Created in 1966 by HP co-founder Bill Hewlett and his wife Flora, the Hewlett Foundation is headquartered in Menlo Park and ranks among the wealthiest private philanthropies, reporting $13.3 billion in assets and $602 million in grants awarded during 2023. Its Democracy, Rights & Governance portfolio, first assembled under Kelly Born, finances policy NGOs on both sides of the Atlantic. German think-tank Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV) has received six Hewlett awards since 2016, notably $100,000 (2017) and $50,000 (2018) for research on the spread and impact of misinformation, plus $500,000 (2023) in unrestricted core support. Earlier line-items fund SNV’s cybersecurity and transatlantic digital-policy work. Hewlett’s separate Cyber Initiative has deployed $130 million globally to strengthen the field and steer policy debates on platform accountability and state cyber-strategy. Hewlett has also awarded $3,150,000 to the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy program (2018–2026), as well as a total of $600,000 to the Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative through two grants (2019 and 2022). Collectively, these grants position Hewlett as a leading U.S. source of support for German and EU digital “governance” actors.
Go back
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
631000000
Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV), German Marshall Fund of the United...See all
Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV), German Marshall Fund of the United States See less
Commentary:
Hewlett’s German outlays are small next to its U.S. democracy grants yet strategically significant. By underwriting SNV’s misinformation research in 2017-18 and delivering a half-million-dollar core grant in 2023, the foundation aligns Berlin’s policy discourse with transatlantic security priorities (alleged foreign interference, Kremlin propaganda) while leaving Germany’s own NetzDG over-blocking largely unexamined. The imbalance reflects Hewlett’s ideological arc: grant narratives emphasize "resilience" but rarely confront overreach by core EU states aligned with Washington geopolitical aims. Oversight remains private; decisions rest with a California-based board directing a multi-billion-dollar endowment, beyond Bundestag or European Parliament scrutiny. In effect, Bay-Area capital helps script the norms that Brussels later codifies in the Digital Services Act, all via ostensibly independent intermediaries. The outcome is a soft-power channel running west-to-east, one that shapes Europe’s censorship regime while safeguarding the foundation from direct political accountability.
Hewlett’s German outlays are small next to its U.S. democracy grants yet strategically significant. By underwriting SNV’s misinformation research in 2017-18 and delivering a half-million-dollar core grant in 2023, the foundation aligns Berlin’s policy discourse with transatlantic security priorities (alleged foreign interference, Kremlin propaganda) while leaving Germany’s own NetzDG over-blocking largely unexamined. The imbalance reflects Hewlett’s ideological arc: grant narratives emphasize "resilience" but rarely confront overreach by core EU states aligned with Washington geopolitical aims. Oversight remains private; decisions rest with a California-based board directing a multi-billion-dollar endowment, beyond Bundestag or European Parliament scrutiny. In effect, Bay-Area capital helps script the norms that Brussels later codifies in the Digital Services Act, all via ostensibly independent intermediaries. The outcome is a soft-power channel running west-to-east, one that shapes Europe’s censorship regime while safeguarding the foundation from direct political accountability.
Deutsch (Sie)