Funding of the Foundation "Education is Future"

The “Education is the Future” Foundation in North Rhine-Westphalia supports innovative, Christian, and value-oriented projects in Catholic adult and family education within the Archdiocese of Paderborn. By providing a grant for initial personnel and material costs, it promotes thematic series, courses, and expert conferences that test new methods, address previously untapped target groups, and strengthen church educational offerings through sustainable concepts. Pure institutional basic funding or covering budget shortfalls is excluded; instead, the foundation targets projects whose implementation can serve as exemplary models transferable to other providers and that have a lasting impact in line with high-quality standards of Catholic education. The announcement of funded projects ensures transparency, while results are published after project completion to facilitate transfer to other institutions.

Eligible to apply are Catholic educational providers in the Archdiocese of Paderborn, especially Catholic adult and family education (KEFB), church educational centers, and parishes in cooperation with KEFB. In individual cases, cooperation with providers outside the diocese is also supported. An informal application (maximum three pages) including an overview table of costs and financing as well as information on objectives, target groups, innovation approach, Christian profile, staff qualifications, timeframe, use of funds, cooperations, and transferability suffices. Applications can be submitted at any time and are evaluated based on the criteria of innovation content, sustainability, reaching new target groups, and potential for replication. Thus, the foundation offers committed providers an unbureaucratic opportunity to realize forward-looking educational projects.