Money for Peace – An Update from Tamera’s Fundraiser
From Crisis to Transformation: Reflections and Updates from Tamera
By Helena Lüdert, Annelies Dille, Janni Hentrich, Uri Ayalon and Rui Bragaon behalf of the Tamera community, 22/09/2026
Dear friends of Tamera,
First of all, we would like to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you to everyone who supported our fundraiser – with a donation, a loan, by sharing our message, through advice and encouragement, or simply through your connection with Tamera. Thank you also for your critical reflections, which help us ground our visions in a credible way.
In July, we reached out for support to help secure Tamera’s next chapter. After more than 30 years of peace research and developing models for a regenerative future, we are facing a profound transition: fewer visitors, rising costs, and structures that no longer fully support the work we have grown into.
We asked for support to raise €1.8 million over 18 months to create the time and space for Tamera’s transformation – developing new economic, legal, and social structures for the challenges ahead.
The support has helped us enormously, although we are still far from the original fundraising target.
Here is what has emerged from your support:
€65,000 for Tamera’s common household
From 109 donors, including €15,000 from Tamera co-workers and €20,000 given to Sabine Lichtenfels’ new online course.
In addition, 20 new members joined Tamera’s Support Circle, contributing a total of €515 per month.
Alongside the support for Tamera’s common finances, several projects connected with Tamera have also received significant funding through their own campaigns (see below).
For Escola da Esperança: €86,000
Thanks to your generosity, we have raised almost half of what we need for the coming year – enough to begin the new school year with confidence and welcome new children from the region. At the same time, due to Tamera’s financial restructuring, we can no longer rely on the same level of internal funding. We are working on a long-term foundation and would be very grateful if you could contribute to and share our crowdfunding campaign.
MA Earth Fund: €22,000
A big support for our ecological work. 335 donors stepped forward to support Tamera, contributing €8,000 in direct donations. This was complemented by an additional €14,000 from the MA Earth Fund. These funds supported a construction site to strengthen our Water Retention Landscape, preparing the land for the coming winter and for increasingly intense rainfall events.
Dog shelter: €17,000
Terra Canis Dog Sanctuary in Tamera has given more than 200 abused and abandoned dogs a second chance over the past 10 years – rescuing them, helping them heal, and finding them loving homes. Today, the sanctuary cares for 20 dogs, including four puppies. Your support makes this possible. Please contribute and share the campaign so we can continue offering safety, healing, and a new beginning to dogs in need.
Thank You!
We also want to update you and share what else has changed since we were facing serious difficulties in Tamera’s finances few months ago:
- Under financial pressure, we reduced our expenses by 20% by ending the basic financial support – a monthly payment to help with personal expenses – we used to give to community members who needed it. Our communal finances now mainly cover food, infrastructure, external employees and other running costs.
- We also made large cuts to the budgets of projects within Tamera, leading them to seek their own sources of funding.
- As we reduced financial support for individuals and projects, we began holding more frequent open meetings for urgent requests. These meetings challenged us to balance individual needs and vulnerabilities with our limited communal funds.
- Our income from courses has improved a lot over the past few months. The guest season started much worse than in previous years, but from June onwards it went better than we had expected.
- We have built better tools to help us manage and keep track of our communal finances. These also helped us see that we had been overestimating our monthly expenses.
All of this means our financial situation looks better than it did a few months ago.
But this does not tell the whole story.
While our legal entities are in a healthier financial state, the burden has shifted to community members who no longer receive the basic financial support we used to offer. People now rely on financial solidarity within the community, sharing what they have to help one another, often to meet the most basic needs.
We are now facing crucial decisions about the future of Tamera. This autumn and winter, we will work on developing new financial structures – including how Tamera can generate more of its own income while remaining faithful to the principles of gift economy, solidarity and shared responsibility.
If you believe this work is relevant and want to help us build a more resilient foundation for Tamera’s next chapter, please consider donating. Every contribution gives us more room to make this transition carefully and responsibly.