Our beginnings
In 1876, the German entrepreneur Friedrich (“Fritz”) Karl Henkel founded the detergent factory Henkel & Cie in Aachen – today a global company more than 53,000 people worldwide.
The common good was always important to Fritz Henkel, as expressed in his maxim: “To be not only a good businessman, but also a good citizen, because ownership and tradition are an obligation.”
Since then, social commitment has been deeply rooted in the company. With the establishment of the charitable and independent Fritz Henkel Stiftung in February 2011, Henkel underlined its commitment to social engagement beyond its core business and further expanded its global Corporate Citizenship activities.
Our objectives
We are convinced that education is the key to a self-determined life and contributes to greater equity and cohesion in society. There are currently numerous barriers that make it difficult for young people in need to start out in life – these include their socio-economic background, ethnicity, language, reading comprehension, lack of support and a lack of structures in everyday life.
We tackle these barriers to involve young people more directly. This is why we focus on inclusive education in our work and in our social partnerships. We strive to give young people in need equal access to school education, career entry and social participation. We also support the areas of science, art and culture, exercise and health as well as ecology – provided these initiatives advance our society and strengthen social cohesion.
Our approach
The Fritz Henkel Stiftung promotes exclusively and directly charitable purposes. We strive to create an inclusive society through education. We want to make education accessible to all, break down barriers and promote equal opportunities. Because young people should have a right to be able to develop their potential – regardless of their social background. There is still a lot of catching up to do, especially in the public education sector. As a foundation, we can make an important contribution here and provide impetus.
We use various instruments to promote greater equity and cohesion in society, including funding competitions, prize foundations and model projects. Our activities are based on three pillars: Social partnerships, voluntary commitment and emergency aid.
As part of social partnerships, we support non-profit organizations, for example in the areas of school education, career entry and social participation.
We also realize the purpose of the foundation by supporting volunteer work of Henkel employees and retirees for social projects.
In addition, we provide rapid and unbureaucratic emergency aid worldwide following crisis situations such as natural disasters, most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.
Our aspiration
On our project pages, we report transparently on the progress and the results of our work, including the number of projects supported or the number of people reached. We are also in close contact with our partners to ensure that projects we support are impactful. In addition, we report on the use of our funds in accordance with regulations that apply to corporations of a comparable size: We publish an audit report with a joint financial report, which is audited by the responsible supervisory authority (Düsseldorf District Government).
The management, Management Board and volunteer employees see themselves as custodians of the founder’s will as formulated in the statutes and implement it responsibly. They act altruistically and avoid conflicts of interest or, in case of doubt, disclose them unprompted.
Funding principles
Who we support
We see ourselves primarily as a supporting foundation that enables third parties to develop and implement projects and initiatives. This means that we provide funds for projects that supplement existing programs, continue them in an innovative way or strengthen our goals in individual key areas. Examples of this include our partnership with Teach First Deutschland and the global initiative Teach for All, which supports young people at the transition points in the education system.
We are also active by either implementing our own projects or initiating new projects together with partners. This includes our joint project “Dein Kunstpalast” with the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, which aims to get people interested in art and culture who would otherwise never consider visiting a museum. We also see this as social participation.
We are always open to new project ideas. We scrutinize and examine applications intensively – not only because the name of the Fritz Henkel Stiftung is associated with every single project we support, but also to ensure that they have a social impact. The objectives of the project should be clearly defined and must fit in with our educational mission and topics. We make fundings public and review the results of a project after it has ended on the basis of the project objectives.
What we do not fund
For third-party projects, purely institutional funding, the covering of budget gaps and individual assistance – such as the financing of therapy costs, medical care, cars, equipment for the disabled or other equipment – is excluded. Unfortunately, we are unable to respond to such requests.
Other exclusion criteria are:
- major construction projects
- running infrastructure costs
- projects that lie in the past
- subsidies for printing costs
- unsustainable projects (no follow-up perspective)
- Non-innovative projects
Donations
Would you like to support the foundation’s projects?
You can help by making a donation to the Fritz Henkel Stiftung – every little amount counts. Please specify a purpose if your donation is to benefit a specific project.
Fritz Henkel Stiftung
Bank: Degussa Bank, Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland
IBAN: DE87500107000003905164
BIC: DEGUDEFFXXX
Management Board & Management
Dr. Simone Bagel-Trah
Chairwoman of the Management Board
Sylvie Nicol
Member of the Management Board
Marco Swoboda
Member of the Management Board
Karol-Monique Westhoff
Managing Director