Where does my donation go?

Your donation goes to the Operation Sneaker Trust. The Trust distributes funds to select sport projects for youth in crisis that are identified and approved in cooperation with the Laureus Sport For Good Foundation. You can find out more about the Operation Sneaker current focus projects here.

How can I donate?

Germany

• Online with credit card, and via bank transfer.
• Via bank to bank transfer (DaimlerChrysler Bank, BLZ 600 30 00, Account.-Nr. 20 4000 4000)
• You can also call 0900 18 000 18 from the German terrestrial telephony net. Every call is a donation of 2 Euros directly over your phone bill.
• German Vodafone D2 customers can donate 2 Euro by sending the message "spende" via SMS to 77 444. The initial SMS at normal net charges, thereafter you will be asked to confirm the donation with an SMS free of charge.

Rest of world

You can donate to Operation Sneaker Trust from all over the world online, however we can presently only receive tax-deductible donations in Germany this way. We can also receive tax-deductible donations offline in France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium and USA. For tax-deductible donations outside Germany please contact Maecenata International e.V., who will facilitate your donation through one of its local partner foundations. You can also contact Maecenata offline.

How do I get a donation receipt for my tax returns?

Germany

For donations above 50 Euro in Germany you will get a donation receipt form the trustees at Maecenata Management GmbH, provided that your address is known. For donations below 50 Euro in the German tax department accepts your bank statement, or telephone bill together with the bank statement to which the sum has been debited, as donation receipt. For any questions concerning donation receipts please contact Maecenata Management. They are more than willing to help you with any problems.

Rest of world

For donations in France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium and USA, handled through our partner foundations the donation receipt will be issued by them.

What happens to my personal data?

Any information about yourself that you forward us will only be used for your donation purposes and will be treated confidentially. As part of our privacy policy we do not sell, lend or give away information about our benefactors for commercial, or non-commercial use by third parties. You can read more about the privacy policy of our transaction partners at WorldPay here.

Is it secure to make a donation on the Operation Sneaker Website?

We use a transaction system provided by WorldPay, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is situated on their servers, outside our website. WorldPay uses industry standard encryption protocols such as Secure Socket Layer Protocol (SSL) to protect your data from theft and fraud. Your credit card information and/or bank data is not passed on to us, nor is there any way for us to find it out. You can find out more about transaction security on WorldPay's support pages, and on their security FAQ page.

Who is behind Operation Sneaker?

The initiators Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus J. Olsson together with Dirk Nowitzki and his manager Holger Geschwindner manage Operation Sneaker.

Why is it called Operation Sneaker?

Every year hundreds of millions of sport shoes are sold worldwide. Thereby the sneaker has become a global fashion and sport symbol, which unites nations, social classes, confessions, and political camps. People from all walks of life, in every thinkable situation wear sneakers, a fact that Operation Sneaker uses to communicate the positive universal values inherent to the spirit of sport. Furthermore, if we can only motivate even a small portion of all the people who have one or more pairs of sneakers at home to donate a small sum for every sneaker they own, we can raise enough funds to help tens of thousands of children worldwide to turn battlefields into playing fields.

What is Athtlethia GmbH?

Athlethia is our executive service company that produces the Operation Sneaker films and print material, makes sure that this web page works, that fundraising campaigns are run properly and that the Operation Sneaker Trust gets all the chances in the world to fulfill its goals. Athlethia specializes in the strategic development and execution for charitable foundations.

What is Maecenata Management GmbH?

Maecenata is the company, founded by Graf Rupert von Strachwitz, which operates the Operation Sneaker Trust as trustees and administrators of the foundation.

When, and why did Operation Sneaker come about?

After September 11 2001 we were consumed by the feeling that we needed to do something against the escalating conflict situation in the world. With the Operation Sneaker idea we felt that our professional know-how as athletes, filmmakers and entrepreneurs might be used to do a little good in the world. After two years of planning and preparation Operation Sneaker was launched end of 2003.