The betterplace.org team (you will find teams of the betterplace lab, the betterplace Solutions and spenden.de on their own respective websites.)
Till majored business informatics. From 2000 to 2003, he was product manager for paybox. Later, he worked as a project manager for DaimlerChrysler Financial Services, before co-founding betterplace.org.
Moritz worked for the German Red Cross and later studied Sociology, Modern and Contemporary History, and African Studies in Berlin. From 2005 - 2007, he worked as a copywriter for Jung von Matt, a communications agency in Hamburg before he co-founded betterplace.org.
Claudia studied Economics in Dresden and International Business in the Netherlands. After her graduation she worked in Amsterdam for one year, travelled through South America and worked as volunteer at Galapagos Islands. Since 2010 she worked 2 years as trainer for Groupon. Since July 2012 Claudia is the assistant of the CEO and responsible for the office management.
Björn studied Business Administration and Management in Reutlingen and London before working in management consulting (ADL) and logistics (DB Schenker). After two years as a dive instructor in Southeast Asia he re-surfaced to take charge of strategy and business development for betterplace.
Daniel Hahn is a computer scientist by trade. In 2010 he returned from Italy, where he spent three years as the main developer of the Talia digital library system, working at Net7 S.r.l. in Pisa. After his gradutation from the Karlsruhe University he also worked as a core developer on the DIALOG publishing system at Funkinform GmbH in Ettlingen.
Greg studied media informatics in mannheim and furtwangen. Since mid 2012 he is nagging around at betterplace and sometimes helps out in the software development team.
Markus joined the betterplace team in March 2012 as product manager. Before that he worked as User Experience Researcher at ImmobilienScout24 (Germany's largest real estate portal). He continues to conduct usability tests with users at betterplace.org. If you are interested in joining in, simply send Markus an e-mail: mjo@betterplace.org.
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Tobias goal is to improve the user experience and usability at betterplace.org. He joined the team at the end of 2011. Before this he worked as a senior consultant in Cologne. During this time he also co-founded the user experience-weblog uxzentrisch and the boy scout alumni network StayScout.
After completing his studies in Business Administration in 2000, Christian started his career at an internet start-up. Looking for some more haptic stuff he then proceeded as a regional sales manager at Hilti AG. Since 2007, Christian has been active as entrepreneur and consultant.
Axel has a degree in computer engineering. After he graduated, he was a co-founder of A Med-World AG. Thereafter, he became head of IT for the launch and implementation of health portal onmeda.de. Until 2007, he was administrator and webmaster at Cornelsen Publishing. Co-founder betterplace.org.
After finishing his studies in political science, Björn worked as a strategy consult in an public affairs agency. Since then he worked for several NGOs, including campaign work for the German branches of Make Poverty History and the Jubilee Debt Campaign.
Edward studied Robotics at Plymouth university after leaving his hometown of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Originally he came to Germany on holiday in 2011, but soon decided to live in Berlin permanently and shortly after started as a web developer at betterplace.org.
Kirsten studied comparative literature and philosophy as well as culture, communication and management in Münster and Wroclaw. After finishing her studies she worked as a proofreader and editor and became a guide at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. In May 2011 she started to work at betterplace, since March 2012 she is responsible for storytelling.
Franziska studied law at the University of Bonn. After the First State Exam she completed her legal traineeship (Referendariat) in Berlin with a stay abroad in Barcelona. Subsequent to the Second State Exam she joined the Finance & Legal department of betterplace in February 2012.
Johannes works as part of the development team to get betterplace.org up and running. He studied Computer Science in Wiesbaden and worked in several rails projects and a startup already.
Anica has a Master degree in Nonprofit-Management and Public Governance (Berlin School of Economy and Law). After having spent a couple of months in Latin-America, an internship in a Fair Trade organization and volunteering in several NPOs she started working at betterplace.org in June 2010.
Janosch studied Business Administration at the Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). After his studies he worked as job advisor in the Jobcenter for two years before changing to the Finance & HR team at betterplace in December 2011.
Ben studied economics at the Schumpeter School of Business and Economics. After his studies he worked as a project leader at Veolia and a media agency before changing to betterplace in April 2012.
Alexander studied media marketing in Munich and economics in Frankfurt (Oder). While studying economics he worked in fields of marketing and public relations at the Leibniz-Institut for innovative Microelectronics. In line with his diploma thesis he changed to the field of human resources to develop and implement a concept of performance related pay. After finishing university he worked at a tax advisers office in Berlin. Since 2010 he supports the finance and law department at betterplace.org.
Lea is a developer student assistant at betterplace.org. She is currently doing her masters in IT Systems Engineering at the Hasso Plattner Institute at Potsdam University.
Christina studied Spanish and German Literature and Latin American Studies in Berlin, Havana and Barcelona. After graduating she worked for two and a half years for the international literature festival berlin (ilb). She started as executive assistant at betterplace.org in February 2010. Since July 2012 she is responsible for the Berlin portal berlin.betterplace.org.
Mara, Philipp, Jens, Georg, Sandra, Nunni, Hannelore, Marion, Renate, Guya, Aishah, Janine, Annika, Hanna, Jacob, Samir, Tobias, Kerstin, Julian, Lilian, Vico, Lea, Miriam, Philipp, Anton, Jakob, Piers, Lotta, Daniella, Rebecca, Julius, Cengizhan, Tim, Yvonne, Henriette, Holger, Philip, Björn, Sean, Becky, Christian, Fabian, Stefan, Renée, Viola, Jean-Michel, Peter, Christian, Samuel, Anja, Laurent, Susanna, Verena, Tobias, Josefina, Matthias, Jenny, Susan, Bodo, Katja, Sarah, Niklas, Julian, and Katja
betterplace.org is an internet community. Behind it is the parent company “gut.org non-profit stock corporation”. It’s a stock corporation, but non-profit: that means that none of the share-holders is seeking a financial return, it’s all about making a difference in the world. No money can be made through the buying and selling of shares either. “gut.org gAG” is the foundation on which betterplace.org grows and thrives. What else grows and thrives here besides betterplace.org? The „betterplace lab“ ” is sort of our Think- and Do-Tank and the „betterplace Solutions“ is our agency promoting better social engagement from businesses. Furthermore: „spenden.de“ , a directory of German charities. The CEO of gut.org gAG is Till Behnke, and the board also includes Joana Breidenbach and Moritz Eckert. The Supervisory Board is comprised of: Bernd Kundrun (chairman), Stephan Breidenbach, Matthias Entenmann, Pedro Schäffer, Stephan Schwahlen and Gerd Schnetkamp.
On the one hand are the private supporters of betterplace.org. Alongside a few generous souls who helped us particularly in the early days, and the friends of betterplace.org who still do so, anybody who is convinced by betterplace.org can help to support us. Every project donation has the option of adding an extra contribution, which works a bit like a tip.
On the other hand, our daughter company betterplace Solutions GmbH earns money and invests in the further development of betterplace.org. betterplace Solutions offers a consultancy service to companies in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implements various concepts and collaborations. Sounds complicated; take a look at the website to find out more.
After an extended stay in Africa, Till Behnke returned to Germany to work for car manufacturer DaimlerChrysler. But Till felt the need to combine his degree in Business Informatics, his professional expertise as a project manager and the ambivalent encounter with the African continent to a more meaningful end than a career in a transnational corporation. In discussions with Line Hadsbjerg, an anthropologist who had worked in development aid, a concept began to take shape: using the internet to improve the lives of needy people worldwide. What was still missing from the equation? A motivated team of co-founders: Philip Baier, Moritz Eckert, Georg Friedrich, Axel Kuzmik and Bodo Sieber came on board, and together they got the project off the ground – betterplace.org, a global internet platform bridging the gap between need and countless new possibilities.
At the same time Joana and Stephan Breidenbach had returned to Berlin after a five month trip around the world with their children Lilian and Vico. Joana, a cultural anthropologist and Stephan, a professor of law, mediator and entrepreneur, had met a number of remarkable people who were trying to improve their lives and the world around them. While they knew what their communities needed, they were often lacking even the most basic resources and know-how – for a low-cost, eco-friendly irrigation system, for example, or a simple-but-effective medicine for river blindness. Depending on their own initiative, they operated below the radar of the institutionalized aid industry , without access to its funds. After their return, the couple, together with a small team formed by Samir Sekkat, Nunni Haferbusch and Hannelore Knott, designed a platform that would give people the chance to tell a global audience about themselves and their work and to meet people who wanted to see directly for themselves the tangible difference their support was making -- one-to-one and worldwide.
In July 2007, both teams became aware of one another – not surprisingly, through the Internet. It very soon became apparent that, not only did they share the same objective, but had also approached it in strikingly similar ways. It made perfect sense to join forces under one name – betterplace – to make their shared vision more effective
Meanwhile Jörg Rheinboldt and Stephan Schwahlen, entrepreneurs involved in the development of innovative service, business and product ventures in the fields of internet, mobile telephony and media through their venture capital firm M10 Partners, had also joined the team. Prior to this, Jörg had founded alando.de, which had been bought up by eBay and under his management grew to become the largest eBay subsidiary outside the US. The idea of transferring his experience in online marketplaces to a platform for social involvement excited him. Stephan Schwalen on the other hand had, while a student in Cologne, headed and expanded the charitable student organization OFW and worked for the Boston Consulting Group and his family’s mechanical engineering business, among others. For Jörg and Stephan, betterplace didn’t just represent a chance to contribute to expanding the donations sector, making it more efficient and more effective – they wanted to turn our “world improvement business” into a sustainable, scalable and charitable venture.
Bernd Kundrun had a special wish, and he made it come true for his 50th birthday: to contribute to social responsibility in Germany by making a large donation from his personal means. As CEO of Gruner + Jahr, he had often had opportunities to get to know, and value, charitable initiatives. But the media manager wondered why so few of these organizations understood how to publicize their fantastic work and the moving stories behind it and to so encourage new donors or volunteers. Bernd wanted to remedy this and after getting to know betterplace and the people behind it he was inspired to become a shareholder. At the same time Oliver Grün made the same decision: as the founder of Grün Software AG, he brings to betterplace a wealth of experience from the field of fundraising organizations. Since then they have been joined by Alexander Rittweger, Pedro Schäffer, Gerd Schnetkamp und Michael Tuchen, who are there with advice and hands-on support with all our future ventures.
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