Financing and funding
As an institution of solidarity for the towns and cities and as a publicly funded research institute we are committed to facilitating the interests of the municipalities and the common good. More than 100 municipalities support Difu and benefit from its range of services.
» The Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB) supports the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) because its research, advisory and training services for municipalities make a substantial contribution to sustainable urban development in Germany. «- Klara Geywitz, Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Building
Finance
Difu donors: Support from approximately 100 cities, towns and municipalities
Currently, more than 100 municipalities, municipal associations and planning communities support the academic municipal research of our non-profit institute on a voluntary basis. Their support contributes about 14 percent of Difu’s total funding.
Institutional support
Difu continues to receive institutional support from the German government and from the State of Berlin, which each amount to approximately five percent of the total funding. The institutional support is exclusively used for the purposes of the institute according to the charter and in this regard serves to fulfil public tasks relating to municipalities, for example, further training and maintenance of databases.
Project support
A significant amount of the institute’s funding comes from project support funds and income from commissioned research, in addition there is income from seminars and publications. These funds are primarily public funds but there are also occasionally funds from foundations, commercial companies, associations and organisations.
In 2022, Difu’s total budget volume was more than 16 million euros, the share of income from externally funded projects was approximately 75 percent. In the 2022 financial year, more than 100 externally funded projects were worked upon; the total volume of these projects, which frequently run over several years, was just 50 million euros.