Active citizenship
The Active citizenship is the competence center for civil commitment of the cooperative financial cooperative banks. Supported by well-known personalities from society, business and politics, science and the media, the non-profit foundation advocates a fair and efficient civil society. Private engagement for the common good should precede government action. Active citizenship therefore wants to sustainably strengthen civic engagement and non-profit organizations. In 1997 the active citizenship was founded as an association by the WGZ-Bank , the R + V Versicherung , the Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall and the WL Bank in Münster. Since 2002 the active citizenship has its seat and the office in Berlin. On December 10, 2014, the Active Citizenship Foundation was legally recognized by the Berlin Senate Department for Justice and Consumer Protection.
Active Citizenship Award
The Active Citizenship Award is one of the first awards for civic engagement in Germany. The Active Citizenship has been awarding the sponsorship prize annually since 1998 to associations, foundations and other non-profit organizations; since 2002 it has been aimed at community foundations . Over 1,200 associations, initiatives and community foundations from all over Germany have so far participated in the nationwide competition. 53 non-profit organizations have so far been awarded the 40,000 euro award.
With the nationwide competition for the sponsorship award, the active citizenship would like to recognize and appreciate the commitment of the community foundations to society. She would like to encourage other people and institutions to get involved with community foundations for their city or region. The sponsorship award is also intended to encourage mutual learning among community foundations. The award is given in the four categories “mitBestimmen”, “mitGestalten”, “mitStiften” and “mitMachen”, which represent the main tasks of community foundations.
Since then, the community foundations Ahrensburg, Arnsberg, Bad Essen, Barnim Uckermark, Berlin, Bielefeld, Braunschweig, Dresden, Dülmen, EmscherLippe-Land, Fürstenfeldbruck, Halle, Hamburg, Hanover, Heilbronn, Hellweg-Region have been recognized for their outstanding work and groundbreaking ideas. Soest), Herten, Jena, Kehl, Landshut, Leipzig, Lilienthal, Lingen, Munich, Münster, Neukölln (Berlin), Neuss, Nuremberg, Ratzeburg, Palatinate, Salzland - Schönebeck region, Schwäbisch Hall, Stuttgart, Vechta, Weimar, Wiesbaden and Wiesloch awarded the sponsorship award.
In 2019, the Active Citizenship Award was awarded for the first time in four new categories: banks, community foundations, media and schools. This is intended to honor the “public attention, appreciation and support for civic engagement and journalistic engagement with this important topic”. The laudators were Ilka Brecht , Diana Kinnert , Inge Michler and Christine Urspruch . The event took place on May 24, 2019 at DZ BANK in Berlin.