PRO­JECTS

Venuslauf 2024

The Venuslauf 2024 was a complete success! Almost 5,000 registrations were received for the sporting event, which took place all over the world from September 13 to 15. As in previous years, participants were able to take part in various sports in which they could count their kilometres. The KAEFER team and their friends and families were able to collect over 55,000 kilometres together – enough to circle the globe. Thanks to this great commitment, €40,075.00 was donated to cancer charities worldwide. The KAEFER FOUNDATION is proud of everyone who took part and would like to thank everyone for their impressive efforts!

Late shift company run in Bremen (2024)

Almost 50 enthusiastic runners from various departments and KAEFER locations showed their unstoppable spirit at the ‘BMW Late Shift Company Run’ in Bremen – despite the pouring rainfall. All runners managed to run or walk 5 km for a good cause as part of the entry fee was donated to charity, and on top each kilometre run also raised money for the KAEFER FOUNDATION to support their work.

Brazil Floods Emergency (2024)

More than 1 million people in southern Brazil have been affected by devasting floods and heavy rainfall and over 150,000 people have been displaced by the floods in May 2024. To support colleagues and people in need directly impacted and suffering from the worst natural calamity ever to hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul, a global donation campaign was launched. Thanks to the great help, the KAEFER FOUNDATION was able to donate 50,000 Euros to assist affected colleagues directly as well as the local community with immediate needs and the rebuilding of their homes.

Donation for the THW due to the floods (2024)

Since the end of December 2023, many regions in Germany have been struggling with high water and are experiencing or fearing flooding of their homes. For this reason, 1,000 THW volunteers from the “Technisches Hilfswerk” have been in action to fight the floods and to support them in their work, the KAEFER FOUNDATION, together with KAEFER in Germany, has donated 12,000€ to the “Stiftung THW” for the fight against the floods.

Christmas Fundraising Campaign (2023)

As part of the KAEFER FOUNDATION’s Christmas campaign, many backpacks and more than 2,300€ were collected in Germany between 29 November and 20 December by handing out cookies, KAEFER honey and small Christmas trees for a donation. The KAEFER FOUNDATION added to this amount, so that this year we were able to donate a total of 3,000€ for a good cause.

The money went to the Bremer Suppenengel e.V. and Bremer Tafel e.V., which provide food, hot meals and clothing to many people in need every year.

The KAEFER FOUNDATION would like to thank the Blumenonkel in Bremen for supporting this campaign!

Venuslauf (2023)

Whether running, cycling, swimming or other sports – the KAEFER team was again very successful during this year’s Venuslauf from 15 – 17 September 2023! The more than 3,000 participants from all over the world managed to collect 34,425.54 kilometres for a good cause, so that a total of 32,200€ was raised for various cancer charities worldwide. The KAEFER FOUNDATION is very happy about this successful event and thanks all participants.

Late shift company run in Bremen (2023)

70 enthusiastic runners from various departments and KAEFER companies showed their unstoppable spirit at the ‘BMW Late Shift Company Run’. All runners managed to run or walk 5 km for a good cause. Not only was part of the entry fee donated to charity, but each kilometre run also raised money for the KAEFER FOUNDATION. The money raised can now be used to support other charities. The KAEFER FOUNDATION would like to thank all participants!

World Environment Day (2023)

On the occasion of World Environment Day 2023, a quiz was created for KAEFER employees. The lucky winner was Omar Mendiluce Salvador from KAEFER in Spain! Omar’s prize was to choose a charity to receive support from the KAEFER FOUNDATION. He selected the Spanish NGO “Asociación Biodiversa”. Since 2011, the organisation has been raising awareness and teaching about nature and environmental protection. Through numerous workshops and trainings, they try to create a world where people live in harmony with each other and with the environment! For Omar, “it was a very gratifying experience to see their joy when we told them we would support them.”

Raising funds for Earthquake victims (2023)

Together with the apprentices of KAEFER Industrie in Germany, and their great idea to raise money by selling popcorn, the KAEFER FOUNDATION succeeded in collecting money for the victims of the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. The apprentices’ campaign was well received by all employees, and many were very happy to participate!

Celebrating World Earth Day (2023)

To celebrate World Earth Day, not only were donations collected to support environmental organisations, but flower seeds were also distributed to employees to promote biodiversity. In this way, the KAEFER FOUNDATION not only made a financial contribution to environmental protection, but also promoted biodiversity and species diversity, as the seeds can become a habitat for many creatures.

Christmas Donations (2022)

In the spirit of the Christmas season, the KAEFER FOUNDATION has been involved in numerous initiatives around the world to fight hunger. While for instance in Australia, together with KAEFER Integrated Services Pty Ltd, 49,950 meals were donated to hungry people over the year, in Germany small Christmas trees were handed out to collect donations and sleeping bags for other charitable organisations.

Venu­slauf char­ity event (2022)

Every year in Septem­ber it is time again for “Venu­slauf” – a char­ity event to raise funds for the fight against can­cer. In 2022, more than 2,600 par­ti­cipants from 28 coun­tries joined and covered a total of 31,101 kilo­metres. The dis­tance has been con­ver­ted into dona­tions from the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION to des­ig­nated can­cer char­it­ies world­wide.

CEO Sleepout (since 2022)

The Vinnies CEO Sleepout is a one-night event on one of the longest and coldest nights of the year in Australia. Hundreds of business, community and government leaders sleep outdoors to support homeless people in Australia or those at risk of homelessness. For three years running, KAEFER is actively backing this initiative since 2022. In 2024, Victor Bogos, Managing Director of KAEFER Australia participated raising awareness and funds for people in need. The KAEFER FOUNDATION is pleased to support this initiative financially.

KAEFER Run­ning Team (2022)

In March and April, the KAE­FEER Run­ning Team in Bre­men took part in the Winter Run Series cov­er­ing a total of 170 km. For every kilo­metre, KAEFER donated EUR 1 to the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION!

Ukraine dona­tion cam­paign (2022)

In re­sponse to the hu­man­it­arian crisis in Ukraine, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION or­gan­ised an emer­gency fun­drais­ing cam­paign to sup­port dis­placed people from across the coun­try and re­gion. Thanks to the amaz­ing con­tri­bu­tion of KAEFER col­leagues world­wide, a large sum was sent to the UN­HCR (UN Refugee Agency) who work with the au­thor­it­ies in Ukraine and neigh­bour­ing coun­tries to help or­gan­ise emer­gency re­lief items and shel­ter to people forced to flee. Ad­di­tion­ally, funds were also donated to the SOS Chil­dren’s Vil­lages to as­sist in tak­ing care of chil­dren in need in the Ukraine.

Help for the city of Mi­nas Gerais (2022)

In early Janu­ary, Mi­nas Gerais was again hit with very heavy rain­fall which caused severe dam­age and af­fected many KAEFER em­ploy­ees at RIP. Through co­oper­a­tion with the local gov­ern­ments in It­abira and It­abirito in Brazil, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION and RIP provided mat­tresses, wa­ter, food bas­kets as well as gen­eral as­sist­ance to fam­il­ies which were af­fected.

“Böller­frei” ini­ti­at­ive (2021)

The KAEFER FOUND­A­TION sup­por­ted the ‘Böller­frei’ ini­ti­at­ive from the Deutsche Um­welth­ilfe (En­vir­on­mental Ac­tion Ger­many) which aimed to min­im­ise the use of fire­crack­ers es­pe­cially on New Years Eve. The pur­pose of the cam­paign is to re­duce the side ef­fects of the ex­plos­ives on the health of com­munit­ies, an­im­als and on the en­vir­on­ment.

Venu­slauf (2021)

From 17^th to 19^th Septem­ber KAEFER col­leagues world­wide joined this vir­tual char­ity event by run­ning, walk­ing, skat­ing, swim­ming or cyc­ling for the good cause! In do­ing so, we raised money for des­ig­nated can­cer char­it­ies in Canada, Ger­many, France, UK & Ire­land and Sweden.

Flood­ing in Ger­many (2021)

In re­sponse to the severe flood­ing in Ger­many in July 2021, KAEFER FOUND­A­TION sup­por­ted Ak­tion Deutsch­land Hilft e.V., an al­li­ance of Ger­man aid or­gan­isa­tions and ini­ti­ated a fun­drais­ing cam­paign to sup­port people in need.

In­sect garden in Bre­men (2021)

KAEFER FOUND­A­TION is de­lighted to sup­port BUND e.V. in cre­at­ing an 800 m² in­sect garden in the city of Bre­men as a place to meet and learn. The aim is to raise aware­ness about pre­serving nat­ive biod­iversity and un­der­stand­ing the role of in­sects in eco­sys­tems.

World En­vir­on­ment Day (2021)

In line with this year’s theme “Re­ima­gine, re­cre­ate, re­store our planet”, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION in­vited all KAEFER col­leagues to sub­mit ini­ti­at­ives and pro­jects ad­dress­ing these top­ics. As a res­ult. very di­verse and in­ter­est­ing ideas have been handed in which are presen­ted here. Based on these, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION will sup­port three non-profit or­gan­isa­tions in the fol­low­ing sec­tors: Biod­iversity, Re­cyc­ling and Waste Col­lec­tion & Clean­ing.

Emer­gency fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for stu­dents (2021)

Bre­men wel­comes more than 5,000 in­ter­na­tional stu­dents every year. Many of them live at the lower in­come limit as they usu­ally do not re­ceive any fin­an­cial sup­port from their fam­il­ies, but work along the way. They can quickly find them­selves in fin­an­cial dis­tress through no fault of their own, es­pe­cially in these dif­fi­cult times of a pan­demic. There­fore, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION de­cided to sup­port XENOS e.V., a char­it­able or­gan­isa­tion that helps those stu­dents in need with the aim to en­able them to com­plete their stud­ies quickly and suc­cess­fully.

Floods in Brazil (2021)

In Feb­ru­ary, the area around Santa Maria de It­abira in Mi­nas Gerais, Brazil was severely af­fected by flood­ings and land­slides caused by heavy rain­fall. Sup­por­ted by the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION, 58 Brazilian col­leagues teamed up to dis­trib­ute drink­ing wa­ter, stoves and wash­ing ma­chines to local fam­il­ies in need.

Ful­filling Christ­mas wishes (2020)

In 2020, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION sup­por­ted the WK Weih­nacht­shilfe, an ini­ti­at­ive in Bre­men, Ger­many that aims to ful­fill Christ­mas wishes of chil­dren from fam­il­ies that are fa­cing fin­an­cially dif­fi­cult times. Thanks to the dona­tion from the found­a­tion as well as from other gen­er­ous donors, the or­gan­iz­a­tion was able to make all wishes come true.

Christ­mas cal­en­dar for the good cause

In Decem­ber, KAE­FER’s Headquar­ters in Bre­men again turn into a gi­ant ad­vent cal­en­dar. Each day, a local char­ity re­ceives a dona­tion by the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION in or­der to sup­port their ef­forts and work. The full list of or­gan­isa­tions that are part of this year’s cal­en­dar can be found on our LinkedIn page.

Sup­port­ing char­it­ies in the UK & Ire­land (2020)

On the oc­ca­sion of “giv­ing Tues­day”, KAEFER in the UK & Ire­land and the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION sup­por­ted 12 char­it­ies in Decem­ber 2020. Among oth­ers, the Ir­ish Can­cer So­ci­ety, the Down’s Syn­drome As­so­ci­ation and Mind (sup­port­ing people’s men­tal health) all re­ceived dona­tions.

World AIDS Day (since 2010)

Each year, KAEFER shows its sup­port for World AIDS Day on 1 Decem­ber. Stigma and dis­crim­in­a­tion to­wards people liv­ing with HIV or suf­fer­ing from AIDS is still a strong real­ity. We at KAEFER com­mit a policy of zero dis­crim­in­a­tion. There­fore, we want to take the op­por­tun­ity dur­ing World AIDS Day to re­mind every­one at KAEFER that we should fight pre­ju­dice!

“Venu­slauf” goes global (2020)

Walk­ing, run­ning and bik­ing the ex­tra mile. On 20 Septem­ber 2020, hun­dreds of KAEFER em­ploy­ees around the world joined the so-called “Venu­slauf”, a char­ity run rais­ing funds in the fight against can­cer. On our own, but close to­gether, fant­astic 11,971 km were covered res­ult­ing in dona­tions totalling about 20,000 EUR for dif­fer­ent can­cer char­it­ies around the world.

Donat­ing food bas­kets in Brazil (2020)

In or­der to help people in need, es­pe­cially due to the im­pacts of COVID-19, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION sup­por­ted the ini­ti­at­ive of RIP Ser­viços In­dus­tri­ais in Brazil to donate food bas­kets in Septem­ber 2020. In total, 3,000 of these boxes were dis­trib­uted to 30 dif­fer­ent char­it­ies in 10 fed­eral states with the aim to min­im­ise hun­ger within the com­munit­ies.

Bremer Suppen­en­gel (2020)

Many things came to a standstill during the COVID pandemic in 2020, but not us! An unused KAEFER van was used by apprentices from the Communications Department to collect food from various retailers and deliver it to Suppenengel e.V., a charity organisation in Bremen that provides food to people in need. Not only that, the KAEFER FOUNDATION also provided the Suppenengel with the equipment they needed to prepare the delicious meals, such as new vegetable cutters and kitchen scales.

Tree­dom (2020)

The KAEFER FOUND­A­TION forest is an­other proof of our com­mit­ment to en­vir­on­men­tal and cli­mate pro­tec­tion. The first dona­tions were col­lec­ted through an in­ternal KAEFER flea mar­ket for a good cause. This took place at the be­gin­ning of 2020 and offered KAEFER em­ploy­ees in Bre­men the op­por­tun­ity to pur­chase old pro­mo­tional ma­ter­i­als and product samples in re­turn for a dona­tion. With the raised money 24 ca­cao trees were planted in Camerun to sup­port local farm­ers.

Learn more on the Treedom website

Ger­man Bone Mar­row Donor Cen­ter re­gis­tra­tion event in Bre­men (2019)

In Novem­ber 2019 the Deutsche Knochen­mark Spend­er­d­atei (DKMS) or Ger­man Bone Mar­row Donor Cen­ter re­gis­tra­tion event sup­por­ted by the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION took place in the HQ and branch of­fice in Bre­men. It was a great suc­cess – 56 col­leagues have re­gistered as po­ten­tial stem cell donors.

Ger­man Mari­time Search and Res­cue As­so­ci­ation (2018)

The Deutsche Gesell­schaft zur Ret­tung Schiff­brü­chi­ger (DG­zRS) or Ger­man Mari­time Search and Res­cue As­so­ci­ation, is one of the most mod­ern sea res­cue ser­vices in the world. Their work is fin­anced ex­clus­ively through dona­tions and vol­un­tary con­tri­bu­tions. As a search and res­cue (SAR) ser­vice, they are on call around the clock in the North Sea and Baltic Sea in all kinds of weather – with a fleet of 60 SAR cruis­ers and boats. As part of KAE­FER’s cen­ten­ary cel­eb­ra­tions, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION sup­por­ted this Or­gan­isa­tion.

Bremer Krebsgesell­schaft e.V. (2018)

The Bremer Krebsgesell­schaft e.V. is a can­cer so­ci­ety in Bre­men that pro­motes the im­prove­ment of care and re­hab­il­it­a­tion for people suf­fer­ing from can­cer. Be­ing part of the Ger­man Can­cer So­ci­ety, the or­gan­isa­tion of­fers courses, sem­inars, coun­selling and self-aid groups for pa­tients and their re­l­at­ives. Fur­ther­more, train­ing ses­sions for the pro­fes­sional audi­ence are also avail­able. As part of KAE­FER’s cen­ten­ary cel­eb­ra­tions, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION sup­por­ted this Or­gan­isa­tion.

Löwen­herz Chil­dren’s and Youth Hos­pice (2018)

The Löwen­herz Chil­dren’s and Youth Hos­pice ac­com­mod­ates chil­dren, ad­oles­cents and young adults suf­fer­ing from in­cur­able and deadly dis­eases that can­not be cured by state of the art med­ical treat­ment. Ap­prox­im­ately 250 fam­il­ies can visit the hos­pice every year. The Löwen­herz am­bu­lant chil­dren’s hos­pice ser­vice in Bre­men and Braun­sch­weig sup­ports chil­dren with fatal dis­eases and their fam­il­ies. As part of KAE­FER’s cen­ten­ary cel­eb­ra­tions, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION sup­por­ted this or­gan­isa­tion.

Floods in Ker­ala (2018)

In July 2018, un­usu­ally heavy rain­fall led to severe floods and land­slides in Ker­ala in the south of In­dia. It was the worst flood­ing that oc­curred in this area in the last 100 years. Ac­cord­ing to the local gov­ern­ment, one-sixth of the over 33 mil­lion Ker­ala in­hab­it­ants had been dir­ec­tly af­fec­ted. In the Middle East more than 2,000 people from Ker­ala are em­ployed at KAEFER. In or­der to help those in need, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION as well as a local KAEFER char­ity fund en­abled im­me­di­ate fin­an­cial sup­port to the af­fec­ted KAEFER em­ploy­ees.

Foot­ball with Refugees (since 2017)

Do­ing sports in a team can gather people to­gether – no mat­ter from which coun­try, cul­tural or so­cial back­ground. Sup­por­ted by KAEFER col­leagues from Bre­men, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION is bring­ing people to­gether through foot­ball. Since Feb­ru­ary 2017, a group of refugees that is su­per­vised by a local youth wel­fare or­gan­isa­tion has the op­por­tun­ity to do sports to­gether with KAEFER People.

Sup­port­ing Refugees (since 2016)

Dur­ing the last years a large num­ber of people de­cided to leave their coun­tries due to civil wars, eco­nomic crisis and ter­ror­ism. Many of them came to Ger­many. Sup­por­ted by KAEFER em­loy­ees, the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION was able for in­stance to donate much needed socks and paint­ing ma­ter­i­als for chil­dren to an emer­gency shel­ter. Moreover, sports cloth­ing, school ma­ter­i­als and Christ­mas presents have been donated to a local youth wel­fare or­gan­isa­tion that takes care of nearly 40 un­ac­com­pan­ied minors from dif­fer­ent coun­tries.

CARE Refugee Aid (2015)

CARE (Co­oper­at­ive for As­sist­ance and Re­lief Every­where) is a lead­ing hu­man­it­arian or­gan­isa­tion fight­ing global poverty, which is cur­rently work­ing to help refugees. CARE-pack­ages have been dis­trib­uted to those in need since the end of the Second World War and a simple bar of chocol­ate, which has since be­come a sym­bol of the CARE-pack­age. In 2015, the an­nual Christ­mas gifts to KAEFER em­ploy­ees in Bre­men con­tained a small CARE-pack­age in­clud­ing the sym­bolic bar of chocol­ate and a dona­tion was made by the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION in or­der to sup­port their refugee aid Pro­jects.

Nepal Earth­quake Re­lief (2015)

Over 200 of our Nepalese col­leagues were dir­ec­tly af­fec­ted by the 7.8 and 7.3 earth­quakes which hit Nepal in April 2015. The im­me­di­ate ac­tion taken in­cluded free calls to fam­il­ies in Nepal and cov­er­ing the cost of plane tick­ets for em­ploy­ees with ur­gent cases. Fin­an­cial sup­port was also dis­trib­uted to 184 se­lec­ted em­ploy­ees. With the as­sist­ance of Prayas Nepal, a local non-profit or­gan­isa­tion, a KAEFER team helped to build 21 shel­ters in Sindhupal­chowk, fol­lowed by enough shel­ters to house 128 fam­il­ies in the Ramech­hap dis­trict.

Sci­pio (2014)

The Sci­pio team, short for Sci­entific Puri­fic­a­tion In­dic­ator, con­sists of five elec­trical en­gin­eers from the Uni­versity of Bre­men, Ger­many, who have in­ven­ted an in­nov­at­ive tool that is cap­able of de­term­in­ing if wa­ter is drink­able or not, when placed in a PVC bottle of wa­ter un­der dir­ect equat­orial sun­light. The fin­an­cial sup­port by the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION helped the stu­dents, to take part in CO­SIMA 2014 (Com­pet­i­tion of Stu­dents in Mi­crosys­tems Ap­plic­a­tion) in Mu­nich and 2015 at In­ter­na­tional Con­test of Ap­plic­a­tions in Nano-Mi­cro Tech­no­lo­gies (iCan) held in An­chor­age, Alaska – win­ning first place both times.

Char­ity Post­cards (since 2010)

Entries of the bi­an­nual KAEFER In­ter­na­tional Photo Com­pet­i­tion are used to pro­duce post­cards that are sold in­tern­ally, rais­ing funds for the KAEFER FOUND­A­TION. Among other loc­a­tions, they are avail­able at the Headquar­ters re­cep­tion in Ger­many.