networks, or legal and organizational support instead of or in addition to direct funding. For many projects we have supported, the contacts or knowledge we are able to provide were of much greater help than mere financial support would have been.

Our focus is on needs-based collaboration with humans, not with organizations. What does the person want? And what do they really need?