German multi-million heir Kai Viehof assigns part of his wealth to support the future development of the international movement for an Economy for the Common Good (ECOnGOOD).
Kai Viehof recently made a donation of half a million euros to the international movement of the Economy for the Common Good. The grant goes to the movement’s International Federation, its German branch and the Vienna-based Cooperative for the Common Good. Together, it makes a substantial contribution to ECOnGOOD’s work over the next three years, helping to grow and consolidate a movement that was initiated in 2010 in Austria, Germany, and Italy. “I am convinced that human economic activity should distribute wealth and resources fairly and preserve our shared foundations of life. Economic approaches that focus solely on the growth of monetary indicators create perverse incentives and generate a distorted understanding of prosperity”, shares Viehof. According to heir, the concept behind the Economy for the Common Good is his view the most consistent approach to shifting the goals of our economic activity away from exploitation and towards fairness and sustainability.”
ECOnGOOD’s main activities currently focus on the Common Good Balance Sheet for companies, municipalities, districts, schools, and universities at the level of organizations. “Our movement, which today has around 5,000 active members, has grown over many years through volunteer work. For professional collaboration with companies, political bodies, and educational institutions, we need high-quality support. With this donation, we can continue to provide it and make the vision of a common good-oriented economy a little more of a reality”, explains Christian Felber, one of the founders of the ECOnGOOD movement.
At the level of countries, ECOnGOOD is part of the growing community that is developing a successor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of economic success. ECOnGOOD’s consistent alternative, the Common Good Product, measures only that which makes life worthwhile: from a healthy environment and social cohesion and trust to all people having their basic needs met and leading fulfilled lives, to strong political participation rights and the foundations for peace. According to ECOnGOOD, the economy should wholly serve these goals and values. “Inequality, alongside the ecological crisis, is one of the greatest challenges of our times. It is valuable that a very wealthy individual is demonstrating how the problem can be solved. The Common Good Economy movement is using Kai Viehof’s voluntary contribution to advocate for greater structural justice: for a world in which no one has too little and no one has too much”, states Felber.
Kai Viehof is one of the heirs to the founder of the Allkauf department store chain which was created back in 1962. He has renounced most of his inheritance, but uses an early advance gift from his father to support initiatives that protect nature and promote democracy and the Common Good.
Other similar donation happened in 2024, Austrian BASF heir Marlene Engelhorn gave away 90% of her inheritance. She empowered a group of randomly selected 50 Austrian citizens, called “the good council for redistribution” to decide which social, climate, and reform initiatives would receive a financial contribution to their work. ECOnGOOD was one of the movements chosen to receive funds.
The Economy for the Common Good is also actively involved in education and science. The curriculum project, developed in Germany, was recently awarded the federal “Education for Sustainable Development” prize by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
