Transparency in the non-profit sector is essential – and particularly important to us. That is why we have joined the Initiative for a Transparent Civil Society. We are committed to making the following ten pieces of information available to the public and keeping them up to date.
1. Name, registered office, address and year of establishment of our organization
Name: Schöpflin Foundation
Registered office: Franz-Ehret-Straße 7, 79541 Lörrach, Germany
Administrative office: Industriestraße 2, 79541 Lörrach, Germany
Contact person: Julia Rommel; julia.rommel@schoepflin-stiftung.de
Year of establishment: 2001
2. Full statutes as well as vision
We are committed to fostering critical awareness, a vibrant democracy, and a diverse society. Through our work, we seek to empower young people and help lay the groundwork for a better future.
3. Date of the most recent notice from the tax office confirming recognition as a tax-privileged (non-profit) organization
The most recent notice from the tax office (dated 16 December 2025) can be found here:
4. Names and positions of key decision-makers (e.g. executive management, board, and supervisory bodies)
The names and roles of our governing bodies can be found here:
5. Report on the activities of our organization
Our 2025 Annual Report (available only in German) provides information about the Schöpflin Foundation's activities over the past year.
6. Staff structure: Number of regular employees, freelancers, marginally employed staff, federal volunteers; information on volunteers
| As of 01 May 2025 | Number of |
|---|---|
| Regular employees | 63 |
| Federal volunteers (Bundesfreiwilligendienstleistende) | 4 |
| Interns/student assistants | 2 |
| Marginally employed staff (mini-jobs) | 17 |
| Freelancers/contract workers: | 20 |
| Volunteers | 2 |
7. Sources of funding
Information on sources of funding can be found here:
8. Use of funds
You can view information about how the funds were used here:
9. Legal affiliations with third parties, e.g. parent or subsidiary companies, supporting associations, outsourced commercial enterprises, partner organizations
10. Names of legal entities whose annual contributions account for more than ten percent of our total annual income.
There are no other legal entities whose contributions exceed ten percent of our total annual income.
The majority of the foundation's annual funds provided for the fulfillment of its purpose comes from Hans Schöpflin's "Family Office". His assets are invested there in a diversified manner. The foundation's units - such as the Schöpflin School or Villa Schöpflin - receive additional funding from the public sector. In order to create transparency of the source of funds, Hans Schöpflin has answered the following questions about his investment decisions.
(Information on the Schöpflin mail-order company can be found here.)
1. When selecting investments, are there explicit criteria in which sectors or business areas should not be invested?
Hans Schöpflin: We invest in people. In our view, quality people are the primary determinant of investment outcomes. We partner with management teams and Boards possessing the desired skills, talent, ethics and drive to achieve uncommon investment results.
We search for areas offering outsized capital growth potential, primarily in two industry sectors:
(i) healthcare (specifically, oncology, therapeuric drug development – diseases of the eye, liver, skin; and various medical devices addressing incontinence, the heart, and knee replacement); and
(ii) information technologies (namely, cyber-security and fintech).
These two broad sectors comprise the majority of my portfolio AUM (Assets Under Management). The remainder of AUM is represented by diversified global funds and US real estate (principally, multi-family apartments and land).
My personal interests, reflected in how I invest, are focused upon the health, well-being, and productivity of humanity.
Our investment acumen is strengthened by collaboration with a strong independent expert network and an internal state of constant learning. We hold, monitor, study, and report upon positions for the long term. I have three distinct advantages over other investors: I can afford to take some risk, I seek certain ingredients to enhance the probability of success, I am sufficiently patient to allow quality management teams execute their plans.
I can tell without reservation that we do not invest into companies or funds with known strategies focused upon:
However, nor am I like a pension fund with the individual financial heft able to impart investment restrictions on fund managers.
2. Is business policy influenced by companies in which shares are held in the sense of ESG topics (environment / social / governance)? If so, are there explicit targets for this, commitment goals?
Many of our fund managers in the US and UK have already adopted ESG principles of their own, consistent with the principles one would expect.
We have not set explicit ESG policy targets by design. My stance to this question has been learned from experience. I have found that ESG or socially-responsible investing (SRI) means so many different things to different people – this creates confusion and muddles investment strategy. A successful SRI policy using targets is quite difficult to define and execute in practice. Additionally, the emphasis given to SRI metrics can run contrary to sound investing. We have found SRI managers making investments they shouldn’t. This brings us back to my first tenet of investing – invests in quality people. Instead of trying to force specific levels of investment that may not be capital efficient, I have sought to build a portfolio that meets sound investment criteria in a responsible manner.
3. What publicly available reporting on investment management is available?
The details of my investments aren't public. In the spirit of transparency, I would like to share how my wealth came about. I have had some extraordinary investment success over the years:
I have spent years building up and around these and other stocks as the companies matured, diversifying into global funds and US multi-family real estate, but the concentrated venture investments I made decades ago created the wealth I have today.
We are a member of the Alliance "Legal Certainty for Political Advocacy", because the prevailing uncertainty in non-profit law affects and threatens the important work of many of our grantees. The alliance brings together organizations that advocate for the protection of non-profit status for NGOs that contribute to political decision-making.
We are a member of the Association of German Foundations and participate in the Forum of Grantmaking Foundations (Forum Förderstiftungen), the Expert Group on Quality Journalism (Expertenkreis Qualitätsjournalismus) and the Expert Group on Education (Arbeitskreis Bildung).
We are a member of the EDGE Funders Alliance because it brings together a community of progressive, forward-thinking foundations that are critically engaged with issues of power, sustainability, and social impact. Sharing ideas at the European level is also always very stimulating for our work.
We are a member of Philea (Philanthropy Europe Association), an organization based in Brussels that represents around 10,000 foundations, all national foundation associations in Europe as well as philanthropic organizations and networks. Philea's aim is to make philanthropy more visible and more heard throughout Europe.
We are a member of Swiss Foundations, the most important association of grantmaking foundations in Switzerland. As a foundation headquartered in the border triangle of Germany, France and Switzerland, it is of great importance to us to network and exchange ideas with our neighbors.
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