Mercator Foundation

Stiftung Mercator is a private foundation based in Essen, Germany, with origins dating back to 1996. Founded by the entrepreneurial Schmidt family from Duisburg, the foundation emerged after the family donated a significant portion of its assets to establish the organization. The name honors Gerhard Mercator, a renowned cartographer who embodied scientific rigor and global thinking—traits the foundation aspires to emulate. Initially, Stiftung Mercator focused on supporting pupils through international exchange grants and on facilitating remedial education programs for young people with a migration background in its home region, North Rhine-Westphalia. Over the years, its activities grew to encompass Germany as a whole. The foundation’s work centers on four broad themes: cohesion and capacity of the European Union, social integration through educational opportunities, climate change mitigation and energy transition, and promoting cultural education. It is recognized as one of Germany’s largest private foundations, employing between 51 and 200 people and funding hundreds of projects annually. A prominent example of Stiftung Mercator’s impact is its founding of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in 2013. The institute, located in Berlin, serves as a leading European think tank on contemporary China and operates with long-term financial support from the foundation, with an initial commitment of €33 million through 2023. The organization’s funding and initiatives span beyond conventional grant-making: they coordinate conferences such as “Arts for Education!” to advance international dialogue on cultural education, and partner with schools, think tanks, and public policy actors to pursue their objectives in Europe and beyond.