ERSTE Foundation
| THE ERSTE Austrian Spar-Casse private foundation | |
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| Legal form: | Austrian Savings Banks Private Foundation |
| Purpose: | non-profit |
| Chair: | Mario Catasta (chairman of the board) (board member) |
| Consist: | since 2003 |
| Founder: | emerged from the first Austrian Spar-Casse |
| Foundation capital: | Major shareholder of Erste Group |
| Number of employees: | about 20 |
| Seat: | Vienna |
| Website: | www.erstestiftung.org |
DIE ERSTE Österreichische Spar-Casse Privatstiftung ( ERSTE Foundation for short ) is the largest Sparkasse private foundation in Austria . It emerged in 2003 from Erste Österreichische Spar-Casse Aktienverwaltungssparkasse, which in turn was the direct legal successor to Erste Österreichische Sparkasse from 1819. As a private savings bank foundation, it is committed to charitable activities and at the same time plays a special role as the main shareholder of Erste Group . With the income from her shareholdings, she invests in social development in Austria and Central and Southeastern Europe .
Purpose and goals of the foundation
The foundation is active in Central and Southeastern Europe. In line with the charitable Sparkasse concept, it supports social participation and civil society engagement, it promotes social innovation, contemporary culture and the democratic future of Europe.
Thematic focus
Social innovation
The foundation works for just , inclusive societies. She works on the development of social infrastructures - from financial services for people without a bank to further training for non-governmental organizations to digital solutions for social problems . Social banking , initiatives for financial inclusion and more financial education are offers for individuals, social entrepreneurs and executives in the nonprofit sector .
Contemporary culture
The culture focus is on the visual arts of the present and supports arts and cultural sector , which differentiates critical, to social developments deal. Communicating these positions to actors in civil society is another concern.
European cohesion and democracy
The foundation supports the European unification process , wants to raise awareness of current issues and make knowledge available to mature, active citizens of Europe. Liberal democratic values should be accessible to everyone, and European cohesion should be promoted. One focus is on scholarship programs for journalists.
Long-term projects (selection)
- The second savings bank
- BeeTwo - supports digital social innovation and enables disadvantaged groups to access economic, political, social and cultural life through digital solutions.
- NGO Academy - has been promoting the civil society sector in Central and Southeastern Europe since 2013 with high-quality further training courses to strengthen organizational structures and management skills of managers and employees of NGOs. These are implemented in cooperation with the competence center for non-profit organizations and social entrepreneurship at the Vienna University of Economics and Business .
- Europe's Futures - Ideas for Action - is a platform for a renewed Europe. In cooperation with the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and the European Stability Initiative , leading European organizations and think tanks are networked in order to find joint solutions for key European issues: asylum and migration , rule of law and democracy , European expansion and social inclusion .
- Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence - offers scholarships for journalists from ten Balkan countries in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and Open Society Foundations in order to strengthen democracy and freedom of expression through qualified reporting in the media .
- Reporting Democracy - is a cross-border platform implemented by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, which offers scholarships to journalists who research the state of democracy in the Visegrad 4 countries and the Balkans.
- Contact. Art collection
- tranzit.org - is a network of independent art initiatives in Austria , Hungary , Romania , the Slovak and the Czech Republic , which aims to offer artists outside the state institutions opportunities to work, exhibit, discuss and reflect.
Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory
Since 2008, the foundation has presented the Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory , which is presented every two years to art historians and theorists from Central and Eastern Europe. The award goes to an important personality in cultural life, whose work has contributed to the fact that visual culture in Central and Southeastern Europe and the knowledge about it has become better known internationally. The award winner is selected by an international committee of experts. The prize is named after the Slovenian curator , art critic and author Igor Zabel (1958–2005), who, as chief curator of the Moderna galerija in Ljubljana, established one of the first cultural links between Eastern and Western Europe.
Prize winners:
- WHW (What, How and for Whom?) (2008)
- Piotr Piotrowski (2010)
- Suzana Milevska (2012)
- Ekaterina Degot (2014)
- Viktor Misiano (2016)
- Joanna Mytkowska (2018)
Participation in international foundation cooperations
ERSTE Foundation is involved in several cross-sectoral joint projects and funds:
- European Fund for the Balkans (EFB)
- Grantmakers East Forum of the European Foundation Center (efc)
- Civitates - a philanthropic initiative for democracy and solidarity in Europe
erstestiftung.org magazine
Since 2018, ERSTE Foundation has been publishing a bilingual (English / German) online magazine with original articles (text, image, video, podcast) as well as articles from renowned media in the region (including Dennik N, Political Critique, translated from Central and Eastern European languages) Gazeta Wyborcza ). The magazine sees itself as the mouthpiece of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe.
history
The foundation began in the 19th century. In 1819 the first Austrian Spar-Casse was founded. On the occasion of the amended Austrian Savings Bank Act, the first Austrian Spar-Casse was separated into an operational bank ( Erste Bank AG) and an owner (DIE ERSTE Österreichische Spar-Casse Aktienverwaltungssparkasse, or AVS for short) in 1993 . In 1997, through the IPO of Erste Bank, which had meanwhile merged with GiroCredit Bank , AVS became the main shareholder of the now permanently listed company. In 2003, AVS was formally transformed into DIE ERSTE Österreichische Spar-Casse Privatstiftung, in short: ERSTE Foundation, two years later this started its operational work as a non-profit foundation.
organization
The foundation is a private savings bank foundation under the Austrian Savings Bank Act .
Bodies
Organs of the foundation are the board of directors , the supervisory board and the association . The private savings bank association, which has existed since 1819 and has over 100 members, sends the members of the supervisory board and designates its president. The supervisory board appoints the members of the foundation board and controls the management. The board of directors runs the business and decides on the projects.
Members of the supervisory board
- Bettina Breiteneder
- Use Fetik
- Maximilian Hardegg
- Barbara Pichler
- Peter Pichler
- Johanna Rachinger
- Markus Trauttmansdorff
- Andreas Treichl (Chairman of the Supervisory Board)
- Manfred Wimmer (Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board)
Board members
- Mario Catasta (Chairman of the Board of Directors)
- Boris Marte (deputy chairman of the board)
- Eva Höltl (board member)
- Franz Portisch (board member)
Employees, budget and projects
The foundation employed around 20 people in 2019. Over 1,500 projects have been implemented or supported since 2005. Total expenditure by ERSTE Foundation for projects in the period from 2005 to 2019 was more than EUR 100 million.
Memberships in associations
The foundation is a member of the following national and international umbrella organizations:
- European Foundation Center (efc)
- Network of European Foundations (NEF)
- European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA)
- Association for charitable donations
- Association of Austrian Private Foundations (VÖP)
Library
The ERSTE Foundation Library, established in 2007, promotes knowledge by building collections and free access to media and information resources that support and reflect the subject areas and tasks of ERSTE Foundation. The media inventory comprises around 12,000 media units. The focus is on contemporary art and media theory , architecture and urban planning , media history , cultural theory and politics , feminism , gender and queer theory , minority and migration issues, Roma studies, economic and political developments , social banking , financial knowledge , foundations and philanthropy , demographic studies , migration , education , information literacy , new media and journalism , memory and recollection . Geographically, the collection activity is concentrated in Central and Southeastern Europe including Austria. The library is open to the public and can be used free of charge.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.erstestiftung.org/de/erste-stiftung/team/
- ↑ http://www.erstestiftung.org/de/publication/erste-stiftung-geschaeftsbericht-2018/
- ↑ https://www.beetwo.at/
- ↑ https://www.wu.ac.at/npocompetence
- ↑ https://www.iwm.at/research/projects/europes-futures/
- ↑ http://birn.eu.com/
- ↑ http://fellowship.birn.eu.com/en/page/home
- ↑ https://reportingdemocracy.org/
- ↑ http://tranzit.org/en
- ↑ https://www.balkanfund.org/
- ↑ https://www.efc.be/thematic-networks/grantmakers-east-forum/
- ↑ https://civitates-eu.org/
- ↑ http://www.erstestiftung.org/de/magazin/
- ^ C. Rapp, N. Rapp-Wimberger: Work, collect, multiply. From the first Austrian Spar-Casse to Erste Bank. Christian Brandstätter Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85498-404-9 , p. 7 ff.
- ↑ see annual reports and data sheet on the homepage: http://www.erstestiftung.org/inside-the-foundation/facts-figures/
- ↑ https://www.efc.be/
- ↑ https://www.nef-europe.org/
- ↑ https://evpa.eu.com/
- ↑ https://www.gemeinnuetzig-stiften.at/
- ↑ https://stiftungsverband.at/