40 years Rainer Winter Foundation
"I have made it my mission to help needy, sick and disabled children quickly and unbureaucratically," says family entrepreneur and foundation founder Rainer Winter about his social commitment behind the Rainer Winter Foundation. Founded in 1980, the Rainer Winter Foundation, based in Fürth, Germany, celebrated its 40th anniversary on August 15th.
Rainer Winter, who has managed the fortunes of the Fürth-based uvex group, a family-owned business in the second generation since the early 1960s, is considered one of the pioneers of corporate involvement in social projects. "I didn't want to donate to any pots of large organisations," explains Rainer Winter. "My particular focus was on being able to influence myself to whom or which children were donated directly. So he decided to set up his own foundation in 1980 and provide it with a reasonable start-up capital. It took several years before the foundation became known and the commitment to children was also supported by third parties. In the following years until today, Rainer Winter, his family and the uvex group donated through the foundation for needy and sick children in Switzerland and abroad. An important component of this is the uvex group's Christmas campaign, which has been held regularly since 1986: "Donations instead of Attention", is supported by employees, customers, suppliers and service providers of the uvex group and has so far achieved the proud sum of around 1 million euros in donations. The proceeds from the Advent bazaars for employees of the family-owned company, organised by the uvex group trainees, will also benefit the Rainer Winter Foundation.
Rainer Winter and his family still account for the lion's share of donations received. The foundation is organised by the family: daughter Gabriele Grau is Board member, granddaughter Alexa Grau Member of the Advisory Board and honorary responsible for the foundation administration. Werner Grau, husband of Gabriele Grau, is also active in the advisory board of the foundation, which is supported by three other advisory board members.
In total, the Rainer Winter Foundation has implemented over 40 projects and supported more than 10,000 children. The focus of the Foundation's activities is now on the Nuremberg-Fürth-Erlangen metropolitan region. 50 percent of the donations are used here. In the 40 years of its existence, the Rainer Winter Foundation has spent around 3.5 million euros on children in need. This amount corresponds to the total amount of donations received for the purpose of the foundation. Rainer Winter's goal for the future is to strengthen the Foundation in such a way that even in less donor-rich years, funds will still be available for needy children and that the support of third parties for the projects will continue to increase. Over the past 40 years, the foundation's capital has been increased to the current level of 550,000 euros.
