The Kellner Family Foundation Donated CZK 128 Million to Support Education in 2025

Through its long-term support of education, the Kellner family contributes to the development of Czech society. Through its family foundation, it strives to ensure that as many children and young people as possible have access to quality education and can fully develop their potential. In 2025, the foundation supported public elementary schools involved in the Helping Schools Succeed programme, students of the eight-year Open Gate grammar school, and Czech university students studying mainly at universities abroad.

The Kellner Family Foundation in 2025 in numbers

CZK 128 million total amount of donations

CZK 40.3 million for public elementary schools involved in the Helping Schools Succeed programme

CZK 49.5 million for scholarships for students of Open Gate grammar school

CZK 17.8 million for scholarships for university students through the Universities programme

CZK 20.4 million total amount of other individual grants

The long-term support of all three programmes of The Kellner Family Foundation is based on my deep conviction that educated people are the future of every nation. I know that education is a long-term endeavour and that the changes we strive for will not become visible immediately. That is why my family and I provide our foundation programmes with a stable background that enables their long-term and systematic development.

Renáta Kellnerová

Founder and Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees

Main recipients of donations from The Kellner Family Foundation in 2025:

90 students of Open Gate grammar school

56 Czech students studying mainly at universities abroad

170 public elementary schools and, through them, approximately 60,000 Czech pupils

Main programmes of The Kellner Family Foundation:

1) Helping Schools Succeed

Through the Helping Schools Succeed programme, the Kellner family foundation provides long-term support to Czech public elementary schools so that all their pupils learn with enthusiasm and commitment and achieve good results. The programme focuses on the development of reading, writing and critical literacy. In the 2025/2026 school year, 170 public elementary schools from across the Czech Republic took part in the programme, representing approximately 5,000 teachers and up to 60,000 pupils. In 2025, the foundation provided the participating schools with a total of CZK 40.3 million. Over the 16 years since the programme was established, the foundation has donated a total of CZK 529.9 million to it.

2) Open Gate

The foundation supports motivated children with academic potential by providing scholarships for study at the eight-year Open Gate grammar school in Babice near Prague. The foundation provides social scholarships to children growing up in socially disadvantaged environments, for example in single-parent families, foster care or children’s homes. It also offers academic scholarships to talented students from regular families. In the 2025/2026 school year, a total of 90 students studied at Open Gate with the foundation’s support. Since 2005, the foundation has provided scholarships to 437 students, amounting to CZK 898.5 million in total.

3) Universities

Through scholarships awarded under the Universities programme, the Kellner family foundation helps young talents obtain education at leading universities abroad. The scholarship is intended for Czech students enrolled in technical, natural sciences, humanities and arts bachelor’s degree programmes. In the 2025/2026 academic year, 56 students received financial support. Since 2009, the foundation has contributed to the studies of 285 Czech students, with total support amounting to CZK 165.8 million.

“The long-term support of all three programmes of The Kellner Family Foundation is based on my deep conviction that educated people are the future of every nation. I know that education is a long-term endeavour and that the changes we strive for will not become visible immediately. That is why my family and I provide our foundation programmes with a stable background that enables their long-term and systematic development,” says Renáta Kellnerová, Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Kellner Family Foundation, in the foreword to the Annual Report.

Individual grants

In addition to supporting its three long-term educational programmes, the Kellner family foundation also provided individual grants totalling CZK 20.4 million last year. These grants responded to the need for immediate assistance, including in the areas of culture, sport and emergency aid. Through individual grants, the foundation supported, for example, the Logic Olympiad, Zámeček magazine, the Global Teacher Prize and the Secondary School Professional Activities competition in 2025.