Stiftung für das Museum Folkwang

Through your endowment you increase the assets of the Foundation, secure its work over the long term, and improve the annual revenues available for acquiring art. Cash assets, securities, land and property, art items and other items can be employed as endowments.

A cash asset can be gifted through a bank transfer. Please use the word “endowment” as your reason for payment. If you also enter your name and address on the transfer document you will be sent a donation receipt as soon as the payment is credited to our bank account. Endowments of up to a total of one million euros (for couples up to two million euros) are tax-deductible. The donor may spread the tax disposition of this amount over a period of up to ten years.

Your monetary donation will be employed solely for the purpose set out in the statutes of the Stiftung für das Museum Folkwang. The donated money will not enter Foundation assets but can be used directly for the acquisition of works of art or for otherwise supporting Museum Folkwang.

In the case of monetary donations up to 20% of income earned can be set off against tax; if the size of the donation exceeds this percentage, then the additional amount can be carried forward to the following year. Entrepreneurs and companies can take advantage of the so-called book-value transfer exemptions. If assets from the working capital are made over to the Foundation this withdrawal can be performed at book value. The difference between the book value and the market value need not be taxed.

For monetary donations please specify “Donation” as the reason for your payment transfer. You will be sent a donation certificate as soon as the payment has been credited to the Foundation account. Please remember to include your name and address on the transfer slip.

Prime material donations are works of art that ideally complement the collections of Museum Folkwang, round off the holdings and open up new perspectives. In keeping with the Foundation statute, they are made available to the museum as permanent loans.

However, other items of value can equally serve as material donations, for example land and property or any other items of value that provide the Foundation with income (for example, through rental income) or items it can sell in order to increase the Foundation assets or purchase particular works of art.

Where a donation is made through a Will, the Foundation can be appointed as sole beneficiary (or joint beneficiary) or as the legatee.
Suitable wording in your Will for appointing the Foundation as sole or joint beneficiary would be “I appoint die Stiftung für das Museum Folkwang, Museumsplatz 1, 45128 Essen, as my sole beneficiary,” or “I appoint as joint beneficiaries of my estate: anon, date of birth, address, to … %, and die Stiftung für das Museum Folkwang, Museumsplatz 1, 45128 Essen, to … %.”
Suitable wording in your Will for expressing a bequest: Following my death “Die Stiftung für das Museum Folkwang, Museumsplatz 1, 45128 Essen, shall receive as a bequest … % of my assets” or “… my entire art collection” or “the work of art (title) by (name of artist).”

The trust foundation is generally the right choice for donators who wish to permanently make over their assets to a particular purpose without having to create a structure that would necessitate the administration of an independent foundation.

Stiftung für das Museum Folkwang can assume trusteeship for legally dependent, non-profit foundations whose purpose is equally the promotion of art and culture, in particular through the support of Museum Folkwang.

A non-profit trust foundation offers donors the means of establishing a foundation requiring only a small amount of time and administration and accordingly during their lifetime connecting an endowment with their name. It can be created in a relatively short period of time.

The trustee, in other words Stiftung für das Museum Folkwang, assumes responsibility for the organisation and management of the trust foundation. As for an independent foundation, the initial capital contribution and the endowments remain permanently part of the capital; only the revenues earned on the capital reserve are used for the purposes set out in its statute.