We are part of society and are committed to helping ensure its stability and ability to meet future challenges.
As an internet provider, United Internet operates in a dynamic and highly competitive market. However, its economic activities aren’t the whole story: United Internet is also part of society and can only be successful if this functions properly, too. This explains why the United Internet Group is committed to helping ensure a stable society that can meet future challenges.
United Internet aims not to lose sight of how its business activities impact people and the environment, and to help ensure a stable and forward-looking society. Its goal is to contribute to people’s prosperity both within and outside the corporate environment. The United Internet Group does this by creating jobs and traineeships, through its products, and through its social commitment. United Internet’s activities in this last area include the following:
In 2006, foundation donor and United Internet AG CEO Ralph Dommermuth, together with Tessa Page, laid the groundwork for a consistently successful initiative that has helped children throughout the world for many years. Through the United Internet for UNICEF foundation, the Company supports projects run by UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) worldwide. By working together with this globally recognized and qualified partner it aims to help improve equal opportunities for, and the well-being of, children around the world.
Ralph Dommermuth was honored by UNICEF Germany for his many years of work in the 2023 reporting period. He was awarded the special “Children’s Rights” prize that UNICEF awards for outstanding long-term work in this area in June. Georg Graf Waldersee, Chairman of the UNICEF Committee for Germany, presented him with the prize in Montabaur.
United Internet supports the inclusion of, and employment opportunities for, people with physical or mental disabilities. One of the ways it does this is by passing on waste equipment to AfB gGmbH. According to the information provided by this recycling specialist, 42% of its workforce are people with disabilities. Another way in which United Internet promotes working together with people with physical and mental disabilities is through its partnership with disabled people’s cooperative GDW (Genossenschaft der Werkstätten für behinderte Menschen Mitte eG), which has shredded and recycled the Company’s old files and records for many years now.
United Internet’s close cooperation with the United Internet for UNICEF foundation has been a core element of its social commitment since 2006.
Among other things, UNICEF supports projects promoting education, health, and child protection with the goal of improving children’s living conditions. In addition, it provides humanitarian aid to mitigate natural disasters and their consequences.
The foundation helps raise donations and acquire sustaining sponsors by running appeals for donations on the United Internet Group’s online platforms and in the form of mailings. The high levels of traffic on the Company’s GMX, WEB.DE, and 1&1 portals increase the reach and awareness of these appeals. This broad reach makes United Internet one of UNICEF’s largest German corporate partners.
United Internet employs a permanent staff member to coordinate the foundation’s activities with the assistance of volunteer colleagues. The Management Board is informed of these activities at least once a month. The colleagues work closely together with the foundation’s chair, Tessa Page, with the other members of the foundation board, and with UNICEF.
The foundation’s performance is monitored in the regular reports from the foundation board. One-time and repeat donations are passed on in full to UNICEF because all foundation staff are either volunteers or are not paid from donations.
United Internet also pledges additional financial support for selected donation appeals designed to attract sustaining sponsors: The “Double It” campaigns match donations by private individuals up to a set overall limit. Thanks to this incentive, among other things, the foundation was able to recruit 472 new sustaining sponsors for UNICEF as a result of its 2023 Christmas mailing alone (2022: 546). The major Christmas campaigns in the reporting period were devoted to child labor in Bangladesh and winter assistance for children in Ukraine.
The foundation’s appeals in the 2023 reporting period led to further donations to UNICEF of € 4.6 million (2022: €5.4 million). This brings the total volume of donations raised since the foundation was set up in 2006 to over € 69 million.
The appeals for donations in 2023 largely revolved around three devastating natural disasters and two wars, which posed immense challenges for humanitarian work. This being the case, topics such as the impact of climate change in Madagascar and child labor in the (cobalt) mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo initially took a back seat.
In February, the foundation sent out its first emergency mailing to raise money for the children affected by the major earthquake in Syria and Turkey. The donations in excess of €500,000 benefited humanitarian work in Syria, since Turkey had not yet asked for assistance at the time of dispatch.
Libya was hit by unbelievable volumes of water in September. Three times the amount of rain that led to the catastrophic flooding in Germany’s Ahrtal caused a number of dams to break and washed large parts of the port of Darna out to sea. More than 10,000 people died and thousands are still missing. United Internet for UNICEF supported UNICEF’s work with roughly €190,000.
Afghanistan was also hit by another series of major earthquakes that claimed the lives of thousands of people in the west of the country in October. The region concerned is geographically remote, which made aid and rescue measures more difficult. Since this mailing only went to foundation subscribers, only slightly more than €17,000 was raised. Prior to this, the foundation’s Easter campaign had already collected roughly €60,000 for children in Afghanistan.
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