Michael Otto Foundation for Sustainability

In addressing the major challenges of our time, the foundation is dedicated to a number of topics: the promotion of liberal democracy, the strengthening of human rights, the preservation of biodiversity and the support of innovative educational concepts relating to democracy and sustainability. For Michael Otto, these are all closely linked. In order to meet the challenges presented by both climate change and the biodiversity crisis and to strengthen cohesion in our society, we all need to take forward-looking and courageous action. “Openness to change and experiencing diversity at first hand can help us create sustainable solutions together in order to live and work as a community peacefully and in harmony with nature in the long term,” Michael Otto argues. The aim of the foundation's work is to empower people to help shape the world in which they live.

The Michael Otto Foundation for Sustainability acts as a partner in this sense and is actively involved in funding alliances. The foundation is currently focusing on promoting liberal democracy combined with the question of how to counteract the increasing polarization in Germany and contribute to greater social cohesion. To this end, it supports specific approaches in the area of media and discourse skills for different population groups as well as citizen participation and dialog formats, primarily to bring people with different perspectives back into the conversation. The foundation is also involved in projects to preserve biodiversity, currently with a focus on East Africa. The primary aim here is to work with local people to protect ecosystems and their functions, conserve wildlife populations and endangered species and develop sustainable, nature-based economic models for the local population, thereby creating new prospects for people.