#16/25 The Autumn of Reforms

Dear Readers,

Friedrich Merz has announced an “autumn of reforms”. This is now almost over. Rather without reforms.

I am taking the now beginning “Giving Season” as an opportunity to describe a series of reforms that would mobilize additional billions for the common good. Completely without coalition disputes. And without additional debt. As a framework for this, I envision an assets summit or even better a kind of “Generosity Commission”, like there was in the US a few years ago. In conversations, I experience a lot of support for this, maybe there actually will be the famous window of opportunity in politics soon. More on this at the very bottom.

Social organizations should not rely on politics at the moment. 2025 was the year of budget cuts and the short-term cancellation of many already promised fundings, especially for democracy and culture projects (not to mention the withdrawal of the US and other countries from development work). Now should be the moment to finance civil society more independently of the state. Because it gets even darker when you look at the Hate List of 215 organizations in a recent inquiry by the AfD parliamentary group. I consider it an honor to be mentioned in it.

My suggestion for gift planning: Simply give donations as a gift. Not as a voucher to a specific organization (that somehow doesn't feel like a gift), but as a starting balance in an individual, tax-free foundation account. This allows the recipient to decide for themselves.

And if you don't have the money for it, feel free to contact me. I have a small budget for people who want to give the gift of giving to others.

Yours, Felix

PS: In the next newsletter, I will share my Christmas list of organizations that have particularly impressed me this year.

A number that sticks in your mind: 1 (pixel)

With one pixel for $1,000 and a barely ending bar for Jeff Bezos' wealth, a website visualizes individual wealth conditions. Fascinating. There are many variations of this representation. In my book, I proposed a human chain from the Brandenburg Gate to the west. At €1,000 per meter, most people stand directly at (or with debt even in front of) the gate, while the richest come out on the other side of the world. The first problem with this: The data is misleading. Sometimes freely invented, sometimes estimated, and even where they result from the market value of companies, they are not liquid, they are not comparable.

As a second problem, however, I experience that the typical reaction to this is: "Well, then I'm not rich. The others should start." These representations can lead to powerlessness. Recently in Zurich I experienced this. In a room with many wealth successors.

I would have liked a representation that shows the mechanism in the other direction. You can also easily trigger a multiple of that with one pixel of commitment. Maybe someone can help me with the visualization?

A person who inspires me: Mr. Beast

James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson, 27, from Wichita and raised in North Carolina, is probably the biggest influencer of giving. His first videos showed simple, direct gestures: $1,000 tips, paid rent, spontaneous cash gifts to strangers. This grew into a global format. Today, with around 450 million subscribers and over 100 billion video views, he achieves a unique reach. His projects like Team Trees (over $20 million) and Team Seas (over $30 million) show how digital communities can make an enormous amount out of little. With brands like Feastables and MrBeast Burger, he further scales the principle. This is how giving became something that the YouTube generation doesn't hide, but designs.

An idea to ponder: A Generosity Commission The pension dispute is raging in the coalition. And the next one will be the inheritance tax. I have already written a lot about this. I am convinced: We need fairer taxation. But that will take time.

Meanwhile, many in our society are ready to contribute more to the common good now. Couldn't the coalition agree on the goal of making Germany the best location for assets that want to improve the world?

Almost at the same time as our private dialogue Neues Geben (from which, besides bcause, the Club Neues Geben has also emerged, among others), a so-called Generosity Commission was launched five years ago in the US. Also on a private initiative. Also triggered by the decline in giving. The recommendations rhyme with what we could also make good use of in Germany:

• Improve data on donations and engagement

• Expand digital offerings for micro-giving

• Systematically promote volunteering

• Increase trust in non-profits

• Make philanthropy more inclusive

• Anchor education on generosity in schools

• Expand cooperation between the state, business, and civil society

That is why I am adding a first one to my ten reform proposals: A Generosity Commission in Germany. Gladly with a mandate from politics, but if necessary also without.

Here are my other ten suggestions. More on this in my book “Der gefesselte Wohlstand”, soon on my channels - or gladly then in the Generosity Commission ;-)

• Payout requirement for foundations

• Conversion of perpetual assets into spend-down assets

• Reversal of the tax advantage for timely donations

• Implementing regulation on Mission Related Investments

• Enabling spend-down foundations

• Democratization of impact investing

• Accessibility for cross-border donations

• Legal certainty for share donations

• Establishment of a public-philanthropic citizens' fund

• Limitation of misleading tax law firms