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Finances and transparency

Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte
We demand transparency from the government — and we also offer it ourselves! Here, we disclose our finances and structure as an association.

The Society for Civil Rights (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte or "GFF") was founded on 14 September 2015 in Berlin as a registered association and granted non-profit status in 2016.

1. How is the organisation structured?

The GFF's Board works on a voluntary basis and is closely involved in the work.

In order to secure the work of the GFF in the long term, the establishment of an office and the employment of permanent staff are indispensable. For our strategic litigation, we need lawyers, staff for public relations, fundraising, policy, and advocacy, as well as for collaboration with our partner organizations.

We rented our first small office space in the summer of 2017. Since our team expanded in 2020/2021, we moved to larger premises at Boyenstraße 41, 10115 Berlin, in September 2021.

In 2025, up to 60 people are working in our office, including interns and legal trainees. We also receive freelance support in the areas of communications, fundraising, press relations, and graphic design.

Following a comparison of prices and quality, selected companies handle our accounting ( Schomerus), payroll accounting ( Taxmaro), maintenance of fundraising software ( Systopia), and newsletter distribution ( Dialog-Mail).

2. Where does the money come from?

In order for the GFF to work politically independently and take on long-term commitments by filing lawsuits, we must be financially independent. We therefore do not accept any government funding.

Supporting memberships are particularly important to us. Through their regular contributions, our supporting members enable us to plan our finances over the long term and to enter into protracted obligations related to litigation.

The three pillars of our financial independence are:

  • supporting memberships
  • individual donations and
  • institutional donations, especially by foundations.

We are generally open to donations from companies. We review each acceptance of a donation, as it must not result in any influence on our work.

We publish an up-to-date breakdown of our income and the development of the number of our supporters annually in our annual reports. Please find the download links to the individual reports under “4. Financial transparency and lobby register.”

Here you will find a list of institutional sponsors who have supported our work in the past or are currently supporting it. Further information can also be found in our annual reports.

List of institutional grants
Cooperations

Three expert events were held in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and one with the Foundation Forum Recht. These collaborations did not involve any funding or grants. They were joint events for which the GFF and its partners each assumed on specific costs and responsibilities.

3. What do we spend the money on?

The GFF funds strategic litigation aimed at realising fundamental and human rights as well as public relations work related to the lawsuits. In accordance with the GFF's bylaws (in German), it thus contributes to the promotion of democratic governance. You can find details on the use of funds in our annual reports.

3.1 Costs of cases

The costs of cases vary greatly. Depending on the case, they consist of the court costs, which depend on the value of the dispute, the costs for representing the plaintiffs in court, costs for press and public relations work and our own personnel and office costs.

If we win a case, the other side covers the court costs and part of the costs of our legal representation. If our side loses, we have to bear these costs ourselves, as well as the costs of any legal representation of the other side. This creates a cost risk that, depending on the case, can range from several thousand to several tens of thousands of euros. Even in the event of a victory, we have to bear the non-refundable part of our costs (share of the legal representation, internal costs).

That is why it is very important for the GFF to build up sufficient financial reserves.

In addition, we need to be able to decide quickly whether we want to take a case to a higher judicial instance, which involves further costs and financial risks. That is why we have to keep replenishing our financial reserves over the entire duration of the proceedings - which can take up to ten years.

When we win our cases, we use the reimbursed funds directly for new cases or add them to our litigation reserve.

3.2 Personnel costs

Our team and our specialist expertise are the key prerequisites for the GFF's successful work. At the heart of the organization is the legal team, which handles the cases from a legal perspective. In addition, there is a communications team, which which manages public relations work, an administrative team, as well as staff responsible for fundraising, policy and advocacy, and IT. The General Secretariat manages the organization's affairs, coordinates the work of the entire team and its strategy, and liaises with the Board.

Depending on the funding of individual projects, project coordinators or other support staff are hired on a temporary basis. Student assistants also make valuable contributions to our work. The GFF is a popular training station for legal trainees. In addition, we offer interns and young people the opportunity to work with us as part of a voluntary social year.

Payment is based on an internal salary system modeled on the TVöD Bund. It is important to us that the GFF offers a professional working environment with fair compensation. We are committed to good and fair working conditions, because the values and principles of the GFF are incompatible with precarious employment or self-exploitation.

We also want to ensure fair compensation for our partner lawyers and legal representatives so that the cases are conducted in the best possible manner. However, we do welcome support and the acceptance of cases on a pro bono basis.

3.3 Organisational costs

High-quality work requires professional and modern working conditions. This includes, above all, the rental costs for the office and the technical equipment for the workstations. We have outsourced our bookkeeping and payroll accounting – we carry out the preparatory work.

Our work touches on a very sensitive area, and many of our complainants and partner organizations rightly expect a high level of confidentiality. We have therefore decided to set up our own IT infrastructure as far as possible. This allows us to control our systems independently and ensures a high level of IT security, but it also involves increased investment and higher basic costs (e.g., due to our own server and fiber optic connection).

3.4 Other costs

One of the GFF's important objectives is to raise awareness of the potential of strategic litigation for fundamental rights in Germany and to educate people about the content and significance of civil liberties and human rights. To this end, we work closely with other non-governmental organizations and academic institutions, thereby also promoting science and research — another statutory purpose of the GFF. This involves costs for events or the promotion of smaller projects. A positive side effect are the many direct contacts we make, for example with students who we later meet again as lawyers.

4. Financial Transparency and lobby register

The GFF demands transparency in many areas – this of course also includes our own work. In our annual reports (in German) we provide information about our work as well as details about our income and expenditure.

Annual Report 2024

Annual Report 2023

Annual Report 2022

Annual Report 2021

Annual Report 2020

Annual Report 2018/2019

Annual Report 2017

An auditing firm audits our annual financial statements.

Since February 2022, we have been registered in the lobby register for the representation of interests vis-à-vis the German Bundestag and the German government. We are therefore obliged to disclose third-party donations (e.g., donations or supporting memberships) exceeding €10,000 and more than ten percent of the total amount.

5. Transparent Civil Society Initiative

In order to make our work transparent according to uniform criteria, we have joined the Transparent Civil Society Initiative and are committed to making the information below available to the public and keeping it up to date.

In some points we refer to our most recent annual report, which we will usually publish online six months after the end of the respective year.

5.1 Name, registered office, address and year of foundation

  • Society for Civil Rights, Berlin, Boyenstraße 41, D-10115 Berlin
  • Year of foundation: 2015

5.2 Complete bylaws and information on the objectives of our organisation

  • Bylaws (in German)
  • Objectives of our work

5.3 Information on tax concessions

  • The GFF’s work qualifies for tax concessions due to support of science and research, support of consumer advice and consumer protection as well as general support of democratic governance according to the last notice of exemption we received from the Tax Office for Associations I, Berlin, dated 21.05.2024.

5.4 Names and responsibilities of key decision-makers

  • You can find an overview of our board and our team here.

5.5 Annual report

5.6 Staff structure

5.7 Information on funding sources

5.8 Information on the use of funds

5.9 Affiliations with third parties under company law

  • None

5.10 Names of individuals whose annual donations exceed 10% of the total annual budget.

  • No individual exceeded this limit in the years 2018 till 2024. Other organisations that support our work are listed above or in the respective annual reports.
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