It may sound strange, but running a non-profit project as a normal company, which costs a lot of money rather than bringing in anything, is really not easy. Again and again, one is confronted with accusations of greed for profit, exploitation of the situation or need for recognition. It often doesn’t matter how much one publicly documents that none of this is true. While at such circumstances unfortunately much too many non-profit projects fail, Peggy Reuter Heinrich – business guide of HeiReS – saw it rather as incentive. Without further ado, she willingly founded the non-profit organization HeiReS on her own initiative. IT hilft gGmbH founded, not only to ensure the future Welcome App Germany as a clearly altruistic project, but also to initiate and support projects in other places where IT could help.

Of course, the move of the Welcome App Germany under the umbrella of IT hilft gGmbH also means certain changes for HeiReS, for supporters of the project and for the cities / regions integrated into the Welcome App until now, which we would like to explain briefly here. Above all, we would like to show that all these changes will have exclusively positive effects on the project, sustainable operation and long-term financial viability:

– HeiReS remains technically responsible for app development and design (commissioned)
– HeiReS remains technically responsible for server and backend system (commissioned)
– HeiReS stellt Mitarbeiter für Weiterentwicklung / Erweiterung der App (beauftragt)
– HeiReS provides staff for communication, content maintenance, etc. (assigned)
– HeiReS will be a technical consultant for new technologies, social media, websites, etc.

– IT hilft becomes administrative operator of, among others, the Welcome App Germany
– IT hilft will take care of acquisition, marketing and representation in the future
– IT hilft will take care of all existing and upcoming cities / regions in the future
– As a non-profit limited liability company, IT hilft is obliged to act profitlessly
– As a non-profit limited liability company, IT hilft is entitled to accept donations
– As a non-profit limited liability company, IT hilft is entitled to issue donation receipts

All in all, the Welcome App Germany as well as all other projects continued by IT hilft in the non-profit context can only gain from the new situation and we are very much looking forward to the new opportunities but also challenges.