Our approach

At Daimler, we believe that entrepreneurship and social responsibility are inseparable. At all the locations where we do business as an employer and a client, we engage in many different kinds of exchange with the people of the region. This presents us with the challenge and the responsibility of actively helping to shape these communities and fostering dialogue between different cultures. We also contribute our specific skills as an automaker in projects aimed at the common good.

Our basic aim is to promote clearly visible social benefits and to continually expand our social commitment. This is why our social involvement is directed at a number of focus areas. We have created transparent structures and clear lines of responsibility for our funding activities.

The focal points of our funding activities. We consolidate our broad spectrum of social commitment into five areas: donations, sponsoring, promoting foundations, corporate volunteering and projects we initiate ourselves. In these areas, we focus on five fields of activity:

• Science, technology, and the environment
• Art and culture
• Education
• Charitable projects/community projects
• Political dialogue

In the area of corporate volunteering, we promote social, environmental, and educational projects. In addition, we are actively involved in various initiatives dealing with traffic safety.

In all of our activities we conduct an intensive dialogue with the communities and local institutions involved, taking regional conditions and general social requirements into account. Through these activities we supported nonprofit organizations and socially oriented projects with funding that totaled €59 million in 2011.

Effective organization, clear basic principles. A committee for donations and sponsorship coordinates the Group’s activities. In close cooperation with the Board of Management and our worldwide production facilities and plant managers, this committee defines and is responsible for our areas of activity in line with national and regional policies. It monitors and makes the decisions regarding all of our major projects and funding plans.

When we grant funding and make donations, we take steps to ensure maximum transparency. In 2009 we established sponsorship guidelines which ensure that our funding is awarded according to understandable criteria and complies with ethical standards and the currently valid legal regulations. And since 2007, all of the Group’s activities in the areas of donations and sponsorship have been registered in a database.

Contributions to political parties. When it comes to making contributions to political parties, Daimler maintains strict compliance with the currently valid legal regulations and with the Group’s internal guideline that was introduced in 2006. This guideline stipulates that donations to parties are permitted only if they are expressly authorized by the Board of Management. In 2011 Daimler donated a total of €435,000 to political parties exclusively in Germany in order to support democratic structures (2010: €425,000). Of this total, the CDU and SPD parties each received €150,000, and the FDP, the CSU, and BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN each received €45,000.