Änderwerk: I am the founder and CEO of Änderwerk, a home for social change projects. Änderwerk also hosts Leap itself.
- Payment. I am paid for my work at Änderwerk, and hosting projects like Leap is part of this work.
- Expectations. Änderwerk shares Leap’s analysis of the philanthropic sector and the needs for participatory approaches to funding systemic alternatives. However, Änderwerk has no expectations with regard to how exactly Leap is supposed to work and organize.
- Credit/Disclosure. Änderwerk will mention my involvement with Leap in its yearly report as part of its commitment to transparency.
- Perspective. With Leap, I want to continue work that I have undertaken over the last years but unable to achieve alone. I am hoping to contribute experience in the funder and NGO world towards what Leap could and should do, and which mistakes to avoid.
- Potential conflicts of interest: donors. There may be cases where potential donors to Leap could also support Änderwerk overall. I do not expect this to become a practical problem, since I am transparent with funders about my different roles in this. In case there could be such conflict, I will be transparent about this in both Leap and Änderwerk.
- Potential conflict of interest: hosting arrangements. Leap will develop experiments and activities that may be in need of fiscal hosting themselves. In those cases, my double role could mean that such projects are drawn to Änderwerk.
My own “activist” projects: I am part of a number of movements around human rights and social change. I dedicate quite some time and personal resources especially to Freedom of Information requests that I hope can support the work of movements everywhere. I have filed more than 2.000 Freedom of Information requests at German and EU level and am currently suing more than a dozen public authorities and government agencies, including ministries of finance on matters of tax justice, police authorities and ministries of justice on questions of systemic racism, and the Germany ministry of defence in relation to nuclear weapons.
- Potential conflict of interest: A few of the organisations or projects I am involved in could potentially be interesting for Leap. If these organisations or projects were to seek funding from Leap, I would recuse myself from all related decisions (if I were involved at all).