Our mission

Opportunity should not be limited by circumstance

We work alongside individuals and communities to turn knowledge, ambition and local leadership into sustainable pathways forward.

Supporting potential,
strengthening community impact

The Altenburg Foundation supports refugees and at-risk professionals, as well as grassroots organisations, to advance integration and maximise community impact.

A family-led foundation with a personal approach

Different contexts,
one human approach

UK

Through our Altenburg Foundation Fellowship programme we offer individual mentoring, personalised sponsorship and support of refugees seeking accreditation of professional expertise as well as individual guidance and sponsorship of those from lower socio-economic and underrepresented backgrounds. We also support specialist foundations providing skills and training in leadership and belonging through sports.

Syria

We have funded the restoration, reopening and ongoing running of a school in rural Aleppo for five years as well as a programme of professional development for teachers working in schools reintegrating returning refugees.

Uganda

Beginning in 2018, we have been supporting three primary schools and one secondary school run by refugees, for refugees in various ways including funding salaries, sponsorships, teacher training, feeding programmes, revenue generation projects and capital investment in infrastructure including classrooms and furnishings.

We have also developed a collaborative partnership to provide quality vocational skills training and start-up kits to allow people to develop their own businesses.

Lebanon

We support the work of refugee-led schools in Tripoli serving the Syrian refugee community there in education from kindergarten to high school Grade 12. We have funded summer school programmes there over a number of years as well as providing solar panels and the development of a computer teaching room and library for the more than 2,500 children they serve. We also support the ongoing professional development of their staff.

Additionally, we have funded for four years the professional development cohort at an award-winning community education project in Shatila refugee camp, Beirut. This programme aims to take children with little or no education to high-school completion within six years. Alongside their academic studies, they follow courses in ‘soft’ professional skills for employment and personal development through engagement with the natural world, and in supporting their preparations for access to higher education.

Malawi

Since 2024 we have provided funding support to a grassroots organisation offering entrepreneurship and skills training alongside individual loans for the establishment of small businesses.

Transnational

As part of our Fellowship programme, the Fellows design and implement community development projects in their home countries. Additionally, we have provided and still do operational seed funding for an innovative non- governmental organisation based in Germany which works to supply transformative solar power to schools and hospitals in crisis-affected regions. Their work encompasses extensive programmes in Lebanon, Syria, Malawi, Uganda and Ethiopia.

Alongside this, all of our partners in all the country contexts in which we work benefit from extensive, in- person consultancy support we provide on an ongoing basis.

The reach behind the work

Countries assisted

Schools supported

8,000+

Children educated

Three areas close to our hearts

Compassion, care, challenge and love inform how the Foundation approaches every relationship and opportunity.

Bring your support to work that lasts

Your support can take many forms, from giving and fundraising to mentoring, professional guidance and partnership.