‘We want to inspire people to look to the future with hope.’

What is the Humanismus Stiftung Berlin (Humanism Foundation Berlin) and why is it needed?

The foun­da­ti­on was estab­lished in 2006 to build up sus­tainable capi­tal and use the inco­me to sup­port huma­nist pro­jects and insti­tu­ti­ons and imple­ment its own pro­jects. We want to inspi­re peo­p­le to look to the future with hope. We want them to pass on their values and invest in a huma­nist future. We want to con­ti­nue living in a peaceful, demo­cra­tic socie­ty based on human rights tomor­row. And in light of cur­rent world events, that is sud­den­ly no lon­ger a given.

Rey Krentz has been an hono­ra­ry mem­ber of the board sin­ce 2018 and chair sin­ce 2023. At the Huma­nis­ti­sche Hoch­schu­le Ber­lin, foun­ded in 2022, she is respon­si­ble for phil­an­thro­py and part­ner­ships. She work­ed for the Huma­nis­ti­scher Ver­band Ber­lin-Bran­den­burg for six years, most recent­ly as head of the Enga­ge­ment & Cul­tu­re depart­ment. As Direc­tor of Mar­ke­ting & Mem­ber­ship, she was respon­si­ble for the mem­ber­ship pro­gram­me and mar­ke­ting for the MENA, India and Euro­pe regi­ons at The Owners Forum, a fami­ly busi­ness net­work. Pri­or to that, she was the owner of art for public — Kul­tur­kon­zep­te und Mar­ke­ting from 2006 to 2012, working as a cura­tor and con­cept deve­lo­per for muse­ums, minis­tries and edu­ca­tio­nal insti­tu­ti­ons. In this con­text, she lived in Istan­bul for a year as an aut­hor. Rey Krentz stu­di­ed cul­tu­ral manage­ment and fund­rai­sing.

What projects have you launched in 2024?

It is pri­ma­ri­ly the appli­cants with their pro­ject ide­as and plans who crea­te space for deba­te and reach peo­p­le. As a foun­da­ti­on, we are deligh­ted to be able to sel­ect and sup­port the most inte­res­t­ing for­mats from the many excel­lent pro­ject appli­ca­ti­ons we recei­ve. In 2023, we rede­si­gned our fun­ding gui­de­lines. This now allows us to finan­ce pro­jects in a more focu­sed and gene­rous man­ner. The new gui­de­lines were appli­ed for the first time in 2024. We were able to gene­rous­ly sup­port the estab­lish­ment of the sci­en­ti­fic libra­ry at the Huma­nist Uni­ver­si­ty Ber­lin with a five-figu­re sum. We also deci­ded to finan­ce the pro­gram­me of the Huma­nist Aca­de­my as part of the Long Night of the Sci­en­ces. This event offe­red a wide ran­ge of lec­tures and dis­cus­sions on topics rele­vant to social deba­tes. At the House of Huma­nism, we were able to sup­port three cul­tu­ral events, each of which focu­sed on a very dif­fe­rent audi­ence and topic. The Children’s Rights Fes­ti­val was a new for­mat for a topic on which the asso­cia­ti­on orga­ni­s­es annu­al events for child­ren and young peo­p­le, which we are always hap­py to sup­port.

Which moments have stayed with you in particular?

Every two years, we award the Huma­nism Pri­ze for Human Rights. Even when we meet as a jury and look at and dis­cuss the many gre­at civil socie­ty initia­ti­ves or the com­mit­ment of indi­vi­du­al peo­p­le, the­re is a lot of hope and it is very moving. It is always moving sto­ries and often fates that moti­va­te peo­p­le to take action. Being able to express our app­re­cia­ti­on with this award is our small con­tri­bu­ti­on to mee­ting peo­p­le who resist and fight for a more just world on a dai­ly or recur­ring basis.

How is the foundation financed and what role do donations or subsidies play?

As a non-pro­fit foun­da­ti­on, we rely on dona­ti­ons, endow­ments and bequests. We all work for the foun­da­ti­on on a vol­un­t­a­ry basis and the­re is only a small admi­nis­tra­ti­ve office with mini-jobs to sup­port the neces­sa­ry admi­nis­tra­ti­ve tasks. We have a core group of sup­port­ers, but demo­gra­phic chan­ge does not stop at our door. People’s com­mit­ment has chan­ged and we are stri­ving to inspi­re more and more peo­p­le to embrace huma­ni­stic values. We are deligh­ted when peo­p­le place their trust in us in their wills and name our foun­da­ti­on as their heir or lega­tee. This has enab­led us to grow the foundation’s assets to just under one mil­li­on euros over the years. Nevert­hel­ess, we are still a small foun­da­ti­on and can­not yet be as acti­ve as we would like to be.

What are the foundation’s plans for 2025 and beyond?

Our long-term goal is to signi­fi­cant­ly increase the foundation’s capi­tal so that we can achie­ve even more in the future. Next year, we will be cele­bra­ting in style – we want to cele­bra­te 20 years of foun­da­ti­on work with our sup­port­ers and com­pa­n­ions and will once again award the Huma­nism Pri­ze for Human Rights.