About us
The knodel foundation was established in 2017 by PANDION CEO Reinhold Knodel and his son Patrick Knodel, who heads the foundation as CEO. By making an annual donation of EUR 1,000,000, PANDION AG, as the donor, makes a decisive contribution to project funding and also covers the administrative costs incurred. This ensures that 100 percent of every euro donated to the knodel foundation reaches the projects. Furthermore, since 2021, every additional donation received from other individuals or organizations is doubled by PANDION.
Patrick Knodel
CEO of the knodel foundation
Traveling and seeing the world for myself has long been part of my personal identity. The final impulse to take action myself came on a trip to Malaysia: I was deeply shocked by the extent of deforestation for the sake of palm oil plantations. I quit my job as the manager of a steak restaurant, fundamentally changed my diet and have since been deepening my expertise for non-profit projects that serve the UN’s sustainable development goals. Despite, or perhaps because of, the differences in our lives and experiences, the exchange with my father Reinhold Knodel is a constant, enriching companion to my work. Whenever possible, I visit the projects supported by the knodel foundation on site myself in order to obtain background information and a feel for local conditions. With this competence I lead the foundation and parallelly invest in effective companies through PANDION INNOVATION for IMPACT GmbH.
Reinhold Knodel
CEO of the donor PANDION AG
I very much appreciate the constructive conversation with my son Patrick. We passionately discuss perspectives and ways to resolve injustice in the world. In doing so, we have one thing in common: we don’t just want to talk, we want to take action ourselves. Thus, in 2017, the idea was born to establish a non-profit foundation – the knodel foundation. I entrusted the management of the foundation to my son. Since then, PANDION AG essentially finances the foundation’s projects and bears its overhead costs. In the fifth anniversary year of the knodel foundation, I decided to expand this commitment: From now on, every donation will be doubled by PANDION AG. This way, through the foundation, I can contribute to making the world a fairer place.
Ingrid Eberspächer
Assistance
Years ago, I became aware of the impact of my consumption, especially my diet with the consumption of meat. I became aware of the consequences for the animals due to the way they are farmed, but also the consequences for people and nature – e.g. by clearing the rainforests to grow the animal food. It had such a lasting impact on me that I changed my diet. I think it is important that sustainable changes take place in many areas and I am therefore happy to be able to contribute to these positive changes professionally as part of the knodel foundation team.
Dr. Christoph Neusiedl
Communications, Fundraising & Impact
Already during my studies, I extensively dealt with the theory and practice of development aid. The focus of my doctoral thesis was in the area of “postdevelopment theory”, which outlines alternative ideas to traditional development aid. As Communications and Impact Consultant for development cooperation in Bangladesh and India, I have already been able to implement many exciting projects in this field with various organizations. The desire to shape and promote innovative approaches towards social and environmental justice finally led me to join the knodel foundation. Here I can contribute with my expertise to support a large variety of funding projects that improve the lives of many people in the global south in a sustainable, long-term way.
Peter Cramer
Online Communications
Early on in my teenage years, I was given the opportunity to hand over donations in a favela in Brazil through cultural projects. Later on, the establishment of a prevention project in a township in South Africa showed me how important direct contact is in influencing the impact. When I met Patrick, it was soon obvious that his conviction and commitment enable a foundation where funds actually go where they are most needed. I am grateful to be able to shape the accompanying processes online and therefore the vision of the knodel foundation through the very same vision of its founder.
Our impact
We initiate systemic changes with the goal of a fairer world. That is why we are committed to strengthening the global South by promoting its long-term stability and economic independence through integrated development cooperation. On the other hand, by enabling social spaces for reflection, we promote the development of a systemic understanding of global interrelationships in our home country of Germany, which we understand as part of the global North. Only when both are brought together long-term change can really happen.
We believe that good concepts must be supported. At the same time, innovation should not be forgotten. Innovative concepts often have a hard time getting capital in the nonprofit sector because they are difficult to explain and prove to donors. As a foundation, we see it as our task to promote such innovative approaches that subsequently produce multipliers of change. The focus is always on networking people and organizations, because cooperation is an underestimated strength of the human kind.
The selection of our projects is not based on a regional focus, but on the impact of the project. Measuring impact is difficult, and the more systemic an approach is, the harder it is to measure in the short term. We therefore use the IOOI model to assess the impact of our project partners:
Input – Output – Outcome – Impact
We apply the model to the funding of all projects. In this way, we ensure that we are not satisfied with the use of our own resources (input) or with the provision of services (output), but that all projects achieve a demonstrable change in the target group (outcome). The overarching effect at the societal level (impact) is influenced by other, external factors and is therefore fundamentally difficult to measure in concrete terms, even over many years. From the “outcome” level onward, we can therefore speak of the impact achieved, which is illustrated in the following diagram:
Our 5 funding areas are based on the considerations outlined at the beginning regarding the interplay of solutions in the global South & in the global North as well as the creation of multipliers:
| Funding area | Thematic key areas (Fields of action) | Target groups | Range of action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education | school education vocational training education of girls and women innovative educational concepts sports & excercise personal development inclusion | children and adolescents young adults | Global South Germany |
| Social Business | support for social entrepreneurship networks (education, income, health) indigenous organic agriculture (market access and income for farmers’ cooperatives) basic optical care | social entrepreneurs active poor (people in precarious living conditions) | Global South |
| Peace, Freedom and Human Dignity | prostitution and human trafficking independent journalism | people whose human rights are violated as well as people with a need for information | Global South Germany |
| Regional Habit & Ecosystems | demining, social protection, economic development sustainable agriculture, water & sanitation, education, health, income | people, animals and nature | Global South |
| Sustainable Consumption and Fair Production | supply chains | companies entrepreneurs | Global Gouth Germany |
These 5 funding areas include a variety of projects, each of which must present their impact model in their project application to us. As a rule, we fund the projects or the project partners over several years. In doing so, we commit certain funding amounts in advance, which the project partners can call upon when they reach corresponding milestones. On the one hand, this enables the partner organizations to plan for the long term, and on the other hand, it provides them with an incentive to continuously review the effectiveness of their measures.
Based on the IOOI model, let’s now take a look at our 5 funding areas:
Education
Education is the basis for change in every area of life. Depending on the location of the education, however, the focus is different. For example, for an education in rural Africa, it may be essential to provide the graduate with the skills for local self-employment due to the lack of available employment, while an economic university education in Germany should be holistic and respectful of planetary boundaries.
Social Business
Social entrepreneurs are mostly people who live in a place and want to solve local problems there. Their approach is fundamentally entrepreneurial and is intended to be self-sustaining in the long term. This prevents dependence on donations and enables the approach to be scaled. These concepts often need start-up funding to be able to grow on their own afterwards and are often more resilient to problems and more effective than the work of external people without local knowledge.
Peace, freedom, human dignity
Living in dignity, as well as in peace and freedom, are basic requirements that should be met for everyone. Unfortunately, this is often not the case because poor people usually lack access to the legal system and independent sources of information are often not available.
Regional habitats and ecosystems
Many development cooperation projects have proven to be ineffective, especially in rural regions of the global South, because several basic requirements are lacking there and an improvement in the situation only occurs when these interact. Therefore, we support projects that address regional habitats & ecosystems holistically.
Sustainable consumption & production
The way goods are produced and the way we consume often has a massive impact on people, animals and the environment in other parts of the world through supply chains and waste. Fairly produced products and transparent consumption is therefore a huge lever for solving the problems in our globally interconnected world.
One possible target image of our way of acting consists in the so-called “Donut Economy”. The concept envisions an ideal area for a safe and just life of mankind within two circles:
- The outer circle represents the ecological boundary that humanity should not transgress. This includes, for example, the loss of biodiversity or the excessive pollution of soils by phosphates.
- The inner circle forms the social foundation on which people should build their societies. Here it is crucial that the individual components, such as available clean energy, food, education and justice, are not undercut.