Dr. Felicitas von Peter founded Active Philanthropy in 2006 as a platform for philanthropists and social investors committed to change the world for the better.

From 1998 to 2006, she worked as a director with the Bertelsmann Foundation, where she ultimately headed the foundation’s national and international donor education programmes. From 2004 to 2006, she co-chaired the international program The Philanthropy Workshop, offered in co-operation with the Rockefeller Foundation.

Felicitas studied at the universities of Heidelberg and Bonn as well as at Sciences Po in Paris. She holds an M. Phil and a Ph. D. in history from the University of Cambridge, UK. From 1997 to 1998, she was a post-doc at the Lisbon University Institute (ISCTE) and, in 2002, a fellow at the Center for the Study of Philanthropy at City University New York. She is a board member of various foundations and NGOs in Germany and the Netherlands and was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2010.