This page presents our compliance with initiatives that seek to establish new norms and standards in the fields of governance and accountability.

Initiative for a Transparent Civil Society

“Whenever there is a commitment to the community, transparency towards the community should naturally follow.”

AlgorithmWatch adheres to the governance reporting framework of Transparency International Germany’s „Initiative Transparente Zivilgesellschaft“ (Initiative for a Transparent Civil Society), whose voluntary commitment (PDF 6.1 MB) we have signed.

More information about the initiative can be found here: Initiative Transparente Zivilgesellschaft (in German only)

As per its commitment, AW AlgorithmWatch gGmbH has agreed to make the following information publicly available:

Name, registered office, address, year established
AW AlgorithmWatch gGmbH, Linienstr. 13, 10178 Berlin, Germany, established 2017.

Complete charter and the organisation’s mission:

• Charter (PDF, 119 KB)
• AlgorithmWatch’s Manifesto
• AlgorithmWatch’s Mission Statement
• Our projects and publications

Tax exempt status

AW AlgorithmWatch gGmbH holds the tax number 27/640/02364 and is recognised by the authorities in Germany, where it is based, as a charitable organisation because of its contribution to science and research as well as international cooperation. The latest certificate received from the tax authorities (Finanzamt für Körperschaften I), dated 18.05.2021, outlines AW AlgorithmWatch gGmbH’s exemption from corporate income tax (Körperschaftssteuer) and business tax (Gewerbesteuer) until the end of 2024.

Name and function of main decision-making bodies

• Equal shareholders: Lorenz Matzat and Matthias Spielkamp.
• Executive Director: Matthias Spielkamp.
• Supervisory board: Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Katharina de la Durantaye and Steffen Wenzel

Annual reports

• Annual Report 2018 (PDF)
• Annual Report 2019 (PDF)

Organization

• AlgorithmWatch - Team
• Personnel structure (as of February 2019)
  • Employees (full-time/part-time) and interns: 20
  • Freelancers: 2
  • Volunteers: 0
  • Members of the Supervisory Board: 3

Funding (2019)

• Revenues, public and private grants: 568.457,92 €
• Revenues, Donations: 2.435,00 €
• Revenues, other 22.619,49 €
• Revenues, commercial business operations, special-purpose operations and / or asset management: none

Allocation of Resources

• Annual report, incl. Finances (2018)
• Auditor's statement 2018 (German, incl. Financial Report)
• Auditor's statement 2018 (English)
• Annual financial statement 2019 (German)
• Annual financial statement 2019 (English)

Institutional Relationships

• There is no membership in any other
  organization.
• We have no legal links with any organizations and
  do not hold any shares in other organizations.

10. Name of legal entities, contributing with more than 10 per cent to the organisation’s budget (2019)

• Bertelsmann Stiftung
• Hans-Böckler-Stiftung
• Civitates

11. Natural persons whose annual contributions account for more than ten percent of our total annual income:

• None.

We confirm that the decision making bodies meet regularly and that the meetings are recorded in minutes. Questions to our organization are answered within a reasonable period of time. The financial reports are signed by name by one of our organization's decision-makers.

When auditing our annual financial report, compliance with this commitment is monitored by our internal accountant bodies or the  auditor.

Matthias Spielkamp
Executive Director