Helmut K. Anheier, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin: "Role And Positioning of German Foundations"

Location:  TC.5.12

Time and Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 16:30

Despite a growing number of foundations and growing public awareness of them, foundations in Germany remain under-researched. The joint project of the Hertie School of Governance and the Centre for Social Investment of the University of Heidelberg headed by Helmut Anheier seeks to fill this gap by exploring which roles and positions foundations take in different fields, and how they contribute to society. To this end, four fields (Education, Science and Research, Welfare, Art and Culture) are examined on the basis of quantitative data (surveys, statistics) as well as qualitative analyses (expert interviews, case studies, focus groups). The joint project is funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Hertie Foundation, Robert Bosch Foundation, Mercator Foundation, and Volkswagen Foundation. In his lecture, Helmut Anheier will present the first results of the research project and put them in an international perspective.

Helmut K. Anheier, PhD, is President and Dean at the Hertie School of Governance, and holds a chair of sociology at Heidelberg University. He received his PhD from Yale University in 1986, was a senior researcher at John Hopkins School of Public Policy, Professor of Public Policy and Social Welfare at UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs, and Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics. Professor Anheier founded and directed the Centre for Civil Society at LSE, the Center for Civil Society at UCLA, and the Center for Social Investment at Heidelberg. Before embarking on an academic career, he served as social affairs officer to the United Nations. He is author of over 400 publications, and won various international prizes and recognitions for his scholarship. Amongst his recent book publications are Nonprofit Organizations - Theory, Management, Policy (London: Routledge, 2014), A Versatile American Institution: The Changing Ideals and Realities of Philanthropic Foundations (with David Hammack) (Washington, DC: Brookings, 2013), and The Global Studies Encyclopedia (with Mark Juergensmeyer) (5 volumes, Sage, 2012).  He is the principal academic lead of the Hertie School´s Annual Governance Report (Oxford University Press, 2013), and currently working on projects relating to indicator research, social innovation, and success and failure in philanthropy.