Stiftung Charité

Stiftung Charité

Stiftung Charité was founded in 2005 by Johanna Quandt, the late BMW heiress, as an independent private non-profit foundation. Rather than a vehicle for broad philanthropic dispersal, the foundation is a concentrated instrument that channels the Quandt family's local commitment into Berlin's life sciences sector, primarily through Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The foundation's governance reflects direct family involvement: Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten, Johanna's children, serve as major donors and board members, binding the legacy to active stewardship. The foundation deploys capital through three core funding programs: Innovationsförderung (innovation support), Wissenschaftsförderung (science support), and Open Life Science. In practice this translates to targeted grants — in 2026, it committed €900,000 to Charité's international strategic partnership program aligned with its 2030 internationalization strategy. Another recent allocation funded the Max Rubner Innovation Prize, backing a cross-disciplinary psychiatry-to-emergency-medicine project. Stiftung Charité concentrates on digital health, translational research, and clinical infrastructure exclusively in Berlin. External engagement runs through the Angels4Health angel-investor network and membership in the European Venture Philanthropy Association. Unlike a grantmaking body focused purely on research input, Stiftung Charité operates its own event formats — Charité Management Lectures, network meetings, and Welcome Receptions — positioning itself as a connective node across Berlin's life sciences landscape. In a Spring 2026 board meeting, Jan Eder was elected Chairman of the Trustees, succeeding Professor Jürgen Zöllner after five years. The foundation lists no disclosed AUM or headcount. This structure is distinct from a typical university donation pool: Stiftung Charité is a private foundation housed separately from Charité's balance sheet, endowed by a single family but running its own operational programming. The hybrid posture — private endowment, public beneficiary, operational programming — lets the Quandt family apply a private foundation's decision speed to a public university ecosystem without owning the downstream institutions. No other private Berlin life sciences foundation operates with this combination of scale, family continuity, and programmatic breadth.