DFL Foundation

The DFL Foundation (DFL Stiftung) is a charitable foundation dedicated to social projects. It was founded in January 2009 by the Deutsche Fußball Liga and Die Liga – Fußballverband, under the name Bundesliga Foundation (Bundesliga-Stiftung). It is based in Frankfurt, and the current CEO is Stefan Kiefer.

Purpose of the foundation
The DFL Foundation aims to use the popularity of German professional football and the Bundesliga to promote and support social projects. In addition to the commitment of individual professional footballers who have established their own foundations of this kind (for example Christoph Metzelder with the Christoph Metzelder Foundation or Manuel Neuer with his Manuel Neuer Kids Foundation) and the foundations of Bundesliga clubs (such as the foundation 1. FC Köln) or foundation from the German Football Association (German: Deutscher Fussball-Bund, DFB), the DFB-Kulturstiftung (DFB cultural Foundation), the foundation of the Bundesliga is, according to its statues, to promote the sport, education and international understanding. From this emerged four areas of focus: the foundation encourages children, supports people with disabilities, supports integration and promotes solidarity with other sports.

The foundation provides grants through application, but can also carry out their own projects and build partnerships.

Campaigns
In cooperation with the DFL, the most publicly successful campaign Sportler für Sportler (Athletes for Athletes) was developed in the spring of 2009. Through until 2010, TV commercials were broadcast in which well-known players and coaches from the Bundesliga and Olympic athletes from various sports, were shown asking for mutual support and calling on donations to the German Sports Aid.

The DFL Foundation also sponsors the junior elite support of the Deutsche Sporthilfe (German Sports Aid).

In July 2011, with the DFL-Supercup, the current major campaign started entitled ''Integration. Gelingt spielend.'' Through which nationwide advertising was made for the support of the integration of those with foreign origins. The football serves as a connecting element. Focus of the campaign, as for the Sportler für Sportler was a TV commercial with talented young players of the under-17 and under-19 teams and the Bundesliga players Gerald Asamoah, Mario Götze, İlkay Gündoğan and Sidney Sam. The music of the commercial was produced by Wolfgang Niedecken, singer of the band BAP.

In addition, dozens of smaller projects and campaigns from all four key working areas were promoted in recent years.

Capital resources and use
Main source of income of the foundation are the fines paid by the Bundesliga clubs for breach of licensing documents. Furthermore, funds flow into the foundation from fines pronounced by the DFB Sports Court.

Executive board

 * Stefan Kiefer (Chairman)
 * Kurt Gaugler (Deputy Chairman)
 * Jörg Degenhart

Foundation board

 * Reinhard Rauball (Chairman)
 * Christian Seifert (Deputy Chairman)
 * Harald Strutz
 * Peter Peters
 * Wolfgang Niersbach

Trustees

 * Fritz Pleitgen (Chairman)
 * Klaus-Peter Müller (Deputy Chairman)
 * Tom Bender
 * Heiner Brand
 * Eberhard Gienger
 * Britta Heidemann
 * Eckart von Hirschhausen
 * Maria Höfl-Riesch
 * Klaus Kinkel
 * Werner E. Klatten
 * Joachim Król
 * Peter Lohmeyer
 * Peter Maffay
 * Christoph Metzelder
 * Wolfgang Niedecken
 * Gerhard Schröder
 * Matthias Steiner
 * Edmund Stoiber
 * Günter Weigl

Former members

 * Herbert Hainer
 * Roland Kentsch
 * Steffi Jones
 * Günter Netzer
 * Wilfried Straub