2023 Active for Democracy and Tolerance Competition (Germany)

Deadline: 31-Aug-23

Do you strengthen democratic cooperation with your projects and promote participation? Do you design commemoration projects or do you work courageously against anti-Semitism? Do you fight against discrimination and misanthropy and your mission is to fight for a tolerant society? Do you do important preventive work against political extremism and violence? If you are interested then “Active for Democracy and Tolerance” competition is entering its 23rd round this year and the bpb cordially invites all project creators to apply.

There is a nationwide search for exemplary and imitable civil society projects that have proven themselves in practice and are mainly carried out on a voluntary basis. Generally excluded from participation are projects financed by federal funds.

Priorities

• Every year, their jury determines the main topics. In the 2023 class, they are particularly looking for projects that
  • get involved against hatred of women and stand up for the worldwide enforcement of women’s rights
  • using intersectional approaches to break down barriers and pave the way for everyone to get involved
  • combat Islamophobia

Benefits

• The winners can look forward to cash prizes of up to 10,000 euros and annual qualification and networking opportunities. In addition, the winners, like all winners since 2001, have become part of the nationwide active network.

What does the competition want to achieve?

• The aim of the active competition is to show the diversity of civil society commitment to democracy and tolerance, to give role models a greater public presence and to network them with one another. Therefore, “the unique project” is not sought, but value is placed on depicting a broad collection of different approaches, formats, target groups and topics and thus awarding projects that stand up for a democratic society and tolerant coexistence in very different ways. The competition thus makes examples of good practice accessible to other committed people and inspires others to get involved.

Eligibility Criteria

• Participation is open to all individuals and groups who want to strengthen commitment to democracy and tolerance with their projects. This includes in particular the promotion of participation and commitment against all forms of group-related enmity, anti-democracy and political extremism. The approaches, formats and target groups can be very different. Each year, additional key topics are named, but the call for proposals is deliberately aimed at the entire spectrum of civil society commitment to democracy and tolerance.
• Other criteria are: The projects should be exemplary and transferable, have proven themselves in practice and show a high proportion of voluntary work.
• Participation is possible at any age.

Who cannot participate?

• Projects that are significantly funded by federal funds are excluded from participation . Projects that have not yet been completed at the time of application are also excluded from participation. An exception here, however, are projects that are repeated annually or have been carried out for a long time and have therefore achieved partial results.
• Projects that were carried out exclusively by full-time employees, i.e. those that were carried out by the school exclusively as part of the lessons and in the course of project weeks, etc., are also excluded. In addition, no projects can be considered that are carried out exclusively outside of the Federal Republic of Germany.

For more information, visit Active for Democracy and Tolerance Competition.