Campact e.V., founded in 2004 in Verden, is a German digital campaigning organization. In 2019, it established the Campact Democracy Foundation to support projects promising to defend democratic participation and to counter hostility online. Campact co-founded HateAid gGmbH in late 2018 with Fearless Democracy and activist Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, retaining a 50% ownership stake. In 2023, it donated €200,000 to HateAid, €100,000 to the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and €125,000 to the Anne Frank Educational Center. In 2021, Campact funded the IDZ Jena study on Länder hate-speech measures and has supported Ich bin hier since 2019. Codetekt also cites Campact as its first funding partner. The foundation presents its mission as protecting democracy “against hate and agitation” online.
Go back
Campact e.V./Campact Democracy Foundation
Campact, Ich bin hier, HateAid, Codetekt, The Institute for Democracy...See all
Campact, Ich bin hier, HateAid, Codetekt, The Institute for Democracy and Civil Society See less
Commentary:
Campact’s transformation from a mass mobilization platform to a foundation-backed actor illustrates the blurring of advocacy and philanthropic roles in Germany’s information ecosystem. By establishing and funding HateAid, now a major actor in digital hate-speech litigation, Campact has positioned itself not just as donor but as institutional player. Its €200,000 grant in 2023 to HateAid highlights streams of support to projects it helped create. Meanwhile, support for groups like Ich bin hier and codetekt reflects a broader strategy of deploying its own organized responses in civil society. Campact’s public financial reporting makes it difficult to delineate its exact role in shaping the counter-disinformation agenda. As both funder and protagonist, Campact occupies a unique hybrid position in its field.
Campact’s transformation from a mass mobilization platform to a foundation-backed actor illustrates the blurring of advocacy and philanthropic roles in Germany’s information ecosystem. By establishing and funding HateAid, now a major actor in digital hate-speech litigation, Campact has positioned itself not just as donor but as institutional player. Its €200,000 grant in 2023 to HateAid highlights streams of support to projects it helped create. Meanwhile, support for groups like Ich bin hier and codetekt reflects a broader strategy of deploying its own organized responses in civil society. Campact’s public financial reporting makes it difficult to delineate its exact role in shaping the counter-disinformation agenda. As both funder and protagonist, Campact occupies a unique hybrid position in its field.
Deutsch (Sie)