Romy Krämer

With zero experience in mainstream philanthropy and a healthy criticism of NGOs untethered from movements, Romy was perfectly qualified for co-founding Guerrilla with Toni and Ivan in 2016. Now her work is all about building the radical philanthropic ecosystem in Europe. Romy is excited about evolving the structures and strategy at the Guerrilla Foundation and supporting organisations and individuals to actually let go of power to redistribute money in participatory ways. The stamina and long breath to ultimately abolish philanthropy in its current form comes from decades of yoga practice, living with her very energetic son, and more recently, bouldering. Romy grew up in East Germany – old enough to experience the quiet solidarities of the GDR and the hard comedown into capitalism after the Wall fell. It left her with a lifelong fixation on social justice, who holds power and how to wield it for collective benefit. In her past lives, Romy studied community resistance to mining corporations in India for her PhD, trained a generation of activists and social entrepreneurs across fifty countries, and (yes, really) did applied human factors research in the oil industry. Too perfectionist for any real artistic practice, she composes meals from whatever’s in the fridge. Loves daydreaming about democratic socialism.