About Us

The Heinrich Böll Foundation is a non-profit organization that is part of the global green movement. The foundation is based in Berlin, Germany, and has a network of over 30 offices around the world. It advances political and socioeconomic transformations through civic engagement and political dialogue.

The Washington, DC office, in line with the foundation’s guiding principles and values, works to strengthen civil liberties, human rights, and democratic institutions. We promote gender equality, social justice, and equity. We strive to preserve a habitable planet for current and future generations.

As an independent 501(c)(3) organization, we run global and transatlantic dialogue programs. We work to shape multilateral processes and the norms that govern them, and to strengthen the relationship between the United States and Europe.

We foster these goals through a diversity of projects such as public seminars, fellowships, study tours, and publications.

Learn more about the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung globally

Who Are we? - Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Washington, DC

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Gender democracy is an overarching goal of our work and a cross-cutting theme for all activities of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. This concept addresses the deep-rooted structural, societal, and cultural causes of the persisting inequalities between men, women, and gender minorities. We integrate considerations of gender equality into all of our programs, building awareness in international political processes, institutions and networks and offering perspectives for gender-responsive policy and financing approaches.

Our Work on Gender
Our Namesake Heinrich Böll

Heinrich Böll is one of the most important and best-known writers of the Federal Republic of Germany. "Bound by the times and my contemporaries, to what my generation has lived through, experienced, seen, and heard," as he himself wrote, he was the critical chronicler of Germany’s history at mid-century.