The fund for SOS Children’s Villages
The children of the SOS Children’s Villages thank you
We created the Senmotic charity fund and support SOS Children’s Villages with the proceeds from our barefoot shoes. The fund currently holds a five-digit sum. This endowment was required to start the fund. The fund’s annual interest payout is at the disposal of the SOS Children’s Villages.
To grow the endowment, we committed ourselves to pay 3.18% of the profit from each sold barefoot shoe into the fund. As the fund grows some healthy reserves, it also gains interest income, and the SOS Children’s Villages have more money at their disposal.
The fund is recognized as charitable by the German tax authorities and is non-terminable. As with any non-profit foundation, money paid into the fund stays there and pays interest for decades, or
centuries even. Even if Senmotic 1.0 Ltd and our barefoot shoes – or the Demanns (improbable - 
) – no longer exist, the fund and all deposits remain dedicated to the founding purpose. As with
our barefoot shoes, we have a veeery long-term outlook.
Why we chose a social purpose for our barefoot shoes
We could have invested in football and started sponsoring a team. And then calculated to the penny how to get the biggest payback from our investment. But we don’t pay for people who chase a ball
(with varying skill) and earn disproportionate salaries, at least in the upper leagues. By the way, how can you speak of class envy in Germany? Every weekend, hundreds of thousands of have-nots
cheer for a few hundred overpaid boys, sharing their joys and frustrations. No wonder football clubs are often called “United”!
Formula 1 is even worse. Young people getting paid millions to drive in a circle, burning resources and giving awards every weekend to the fastest to drive 40 circles. Every company can spend
their money as they like... But we still don’t understand how you can sponsor such useless events.
Why children, of all social causes?
Children are innocent. Or did a child start the war in Libya? Little ones can’t care for themselves and depend on adults for help. The more so, the smaller they are. They need teachers to learn how to read, write and count.
And while Formula 1 keeps polluting the air and celebrating the world’s fastest circle-driver, our world’s smallest citizens are starving just a few flight hours away. No clean water, no food. They are beaten and abused, are robbed of their parents and their future.
This is why we chose our society’s weakest members, who suffer most from the decisions adults make. Plus, we think it’s great that many people spend the biggest part of their lives, often as volunteers, to help these children and give them a future.